Wearable Technologies: Between Fashion, Art, Performance, and Science (Fiction)

Our clothes and accessories are our primary interfaces with the world around us. In the 21st century, the technology that lives in our pockets or in our bags has changed dramatically. Today, the interactive systems that can be found almost constantly in our clothes are so close to our body that they sometimes actually feel like a part of us. Electronic devices are getting tinier and can be bought ready-made for any purpose. Power-supply solutions are smarter and wireless technologies allow communication without cables. Wearable technology is becoming widely used in healthcare, care for the elderly and wellness, in the military, in work wear and sportswear for added security or performance characteristics, in sci-fi and fantasy movies and big-arena entertainment, and in award shows or pop concerts for its spectacular visual effects. Through technological advances, the most innovative designers and artists re-evaluate the very basic premises of a dressed body, such as weight, scale and texture or movement. They demonstrate that design is not just about the visual: clothes can also be stimulating to touch, hearing, smell and taste. Wearable technology can turn clothing into a multi-sensorial experience and make it drift between categories. Wearable technology can be perceived as a body architecture, a second skin, nonmaterial clothing, a personal scenography or display, a body extension, an interactive or emotional garment, etc. Some of the most important examples of wearable technology were analysed in this research. They were divided into three different categories according to a garment's principal technological concept or function as it relates to material and external and internal stimuli, such as movement, light, sound, touch, sight, smell, taste, biometrics and emotions. It was concluded that garments act as a bridge between visual, physical and perceptual experience, and provide the wearer and onlooker with a kinaesthetic, proxemic and haptic experience. Since the late 1990s, many projects devised within the field of fashionable technology have a strong performative connotation, as they move, change shape, or emit light, sound or scents. It wasn't until the last decade, however, that Wearable technology designers really began to explore the potential of clothing as social interaction, emotional sensing and biomimetics.