A Wearable Studio Performance

This is a project proposal for the 2017 E-Textile Summercamp.

A performative experiment in three stages. Each stage represented through a full “working-day”, depicting the evolution of tools, machines and labor at the workplace.

An installation of a series of Wearable Studio Practice furniture->wearables, with a camera and wireless system monitoring human movements and tool (inter-)actions as the “studio” transforms from static to wearable, from individual to distributed.

I’m not exactly sure how this could really work, but would like to try and propose that this could happen for 3 days during summercamp in the theater space where people will be working, and would use the installation as the summercamp workspace.

Three Stages

Day 1) The Factory – congregated resources

Day 2) Cottage Industry – scattered resources

Day 3) Journeyman – individual resources

History…

Hunter-gatherer societies
Settled societies (agriculture…)
Specializations (crafts, apprenticeships, guilds…)
Cottage industry
Factories (manufacture…)
Globalization
4th Industrial revolution (digital files, 3D printing, rapid prototyping tools…)

Factories arose with the introduction of machinery during the Industrial Revolution when the capital and space requirements became too great for cottage industry or workshops. Early factories that contained small amounts of machinery, such as one or two spinning mules, and fewer than a dozen workers have been called “glorified workshops”.
Most modern factories have large warehouses or warehouse-like facilities that contain heavy equipment used for assembly line production. Large factories tend to be located with access to multiple modes of transportation, with some having rail, highway and water loading and unloading facilities.

A “journeyman” is a skilled worker who has successfully completed an official apprenticeship qualification in a building trade or craft. They are considered competent and authorized to work in that field as a fully qualified employee.

Inpiration/References

Ingo’s eTextile Summercamp 2014 timelapse

eTextile Summercamp 2014 timelapse from Ingo Randolf on Vimeo.

Kyle’s Exhausting a Crowd

>> http://www.exhaustingacrowd.com/london