AI & Soc (2006) 20: 446461

DOI 10.1007/s00146-006-0033-x
ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Joanna Berzowska

Personal technologies: memory and intimacy through physical

computing
Received: 1 December 2004 / Accepted: 23 August 2005 / Published online: 12 August 2006
Springer-Verlag London Limited 2006

Abstract In this paper, I present an overview of personal and intimate technologies within a pedagogical context. I describe two courses that I have
developed for Computation Arts at Concordia University: Tangible Media and
Physical Computing and Second Skin and Soft Wear. Each course deals with
dierent aspects of physical computing and tangible media in a Fine Arts
context. In both courses, I introduce concepts of soft computation and intimate
reactive artifacts as artworks. I emphasize the concept of memory (contrasting
computer memory and personal, interpretive memory), and explore how
responsive or interactive objects can create a new medium for annotating
architectural space and objects, for leaving traces of presence, and for recording
personal histories. At the core of this pedagogical practice is a strong emphasis
on engaging a vulnerable, personal approach to working with electronics and
physical computation. To contextualize the teaching practice, I begin by presenting some of my own research projects developed at Extra Soft Labs (also
known as XS Labs), then segue into a detailed discussion of these two classes,
and conclude with a discussion of some student work.
Keywords Tangible computing Soft interface Interactive art Education

XS Labs: wearables as intimate technologies

My research at XS Labs (http://www.xslabs.net) focuses on the development
and design of electronic textiles,1 responsive clothing, wearable technologies,
J. Berzowska
Design and Computation Arts, Concordia University,
EV 06-743, 1455 Maisonneuve W., Montreal, QCH3G 1M8, USA
E-mail: joey@berzowska.com Tel.: +1-514-8482424 Fax: +1-617-4071574
1
The term electronic textiles usually refers to a textile substrate that incorporates capabilities for
sensing (biometric or external), for communication (usually wireless), power transmission, or
interconnection technology to allow sensors or things such as information processing devices to
be networked together within a fabric. In my work, I try to stay quite close to the history and
the reality of bers and textiles. I work with traditional textile techniques and technologies such
as weaving, knitting, sewing, embroidery, quilting, etc. to create textiles that can sense, transmit
power or data, and change state (such as the electric plaid technology for addressable colorchange fabrics I developed at IFM).

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reactive materials, and squishy interfaces. My research group develops projects

that focus on play, esthetics, and personal expression in a social and cultural
context, as opposed to the prevalent utilitarian focus of wearable technology
design on universal connectivity and productivity applications. We are particularly concerned with the exploration of simple interactions that emphasize
natural expressive qualities of electronic circuits and of the body. One application of reactive fashion is to enable the idea of changing our skin, our identity,
and our cultural context.
As a designer and inventor of electronic textiles and wearable technologies, I
often ask myself: why do we want our garments to be smart? What kind of
functionality or augmentation do we want to deploy on our bodies? From my
perspective, many contemporary research directions are misguided. The clothing
and electronic industries are looking for the killer application, the next big thing
that will introduce wearable computing to a mass market. Their exclusive focus
on health monitoring and surveillance technologies clearly reects the (military
and pharmaceutical) funding structures and fails to deliver appealing product
ideas that respond to personal, social, and cultural needs. In my opinion, the
killer app for wearable computing is to convey personal identity information
(Berzowska 2004).
At XS Labs, we focus on the intimacy of textiles, their close proximity to the
body, and their potential playful uses as disguise, vehicles of personal expression, and means of experimentation. We develop wearable technologies that
challenge social structures and assumptions in relation to embodied interaction
(or concepts of knowledge). We design second skins that can adapt to the
environment and to the wearers, can express aspects of their personalities, their
needs and their desires, and represent aggregate social information.

