Interactive Accessories
A few weeks ago I worked on a project with NuVu, a design school in Boston that is geared around multidisciplinary and collaborative projects. I was working with students in the “Interactive Fashion Studio”at ASB Mumbai, NuVu’s partner school in India.
We started the week questioning what interactive means, and looking at how fashion can impact on our daily lives. We looked at a few examples including the massage vest by Kobakant, the spider dress by Anouk Wipprecht, and this wonderful musical rain (we were curious how this would sound in the monsoons?!).
Students then went on to discuss and brainstorm issues they have in their daily lives. They made some really beautiful storyboards, I didn’t manage to get any pictures of them, but they were a big part of the design process. When sharing their project ideas with the class, most of the groups acted out scenes using the storyboards as scripts. They also learned programming using the Lilypad Arduino, and electronics with e-textiles. It was such a fun week and students made some really inspiring projects.
Learning the basics of Lilypad
Getting stuck into Arduino and making sunshine-y clocks on tops 
Lie detector project: a device that lights up when siblings sibling lie to your parents.
Computational 1Z: a visual aid for new borns to start learning gestural responses to their needs.
Clock on your top -helping you (and everyone around you) be on time!
The light hat -a way of reading without disturbing your family (really happy that the students are into reading real books :) )
Probably the sweetest project -a friendship bracelet that lights up a memory of your friend. This was especially moving in an international school where students are so transient.
The amazing NuVu team -the other NuVu studios were so so cool, and students made really interesting work including games, futuristic fashion, interactive street art, documentaries, music, robots, and comics.
And this was what my desk looked like the day before I left SF. Pom pom a go go.