Artist Valerie Lamontagne made dresses that respond to weather data transmitted wirelessly to them. The dresses respond by variously illuminating or vibrating:
the project is titled ‘peau d’ane’ after a fairy tale by charles perrault detailing three dresses made from the sky, moonbeams and sunlight. while each of these things is immaterial, lamontagne found ways to materialize them in her dresses. temperature, UV, solar radiation, wind speed & velocity, humidity and rain fall data is collected and sent to the dresses wirelessly, where micro-controllers relay info to internal circuitry. the sun dress has 128 LEDs which can light up depending on sun data, while the moon dress has 14 colour-modulating flowers to represent each phase of the moon cycle and the sky dress is imbued with 14 vibrating air pockets.
Link via DVICE | Artist's Website
Art for Art's sake- and then this artist has thought of something new. Perhaps the idea can be refined, made more practical or whatever- but she has seeded an idea. And I'll bet ya that is some years with the invention of new materials and new possibilities in micro-circuitry, we'll see mainstream clothing that will react to moods, weather, temperature speed of movement and so on. Instead of having to change garments for each occatsion, the garments themselves will to some extent change to situations. That is the future that this artist has foreseen and tried to visualise with her dresses.
Cudos to her!
(Sorry, couldn't resist - if it doesn't make sense, "ane" is French for donkey - peau d'ane is "donkey skin")