XS Labs: Memory Rich Clothing and SoundSleeves

Memory Rich Clothing is an ongoing XS Labs project that focuses on the research and development of reactive garments that display their physical memory, or history of use. We employ a variety of simple input and output
methodologies to sense and display traces of physical memory on clothing. Our
primary objective is to produce costumes that can sense and display personal
memory data such as where and when they have last been touched, including
subtle evidence of intimate contact (Berzowska 2005a) (Figs. 1, 2).
Intimate memory garments record acts of physical intimacy and indicate time
elapsed since the intimacy events have occurred. The XS Labs intimate
memory skirt incorporates soft switches (the simplest of touch sensors) into its
design. These switches are sewn out of metallic silk organza, and connected to a
small analog circuit. When the skirt is groped in the appropriate areas, illuminating components display both the intensity and the duration of the intimacy
event. In a similar fashion to how our skin registers touch, the illumination
displays traces of this physical memory and fades over time to indicate time
elapsed since the event (Fig. 3).
The XS Labs intimate memory shirt is embedded with a sensitive microphone in
the collar and a series of illuminating elements that follow a curved line across the
front. The number of lights represents the intensity of the intimacy event, similar

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Fig. 1 Three dancers wearing the spotty dresses, touching each other to make their camouage
disappear

to the volume indicator on a stereo. Over time, the lights progressively turn o,
one by one, to show how long it has been since the intimacy event took place.
The intimate memory series reveals ways in which our actions and our personal
histories can be recorded, stored, and displayed. It highlights aspects of surveillance that we are often happy to forget when dealing with more conventional
wearable technologies. We want to question how objects can have memory.
How are objects altered through interaction? What kind of interactions will be
necessary to give physical memory to a wearable object? What is the dierence
between passive and active interaction (manipulation vs. sensing)? How can the
emotional content of memories be displayed? The longer term objectives are to
develop an extensive body of technical and conceptual prototypes that explore
how physical memory can be communicated through our clothing (Fig. 4).
The SoundSleeves project deploys the sleeve as a musical instrument. By
extending the body, we increase the consciousness of the body as an entity in

Fig. 2 Mapping out intimacy zones on the body with the feathery touch memory dresses

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Fig. 3 Intimate memory shirt shows the time elapsed since the intimacy event occurred, by
turning o LEDs one by one

space and augment body movement with simple sound. The sleeves give additional meaning to body movements and act as a tool that enhances the arms
capabilities. The sleeves become an instrument that invites play (Berzowska
2004) (Fig. 5).
The electronic circuit in the sleeves was constructed entirely of metallic silk
organza and conductive yarn. The only hard components are two small speakers
axed at the end of the sleeves and a tiny PIC microcontroller attached to the
conductive yarns to generate the sounds. We built a large sensor array out of
soft switches, using small building blocks to create a larger sensing unit (Berzowska 2004).

Pedagogical context: personal technologies

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi writes that physical artifacts help us objectify the self
in three ways. They can be viewed as symbols of personal power, symbols of the

Fig. 4 The SoundSleeves

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continuity of the self through time (involvement in the present, mementos of the
past, and signposts to the future), and symbols of the permanence of relationships that dene the individual in a social framework (Csikszentmihalyi 1993).
The computing and communication capabilities we integrate into physical objects are rapidly increasing, but do not necessarily translate into rich interactions. As thinkers and designers, it is imperative to ensure that the interactions
between people, computers, and the physical environment are useful, enjoyable,
and most importantly, meaningful (Berzowska 2005b).
There has been a proliferation in the past few years of accessible microcontrollers and hardware prototyping environments, but it is still rare to nd artists/
designers who create their hardware or software from scratch, as was expected
of me when I was a graduate student at the MIT Media Laboratory. The MIT
approach placed strong emphasis on technological innovation. As can be expected, this often compromised the esthetic or conceptual aspects of our work.
The interesting thing is that nobody talked of art in the Media Lab. The
closest word we were allowed to use was expression. This is one of the reasons
my thesis work was called computational expressionism.
In developing my classes at Concordia University, I emphasize a personal and
intimate perspective when using electronics, whether analog circuits or microcontrollers. Self-referential, playful, idiosyncratic, vulnerable, and experimental
approaches are encouraged in order to potentially mitigate the prevalent separation of subjective content from technologically demanding artwork. Grading
incorporates student evaluations; and a respectful and empathetic yet rigorous
attitude is mandatory.

