Body Generated Power in Wearable Art/Design

Wearable Power / Sustainability

Wearables are at the cutting edge of research in the scientific and material science domains, where the restrictions of intellectual property are traditionally very strong. Even though there is much research on alternative wearable power, it is still emergent area and it will need more time to get popularized by artists and designers. There is no collaboration between wearable power research and wearable art/design. That is why most of wearable artists and designers have been using batteries tremendously in their projects. Also wearable art/design is a still new area. Artists and designers are more focusing on what to create using new materials, components not how to create considering sustainability issues.
Wearable art/design is directly dealing with our body. It is an interface between body and environment. Therefore we have to consider physical impact of electronics on our body and environment. Wearable power, one of the hottest research areas today might still be a futuristic dream but each new research release comes a step closer to the technical and manufacturing feasibility.

Definition of Wearable Art/Design

There is a various range of wearable arts/design projects. In this paper, I would like to define wearable art/design as a garment that has electronic components of sensors, actuators, micro-controllers, and power sources.

Wearable Powers

Rechargeable

No-Rechargeable

New Materials

• Printable photovoltaic cells
• Bio batteries
• Flexible solar panel

Human Generated Power

• Paradiso
• Joanna

Sustainable Energy in Community

Several different models for sharing information are emerging and they keep the community sustainable.

• Blogs – fashiontech.org
• Personal websites – How to make what you want
• toolkits – Lilypad