This document summarizes the work of Camille Baker and Kate Sicchio on their ongoing collaboration called "Hacking the Body 2.0". It describes how they create interactive performances using biomedical sensors and open source tools to capture body data. This iteration involves developing new wearable garments and sensors, as well as hosting workshops internationally. The work culminated in rehearsals and performances of pieces called "Feel Me" and "Flutter Stutter" in Sheffield, England in February 2016.
2. Graphic by Dave Palmer 2012
Hacking the Body - 1st Iteration
an ongoing collaboration
with dance artist
/choreographer Kate
Sicchio
3. Hacking the Body
…using data from the body –
using open source tools, with
biomedical with handmade soft
circuit electronic sensors, to
create new visual and interactive
activities for participants to
experience, engage, and play
with…
Images by Kate Sicchio 2011, Kasia Molga 2012 and Camille Baker 2010
…using their mobile media and gaming devices
(Xbox, Kinect, Wii).
4. Graphic by Dave Palmer 2012
“Hacking is in a dialogic form, not in
dialetic opposition. Not to operate
with its object as an opponent or foe,
but as a field of gravity. Not regarding
a system of belief as opium, but as a
path of liberation, using it as a
trampoline, as a line of flight and a
force of gravity” (von Busch and
Palmås, 2006:59).
Repurposes but
Recognises the original
9. HTB workshops June 2013
ISEA 2013, Workshop, Sydney
Australia – June 9th, 2013
Tek* 2013, Workshop, Byron Bay,
Australia – June 15th, 2013
Creativity and Cognition 2013,
Workshop, Sydney Australia –
June 17th, 2013
12. - wearable technology and sensing
devices in dance and participatory
performance.
- novel uses of body data from
wearable sensing devices as
choreographic or performance
devising material and research.
- ethics of data collection and how
knowledge of it influences identity
and expression in performance.
- making bespoke sensors and
Smart Garments (wearable tech)
as research.
Hacking The Body 2.0
This is… READ SCREEN
The conceptual framework behind it has been focussed on recent rhetoric and practices of personal code mining and data collection, and how we can access, yet question the variety of parameters of body information and the states of being.
‘Hacking the Body’ version 1, centred on ways to train & engage performers in using emerging technologies and devices, as a means to enhance their creative process, but also to devise new forms of immersive experiences for audiences.
Our objective was to explore ways in which human physical states could be meaningfully exposed in the network and repurposed, thereby 'hacking the body'.
Hacking the Body’ used an open, solution-driven, hands-on ethos as the main principle of hacking employed to investigate and make novel art and performance works.
This first iteration also used the ‘hacking’ ethos as a starting point to re-imagine uses for and re-purpose internal signals from the body.
Hacker ethics are concerned primarily with sharing, openness, collaboration, and engaging in the hands-on imperative, which we employed in Hacking the Body version 1.
Hackers created a methodology that we employed in Hacking the Body.
We drew upon various discourses to further hacking as a method for collaborative modes of making performance and interactive works.
READ SCREEN
Using various Hacker/ Maker techniques to ‘Hack” biofeedback data from the body (using handmade soft circuit sensors), we explored creating visual and interactive performative activities for participants to engage in and play using their mobile and gaming devices.
We used mainly handmade and soft sensors with conductive fabrics, inks and threads, but in the current or future iterations we intend to embed etextile sensors into bio-fabrics (made from fungus, milk or other materials and processes) to create natural and and more ethical sustatinable interfaces, which also easier and more comfortable for performers to perform in.
As part of the giving back to the community dimension of hacker ethics, we facilitated three workshops in Australia 2013 as part of three different festivals and conferences –teaching soft-circuits, wearable electronics, and the basics of
Arduino coding.
As a spinoff of version 1 Hacking the Body, and the Australian workshops, we were invited to teach very basic soft circuits to kids (and their parents) at the Science Museum last year.
With exponentially increased corporate development of wearable technology for fitness and health, Hacking the Body 2.0 is slightly different performance investigation, looking at body data and states of the body, from the point of view of data ethics and personal identity through code. We still hope to re-imagine the uses of this code, re-code or repurpose them into live choreographed performances using custom-made smart costumes and exploring new approaches to live audience experience and engagement through wearable sensing, actuation and intervention directly to and on the dancers’ bodies.
[Play video] https://vimeo.com/133353621 11
The touch sensors are being embedded in a pleated fabric.
The pleats will encase the conductive materials that act as antennae for a series of capacitive touch sensors. The conductive materials are aligned all in one direction, or may form a grid structure.
The software on the computer (and eventually on an iPad or mobile phone) will register which garment's actuators are listening to which sensors. It then sends the messages from the touch sensors to the correct actuator.
The actuators in the garments are small motors to control the tightening and loosening of elastic bands to create a squeezing sensation on the body that the dancer will interpret as a form of communication from the other dancer and respond in movement.
The touch sensors are being embedded in a pleated fabric.
The pleats will encase the conductive materials that act as antennae for a series of capacitive touch sensors. The conductive materials are aligned all in one direction, or may form a grid structure.
The software on the computer (and eventually on an iPad or mobile phone) will register which garment's actuators are listening to which sensors. It then sends the messages from the touch sensors to the correct actuator.
The actuators in the garments are small motors to control the tightening and loosening of elastic bands to create a squeezing sensation on the body that the dancer will interpret as a form of communication from the other dancer and respond in movement.
The touch sensors are being embedded in a pleated fabric.
The pleats will encase the conductive materials that act as antennae for a series of capacitive touch sensors. The conductive materials are aligned all in one direction, or may form a grid structure.