Computation Arts at Concordia University

The Computation Arts program at Concordia University (formerly called
DISFA: Digital Image/Sound and the Fine Arts) was initiated in 1997 to
incorporate computer science and ne arts curriculum at the undergraduate
level. This 3-year program guides students in developing critical paths at the

Fig. 5 Textile electrodes and soft electronics in the SoundSleeves

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intersections of art, technology and design. It highlights the study of theoretical

issues related to technological innovation such as computational art, interaction
design, and physical computing. Teaching emphasizes nontraditional applications of digital technologies while also developing awareness of the social and
political implications of new technologies and a conceptual approach to design
related to the social, cultural, and ethical context in which it resides.

Concordia University: Tangible Media and Physical

Computing
This studio course explores the concepts of Tangible Media and Physical
Computation as well as related concepts of ubiquitous computing, wearable
computing, and interaction design. We study and implement physical computation artifacts and interfaces from esthetic, technical, social, theoretical, and
political perspectives.
The technical focus of this class is on soft computing (conductive cloth,
conductive yarns, conductive epoxy, etc. plus some hard component) to construct simple interactive or reactive artifacts. We discuss simple circuit design as
a medium akin to wood or paper and experiment with materials that can enable
simple expressive computational forms. There is a strong focus on unusual
materials and processes. At the same time, students work with microcontrollers
and various sensors/outputs as well as simple analog circuits.
In addition to the weekly exercises, readings, and discussions, we complete
two major projects. One concentrates on interface design for memory, called
Memory-Rich Artifacts: Interactive Objects with Physical Memory, the other
on meaningful interactions for the human body, called Interactive Technologies and the Body.

Tangible Media and Physical Computing Project 1:

Memory-Rich Artifacts
The brief for Memory-Rich Artifacts is to design and build an artifact that
records, stores, and communicates information to another human/animal/
object. The communication can happen over space or over time. We consider
concepts such as health monitoring, mood monitoring, physical diaries, traces of
presence (history), and remote presence (communication). By physical memory, we mean that the object will retain some traces of presence of a person,
through the ability to sense the user and record a history of interaction that can
be communicated to another. The object will be aected in some way that will
create a physical memory, which will then be recorded and transmitted.
I have been concerned with the question of memory in my own work for quite
some time (Berzowska 2005a). The term memory industry is increasingly
being used in the media to describe western societys growing interest in various
gadgets that help us save, record, and commit to computerized memory all of
the things that we otherwise might forget, such as appointments, commitments,
and other important life details. The more traditional research in memory
technology deals with memory under a framework of eciency, productivity,

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and physical enhancement. The memory industry deals with memory in a very
objective and impersonal way. Sensors, photos, and video register memory as
events in time instead of interpretive experience (Berzowska 2005a).
In giving this project brief, I underline the fact that insights into our social
obsession with eciency need to be contrasted with memory-rich artifacts that
defy this dominant paradigm and deal with memory and interpersonal contacts
in an aware relation to the body. I also emphasize the fact that many people do
not see/consider/underline the issues of surveillance and loss of privacy implicit
in the deployment of memory technologies.
I introduce questions that are central to my own research: how an object can
have memory, how an object can be altered through interaction, and what kind
of interactions are necessary to give physical memory to an object. We discuss
the dierence between passive and active interaction (manipulation vs. sensing).
We ask: who is the intended audience? What content/feeling will be communicated? What senses engaged? and what forms (words, emotions, sounds, colors,
images) utilized?

Tangible Media and Physical Computing Project 2:

Interactive Technologies and the Body
The brief of the second project is to design and implement a wearable technology. The aim is to question and explore the idea of augmenting our bodies
with digital technologies. How do we want to extend or alter the body?
Wearable technology in the form of clothes is thousands of years old.
Clothing is our personal interface to the world. One application of wearable
technologies therefore is to enable the idea of changing our skin, our identity,
and our social/cultural/economic context. Based on this idea, a prerequisite of
the project is that it must fulll a genuine need or desire (this can be functional
or expressive, personal, playful, artistic). Another inspiration from fashion is
that idea of context specic and culturally specic design. Electronic technology
design is one size ts all, embracing a western esthetic of gray/black hard
boxes. Clothing design, on the other hand, retains a strong cultural identity. I
encourage students to think of hardware design as culture and context specic.
Students are encouraged to think about embodied interactions, to focus on
reducing (instead of increasing) complexity, and to respond to current human
behavior and limitations. The idea is that we will never be able to replace the full
range of human expression and interaction. Augmenting our bodies with technologies can lead to loss of accountability and de-skilling. We respond to the
claim that wearable technologies must be playful in order to be meaningful. We
explore the idea of play either in terms of playing an instrument or in terms of
playful interaction.

