Critical Making
creating the pattern for our garment
“So here is the question I wish to raise to designers: where are the visualization tools that allow the contradictory and controversial nature of matters of concern to be represented?” (Latour, 2008.)
For us, critical making has been a way to make abstract concepts concrete, a way for ideas to map on to material prototypes. In this project, we are examining a digital entity, the pseudonym, in a physical space. We began by mind mapping, brainstorming, and diagramming, before moving into the material construction of the garment and the programming of its wearable computer. The diegetic prototype, to borrow the language of David Kirby, we have created is a performative artifact; we hope that it will spur a new way for the social, political, economic, and practical possibilities of pseudonymity to be thought about (Kirby, 2009). Our aim is to have metaphorically operationalized this concept (Ratto, 2009) as a way to think through the logic of pseudonymity in the digital realm, and the concomitant ethical issues the concept engenders, such as the allocation of the resources of visibility in an increasingly surveillant society (Phillips, 2005). We look forward to the opportunity for joint discussion and reflection on our project as the final stage of the critical making process.
For us, critical making has been a way to make abstract concepts concrete, a way for ideas to map on to material prototypes. In this project, we are examining a digital entity, the pseudonym, in a physical space. We began by mind mapping, brainstorming, and diagramming, before moving into the material construction of the garment and the programming of its wearable computer. The diegetic prototype, to borrow the language of David Kirby, we have created is a performative artifact; we hope that it will spur a new way for the social, political, economic, and practical possibilities of pseudonymity to be thought about (Kirby, 2009). Our aim is to have metaphorically operationalized this concept (Ratto, 2009) as a way to think through the logic of pseudonymity in the digital realm, and the concomitant ethical issues the concept engenders, such as the allocation of the resources of visibility in an increasingly surveillant society (Phillips, 2005). We look forward to the opportunity for joint discussion and reflection on our project as the final stage of the critical making process.
chalking the layout of the LEDs
Pseudonymity
with LEDs and Arduino installed
What is the logic of pseudonyms? Why do people use them online? These were the questions that prompted our investigation through the process of critical making. Pseudonyms, in the Goffmanian sense, allow for the performance of identity. They allow us to act differently, revealing different aspects of ourselves (real or imagined), in different contexts, without the threat of these contexts being connected. Pseudonyms are ways in which we claim membership in social communities online while practicing “selective disclosure” and “strategic revelation” about ourselves at the same time (Phillips, 2005). For this reason, our garment is responsive to its environment and interaction, it is context-specific. When one shakes hands with its wearer, the garment infers a work context and exhibits an appropriate signifier, the tie; when the light level in the room changes, signaling perhaps entry into a nightclub, the garment responds with a different display of LEDs, sending the signal to others of membership in that community.
In the language of wearable computing, the garment, as it enacts different pseudonyms in response to different contexts, is “aware,” it recognizes and adapts to the location and activity being performed by the wearer through the use of sensors, analog stimuli are converted to electric signals interpreted by a digital device, the Lilypad Arduino microprocessor (Viseu, 2003). This allows for identification to take place through the signaled inclusion of the wearer in a social category. In this sense, naming is less important than the inferred identity available through non-identifying signs (Nissenbaum, 1999). In an increasingly networked world, this creates both spaces of visibility and spaces of invisibility while highlighting the recursive formation of the infrastructure of identity, social relations, and place (Phillips, 2005).
In the language of wearable computing, the garment, as it enacts different pseudonyms in response to different contexts, is “aware,” it recognizes and adapts to the location and activity being performed by the wearer through the use of sensors, analog stimuli are converted to electric signals interpreted by a digital device, the Lilypad Arduino microprocessor (Viseu, 2003). This allows for identification to take place through the signaled inclusion of the wearer in a social category. In this sense, naming is less important than the inferred identity available through non-identifying signs (Nissenbaum, 1999). In an increasingly networked world, this creates both spaces of visibility and spaces of invisibility while highlighting the recursive formation of the infrastructure of identity, social relations, and place (Phillips, 2005).