The software on the computer (and eventually on an iPad or mobile phone) will register which garment's actuators are listening to which sensors. It then sends the messages from the touch sensors to the correct actuator.
The actuators in the garments are small motors to control the tightening and loosening of elastic bands to create a squeezing sensation on the body that the dancer will interpret as a form of communication from the other dancer and respond in movement.
The touch sensors are being embedded in a pleated fabric.
The pleats will encase the conductive materials that act as antennae for a series of capacitive touch sensors. The conductive materials are aligned all in one direction, or may form a grid structure.
The software on the computer (and eventually on an iPad or mobile phone) will register which garment's actuators are listening to which sensors. It then sends the messages from the touch sensors to the correct actuator.
The actuators in the garments are small motors to control the tightening and loosening of elastic bands to create a squeezing sensation on the body that the dancer will interpret as a form of communication from the other dancer and respond in movement.
The touch sensors are being embedded in a pleated fabric.
The pleats will encase the conductive materials that act as antennae for a series of capacitive touch sensors. The conductive materials are aligned all in one direction, or may form a grid structure.
The software on the computer (and eventually on an iPad or mobile phone) will register which garment's actuators are listening to which sensors. It then sends the messages from the touch sensors to the correct actuator.
The actuators in the garments are small motors to control the tightening and loosening of elastic bands to create a squeezing sensation on the body that the dancer will interpret as a form of communication from the other dancer and respond in movement.
The touch sensors are being embedded in a pleated fabric.
The pleats will encase the conductive materials that act as antennae for a series of capacitive touch sensors. The conductive materials are aligned all in one direction, or may form a grid structure.
The software on the computer (and eventually on an iPad or mobile phone) will register which garment's actuators are listening to which sensors. It then sends the messages from the touch sensors to the correct actuator.
The actuators in the garments are small motors to control the tightening and loosening of elastic bands to create a squeezing sensation on the body that the dancer will interpret as a form of communication from the other dancer and respond in movement.
The touch sensors are being embedded in a pleated fabric.
The pleats will encase the conductive materials that act as antennae for a series of capacitive touch sensors. The conductive materials are aligned all in one direction, or may form a grid structure.
The software on the computer (and eventually on an iPad or mobile phone) will register which garment's actuators are listening to which sensors. It then sends the messages from the touch sensors to the correct actuator.
The actuators in the garments are small motors to control the tightening and loosening of elastic bands to create a squeezing sensation on the body that the dancer will interpret as a form of communication from the other dancer and respond in movement.
The touch sensors are being embedded in a pleated fabric.
The pleats will encase the conductive materials that act as antennae for a series of capacitive touch sensors. The conductive materials are aligned all in one direction, or may form a grid structure.
The software on the computer (and eventually on an iPad or mobile phone) will register which garment's actuators are listening to which sensors. It then sends the messages from the touch sensors to the correct actuator.
The actuators in the garments are small motors to control the tightening and loosening of elastic bands to create a squeezing sensation on the body that the dancer will interpret as a form of communication from the other dancer and respond in movement.
The touch sensors are being embedded in a pleated fabric.
The pleats will encase the conductive materials that act as antennae for a series of capacitive touch sensors. The conductive materials are aligned all in one direction, or may form a grid structure.
The software on the computer (and eventually on an iPad or mobile phone) will register which garment's actuators are listening to which sensors. It then sends the messages from the touch sensors to the correct actuator.
The actuators in the garments are small motors to control the tightening and loosening of elastic bands to create a squeezing sensation on the body that the dancer will interpret as a form of communication from the other dancer and respond in movement.
The touch sensors are being embedded in a pleated fabric.
The pleats will encase the conductive materials that act as antennae for a series of capacitive touch sensors. The conductive materials are aligned all in one direction, or may form a grid structure.
The software on the computer (and eventually on an iPad or mobile phone) will register which garment's actuators are listening to which sensors. It then sends the messages from the touch sensors to the correct actuator.
The actuators in the garments are small motors to control the tightening and loosening of elastic bands to create a squeezing sensation on the body that the dancer will interpret as a form of communication from the other dancer and respond in movement.
The touch sensors are being embedded in a pleated fabric.
The pleats will encase the conductive materials that act as antennae for a series of capacitive touch sensors. The conductive materials are aligned all in one direction, or may form a grid structure.
The software on the computer (and eventually on an iPad or mobile phone) will register which garment's actuators are listening to which sensors. It then sends the messages from the touch sensors to the correct actuator.
The actuators in the garments are small motors to control the tightening and loosening of elastic bands to create a squeezing sensation on the body that the dancer will interpret as a form of communication from the other dancer and respond in movement.
The touch sensors are being embedded in a pleated fabric.
The pleats will encase the conductive materials that act as antennae for a series of capacitive touch sensors. The conductive materials are aligned all in one direction, or may form a grid structure.
The software on the computer (and eventually on an iPad or mobile phone) will register which garment's actuators are listening to which sensors. It then sends the messages from the touch sensors to the correct actuator.
The actuators in the garments are small motors to control the tightening and loosening of elastic bands to create a squeezing sensation on the body that the dancer will interpret as a form of communication from the other dancer and respond in movement.
The touch sensors are being embedded in a pleated fabric.
The pleats will encase the conductive materials that act as antennae for a series of capacitive touch sensors. The conductive materials are aligned all in one direction, or may form a grid structure.
The software on the computer (and eventually on an iPad or mobile phone) will register which garment's actuators are listening to which sensors. It then sends the messages from the touch sensors to the correct actuator.
The actuators in the garments are small motors to control the tightening and loosening of elastic bands to create a squeezing sensation on the body that the dancer will interpret as a form of communication from the other dancer and respond in movement.