Concordia University: Second Skin and Soft Ware

This studio course explores the idea of skin and soft as terms possessing
physical and associative properties. Concepts of clothing as habitat for the skin,
soft wearable tactile computers, sculptural fashion design, and exible intelligent

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furniture/devices are utilized as valuable design principles for motivating and

guiding the construction of maquettes and prototypes. Recycling of materials
and alternative material use are emphasized.
The focus of the class is on soft computing (conductive cloth, conductive
yarns, conductive epoxy, etc. plus some hard components) to construct simple
interactive or smart artifacts. We think of simple circuit design as a medium
akin to wood or paper, and seek to experiment with materials that can enable
simple expressive computational forms. We experiment with mixing and animating a diverse variety of analog and digital materials, and consistently aim to
redene computation as a design tool.
The practice is framed by a discourse which evaluates technology critically as
a contemporary utopian myth that permeates the physical world we live in.
Students are encouraged to examine and reect on the futuristic vision that
objects need to think and communicate with one another. How will this
enrich our lives? How much technology do we want in our physical world? How
much embedded electronics can we digest before facing the environmental
consequences?
The tradition of electronics design, materials and manufacturing is to produce
hard components to be cased in square boxes. The tradition of textiles is to
produce soft structures that encase the human body. By merging the two, we can
create soft circuits and develop new methods for electronics design, for designing
switches, for sensing the body, and for transmitting power and data. I call this
soft computation: the design of digital and electronic technology that is
composed of soft materials such as textiles and yarns, as well as predicated on
traditional textile construction methods such as sewing and knitting with various
conductive and active materials to create interactive physical designs. It involves
the use of conductive yarns and fabrics, active materials, and exible sensors to
allow the construction of electronic circuits on soft substrates. It implies a move
away from traditional electronics and an exploration of emergent materials that
can enable physical computation.
This class also includes two major projects, one of which concentrates on
design for physical memory, called Second Skins That Communicate Physical
Memory. The second project (which I will not discuss any further in this paper)
is etitled Second Skins that are Not What They Seem. The brief asks students
to design and build a personal object that wears an unexpected skin. Things that
are traditionally hard should be soft; things that are traditionally fuzzy should
smooth; things that are concrete should be abstract, etc.

Second Skin and Soft Ware Project 1: Second Skins

That Communicate Physical Memory
The brief is to design and build a second skin that communicates information
to another human, animal, or object. The communication can happen over
space or over time. The second skin is really quite a broad concept: it can include
ideas of physical protection (padding, camouage, exo-skeletons), emotional
protection, costuming, concealment, information display, comfort, decoration,
ornamentation, embellishment, beautication, projection (project ones own
image onto another object), and many more (Lupton 2002).