The Colour Black
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Since humanity’s first experimentation with colour, black has been associated with chaos, death and the oblivion of identity (Pastoreau, 2009). Our garment is black to afford the wearer an opportunity to submerge his or her identity in another identity the garment shapes for the wearer, depending on the wearer’s situation. When individual identity is effectively suppressed, what remains is a space which can be filled, either with further subversion of the trust associated with identity- pseudonimity, or with an assumed identity that provides the individual with adaptations to successfully navigate a particular situation- avatar
Since humanity’s first experimentation with colour, black has been associated with chaos, death and the oblivion of identity (Pastoreau, 2009). Our garment is black to afford the wearer an opportunity to submerge his or her identity in another identity the garment shapes for the wearer, depending on the wearer’s situation. When individual identity is effectively suppressed, what remains is a space which can be filled, either with further subversion of the trust associated with identity- pseudonimity, or with an assumed identity that provides the individual with adaptations to successfully navigate a particular situation- avatar
Functionality
Our garment has several functionalities. The first is the concealment of gender. By arranging the buttons on the garment in such a way that does not betray the gender of the wearer, the garment facilitates the wearer presenting an identity of his/her own choosing. Buttons became gendered during the Industrial Revolution when cotton clothes were milled and made widely available. Persons employed as domestics were rarely literate at the time and buttons were gendered as an aid to these workers. Nxt, our mask conceals the weaer's identity further, in a manner that also has ancient origins. When the wearer shakes hands with a new person, indicating a willingness to engage in normal social activity, a push-button, concealed in the wearer's hand, activates an led array in the form of a tie- the classic garment that signifies normalcy and business.
But the weaer does not have total control over the garment. The garment is intended to react to the wearer's environment. To this end, arrays of led's in the form of starbursts are arranged on the user's shoulders and these are connected to light sensor. When the sensor fails to detect any light the led arrays light up and provide illumination in the dark. The festive pattern is to indicate that the weaer's entry into the dark can as easily be associated with a darkened night club, where bright clothing might well fit in with the club's subculture, as with a more generic dark place.
But the weaer does not have total control over the garment. The garment is intended to react to the wearer's environment. To this end, arrays of led's in the form of starbursts are arranged on the user's shoulders and these are connected to light sensor. When the sensor fails to detect any light the led arrays light up and provide illumination in the dark. The festive pattern is to indicate that the weaer's entry into the dark can as easily be associated with a darkened night club, where bright clothing might well fit in with the club's subculture, as with a more generic dark place.
References
Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life. New York: Random House.
Kirby, D. (2009). The future is now: Diegetic prototypes and the role of popular films in generating real-world technological development. Social Studies of Science 40(1), 41-70.
Latour, B. (2008). A cautious prometheus? A few steps toward a philosophy of design. Retrieved from http://www.bruno-latour.fr/articles/article/112-DESIGN-CORNWALL.pdf on 31 March 2010.
Nissenbaum, H. (1999). The meaning of anonymity in an information age. The Information Society 15(2), 141-144.
Pastoreau, Michel (2009). Black: The History of a Color. Princeton University Press.
Pfitzmann, A. & Hansen, M. (2005). Anonymity, unlinkability, unobservability, pseudonymity, and identity management: A consolidated proposal for terminology. Retrieved from http://dud.inf.tu-dresden.de/Literatur_V1.shtml on 31 March 2010.
Phillips, D. (2005). From privacy to visibility: Context, identity and power in ubiquitous computing environments. Social Text 83(23), 95-108.
Ratto, M. (2009). Critical making: Conceptual and material studies in technology and social life.
Viseu, A. (2003). Simulation and augmentation: Issues of wearable computers. Ethics and Information Technology 5, 17-26.
Wayner, P. (1999). Technology for anonymity: Names by other nyms. The Information Society 15(2), 91-97.
Kirby, D. (2009). The future is now: Diegetic prototypes and the role of popular films in generating real-world technological development. Social Studies of Science 40(1), 41-70.
Latour, B. (2008). A cautious prometheus? A few steps toward a philosophy of design. Retrieved from http://www.bruno-latour.fr/articles/article/112-DESIGN-CORNWALL.pdf on 31 March 2010.
Nissenbaum, H. (1999). The meaning of anonymity in an information age. The Information Society 15(2), 141-144.
Pastoreau, Michel (2009). Black: The History of a Color. Princeton University Press.
Pfitzmann, A. & Hansen, M. (2005). Anonymity, unlinkability, unobservability, pseudonymity, and identity management: A consolidated proposal for terminology. Retrieved from http://dud.inf.tu-dresden.de/Literatur_V1.shtml on 31 March 2010.
Phillips, D. (2005). From privacy to visibility: Context, identity and power in ubiquitous computing environments. Social Text 83(23), 95-108.
Ratto, M. (2009). Critical making: Conceptual and material studies in technology and social life.
Viseu, A. (2003). Simulation and augmentation: Issues of wearable computers. Ethics and Information Technology 5, 17-26.
Wayner, P. (1999). Technology for anonymity: Names by other nyms. The Information Society 15(2), 91-97.