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The conceptualization phase includes lengthy discussions of materials. Students talk and write extensively about possible denitions for this second skin.
In the following section, I draw from a representative sample of student writings
and thoughts. Sabatino Delli Compagni writes: One is never enough. Why be
content with one when two is always better [...] In the context of second skin it
doesnt literally mean growing another layer of human esh over the existing
layer [but the] items we envelop ourselves in [...] What is the purpose of skin
anyway? To protect, to conceal, to provide warmth and nourishment. These are
all properties of skin and the second skin is intended to enhance these functions.
Another student, Jean Michel Gavreau creates a distinction between physical
and virtual second skin. He writes that his physical second skin is composed of
many products, both tangible and etherealsome can be experienced by othersbut still remaining his own. His clothing, jewelry, functional and protective
layers, all either promote (through ornamentation and embellishment) or protect his body. He writes that they mediate the exterior worlds perception of the
rst skin. [...] The second skin wouldnt exist without the rst one. The second
skin is the link and ironically also the frontier between the self and the surrounding environmental components... Jean Michel writes about his virtual
second skin as a sort of invisible bubble that cannot be seen by others, but can
be perceived through social conventions and denitions of personal comfort
zones. He talks about the increased individuality in modern society as a result of
the increase in personal intrusions and disturbance such as advertising.
Karie Little talks more specically about a second skin as decoration and
discusses the possibilities of semi-permanent tattoos, so as to enable people to
constantly redesign their bodies as they themselves change and evolve. She
writes: Another way to apply tattoos as a second skin would be like adding a
badge to a uniform. Each year a new tattoo would be added to your body,
illustrating dierent stages and/or the history of your life. After discussion in
class, Karie re-evaluates her original thoughts and starts writing about second
skins as embodying emotions, personality, something intangible that can be
experienced through the senses, through life, and through memory. She writes:
Last week one of my classmates discussed personal space as a second skin. I
realized a second skin isnt necessarily something we can see, however, its
certainly something we can feel. [...] Our life experience creates a skin, thus past
experiences or memories are an old skin. By triggering memories we are able to
slip into the old skin for a brief moment. When we experience strong feelings our
whole body feels it. Perhaps as a shiver, a tingle, a hot ash, a cold spell and
such. Do these feelings not represent in some way a second skin?
Student projects evolve from these discussions, and examine electronics and
other digital technologies as personal and intimate materials.

Illustrative student projects: a compendium

of second skin
In this section I detail several illustrative student projects that are exemplary at
utilizing relatively simple technologies in provocative, creative, and iconoclastic
ways.

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A lucid, whimsical, and playful example of a students creative use of technology in examining serious personal issues is Its a Sin! by Christine Caruso: a
series of confessional objects that, when manipulated, serve as a quick release for
guilty secrets. She writes Think about the relationship you have with your
toothbrush, your remote control, your cell phone. You probably spend your
most vulnerable moments under their gaze. The concept of confessionals is
spooky. People develop an intimacy with a veiled window. Confessionals make
people vulnerablewhat Im most concerned with is the physical act of confessing, letting it out of your body voluntarily, equally signicant by speech or
touch. In this case, the pressing of a button on a common household object will
indicate a confession and a red light will show acknowledgment of the secret sin.
[...] Sight and touch are engagedtouch is a direct commitment to confessing to
the object. When you press the button on each object, you release your secret: I
am guilty. The result is the red light: redemption.
In this example, a direct metaphorical equivalency for a strong social construct (guilt) is imbued with simple technological functionality. An LED becomes sucient for sublimation. Touch evokes release. The focus of the project
becomes balanced between implementation and psychological acuity.
The Blazer project developed by Vincent Leclerc is a light-emitting bracelet
used to display text in space by moving the part of the bodyor the whole
bodywhile wearing it. It integrates light-emitting diodes into fabric within a
garment-making context to create a simple emissive display. It uses retinal persistence to make sense of an apparently random pattern of ashing lights. When
the body is still, we see noise. When the body is in motion, the noise becomes a
message: text is displayed. The body leaves messages, memories in architectural
space as it moves. The movement of the body annotates the space (Fig. 6).
The physical memory accessories by Jean Michel Gavreau are a set of table
mats for tableware and glassware, serving trays, pots and serviettes holders that
record and display their own history, the traces of plates, glasses, hands and
arms that used them. He used thermo-chromic pigments that change color with
changes in temperature. The various rubbers that he used for his table accessories retained heat in dierent ways which allowed for interesting experimentation with the duration of the memories. His conceptual framework centered
around the dining experience as a social and grounding thing. He writes
Dinners are traditionally the meeting time for the family members, after a day
of work or school. [...] These times are precious to me, to my family and friends
and I want to show it throughout objects. It is important to me to keep in
memory their temporary passage.
The Luka Bag by Claire Elissalde is a purse that doubles as a second brain. It
helps you remember the things that you are leaving behind. She writes ... the
communication happens only between you and the bag, in a subtle fashion. The
bag has four pouches on the inside, each will become home to one essential
object. [...] Each of these pouches corresponds to a visual component on the
exterior surface of the bag. When the object is placed inside the pocket, this
activates the external visual component, conrming for the user the presence of
the specic object inside the bag. This allows you to see, upon that moment
when you are leaving the home, whether or not anything is missing [...] Lukabag
is about projecting your own self and your own memory into an object. The
object becomes a substitute or supplement for your own capabilities. As

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Fig. 6 The Blazer project

Csikszentmihalyi discusses, an objects power lies partly in its ability to represent

and extend the self into the environment [......] Lukabag not only communicates
information about acts preformed hours before, but also information about acts
NOT performed.
Madeleine Beaulieus second skin is a silicon corset that would be molded
specically for each owner. It is not a one size ts all, but rather a corset that
remembers your shape and reects it on its outer skin. She writes: By using a
skin-like material and aesthetic, I also hope to bring awareness to the possibility
of technology using genetically reproduced live skin to create clothes, furniture
or architecture. The corset would be fastened up with fake hair. The aesthetic of
the corset would be asymmetrical and the attachment system would give the
impression of a reconstructed piece. The gene manipulation and cloning is to me
a disturbing reality and Im questioning the future of cloning. I see this second
skin as a celebration of our natural one. The user has to tie and untie the hair
laces when wearing it.

Illustrative student projects: Tangible Media

For the Tangible Media class, Marc DePape created the MND04 (memorys
neutral distorter), a digital diary that forgets. Over time the diary distorts and reevaluates the memories (as human memory does) but from a digitally neutral
perspective. Marc writes: A computer can be nothing more than neutral. The
date to be evaluated is entered one digit dial at a time. The user then inputs
the rating for the day, on a ten light emitting diode (LED) scale. Depending on the
rating, the diary will randomly distort the memory. Errors like youre missed or
youre forgiven are output to the user to try and encourage the understanding of
memory as a dynamic, inuential tool to better understand the present self. Marc
writes: And remember, this machine forgets everything so over time the user will
have to re-evaluate everything they put into the machine (Fig. 7).
Francis Raymond created an ecology of memory-less objects: In an era where
over-consumption is de rigueur, where every parts of our social and cultural life
are determined by an ever more economy-centered society, Im wondering why

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were surrounding ourselves with so many objects? Do we even realize what we

possess, and why we possess it? He selected several personal objects from his
private life, objects that give him pleasure and help dene his identity. He
developed a system through which he can measure how often these objects are
used. When objects are not being manipulated (or used) often enough, they
illuminate to remind you of their presence and to ask for your attention.
Elana Rudicks Thought Box is an interface for remote communication for
lovers. It incorporates a very elegant combination of digital and analog methodology. The lovers must feed the box, by placing physical mementos of each
other (such as letters, photos, or stray hairs) inside the box. Every time the box is
opened and its contents taken out to be fondly examined, its remote counterpart
illuminates to indicate longing. The digital communication could not exist
without the analog artifacts. Elana writes that the lovers must complete the
following tasks:
1. Every week you must feed a memory to the box in order to sustain it.
2. When your box is full (use your discretion), you must send its contents to the
second party.

Fig. 7 The MND04

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3. If you come in physical contact with the second party you must empty the
contents of the boxes together and begin the memory collection from scratch.
You should keep one old memory and another should be gathered from the
day you empty the contents together.
4. In the event that you wish to end your communication with the other party
through the Thought Box, you must send the box back to the other person
(Fig. 8).
Daniel Grigsby and Philip Viel constructed a project based around a very
dierent idea of physical memory. They write: Nature grants us with some of
the most beautiful designs around, designs we often do not notice as we go
about our daily lives. Not only do these designs look beautiful, they also oer
humanity a wealth of recorded information about the planets past. In some
ways this record kept by nature could be seen as something akin to memory. [...]
It is arguable that trees possess a form of memory in that they record weather
data as they grow and create new layers of cells. They produced an apparatus
to record the movements and sounds trees produce in response to the weather
they record. In doing this, our goal is to, in an abstract sense, enhance the trees
memory capabilities. Their work Remembering Trees sought to record the
trees movements and sounds over a period of time and express that kinetic data
by amplifying the trees sound and modulating it with the trees own movement.
[...] Each recording will take note of the specic date, time and location and
species of tree recorded thus reinforcing the link to a particular moment in space
and time.

Fig. 8 Remembering trees

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Francis Raymonds piece entitled i.like.pleasure is a t-shirt that communicates

with its environment by indicating which body parts the user likes to touch and
have touched, as well as the levels of pleasure that this touch brings him. He
wanted to work on a personal project that would be meaningful in a very
individual way. He writes: Comme bien dautres gens, je ne suis pas satisfait de
mon corps, je ne reponds pas aux ideaux de beaute sociaux, encore moins dans
un contexte homosexuel ou` la beaute regit TOUT! He addresses social beauty
ideals, which, he says are particularly perceptible in gay culture. He writes that
even though he intellectually rebels against these idealized visions of physicality,
his body reacts dierently: it enjoys physical intimacy. He aimed to build a shirt
that would indicate his special pleasure zones and invite physical touch. He
integrated touch sensors made from conductive fabric over his nipples, the left
side of his belly, his left arm, and the curve of his neck. When one of these spots
is touched, images sewn into the shirt become illuminated, illustrating his
enjoyment with symbolic representations of pleasure (good music, good food, a
warm bed, etc.). In order to reach the highest level of symbolic pleasure, more
than one person needs to participate, as he only has two arms (Fig. 9).
Marc De Papes project Is that a nervous twitch or are you just happy to see
me? is a switchboard interface that functions as a non-verbal interface that
communicates the potential emotional interpretation of social interaction. [...]
The assumption is that everyone experiences some form of social anxiety, from
very mild to extreme, and understands through that basis of such anxiety the
unpredictability of the other. Each participant wears vibrating motors, illuminating antennae, and headphones. Each switchboard controller has ve stereo
mini jacks labeled with dierent body parts. He writes: To emphasize the

Fig. 9 Is that a nervous twitch or are you just happy to see me?

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interconnectedness between the two participants, nothing happens until they

both plug into a jack on their respective boards. [...] Since communication is
quickly becoming more and more wireless, the physical connection between
people is disappearing being replaced by a virtual medium. [...] When a connection is made the circuit becomes complete, activating the corresponding
motor or LEDs, as well as sending a midi signal to a sampler to trigger the
internal audio. [...] What will be heard in the headset will be a voice describing a
possible societal interpretation of the sensation triggered. [...] The goal here is
to provide more understanding through the amplication of our awed communication skills. Though we are highly evolved and sophisticated, we are still
prone to mistakes and misunderstandings. Instead of seeing them as negative or
defective, we can look at the constructive beauty within the mistakes. A mistake
will show disclose the answer at the same time, we just have to be aware of where
it is found: somewhere in between.
Conclusion: intimacy and technology are not mutually
exclusive
Bruce Mau has suggested that every memory is new, a partial construct dierent
from its source, and, as such, a potential for growth itself (Mau 1998). In the
classroom, new technologies can be taught in ways that open students to the
potentialities for self-empowerment and playful exploration of taboos or serious
issues within contexts that are creative and artful.
About the authors

Joanna Berzowska is an Assistant Professor of Computation Arts at Concordia University in

Montreal. Her work and research deal primarily with soft computation: electronic textiles,
responsive clothing as wearable technology, reactive materials and squishy interfaces. She is the
founder of Extra Soft Labs design/research studio in Montreal. She was also the founder of
International Fashion Machines in Boston, where she developed the rst electronic ink wearable animated display and Electric Plaid, an addressable color-change textile. She received her
Masters of Science from MIT for her work titled Computational Expressionism. She worked
with the Tangible Media Group of the MIT Media Lab on research projects such as the
musicBottles. She directed Interface Design at the Institute for Interactive Media at the University of Technology in Sydney. She holds a BA in Mathematics and a BFA in Design Arts.
Her art and design work has been shown in the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum in NYC,

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SIGGRAPH, Art Directors Club in NYC, Australian Museum in Sydney, NTT ICC in Tokyo
and Ars Electronica Center in Linz among others. She has lectured about the intersections of
art, design, technology and computation at SIGGRAPH, ISEA, Ban New Media Institute in
Canada and Interaction Design Institute Ivrea in Italy among others.

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Berzowska J (2005) Memory rich clothing: second skins that communicate physical memory.
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