Elly Jessop Nattinger, Experience Engineer

people + space (+ technology)

SoundSkirt


Image from Telegraph

In January 2012, I participated in a workshop at the Media Lab on creative uses of fabric and patternmaking. Most of us spent the workshop learning how to design and construct skirts based on a particular design from Tokomo Nakamichi's book Pattern Magic. Nakamichi's pattern-making process was very inspirational for me, particularly in the way that she encourages prototyping sculptural, 3D patterns with paper and then recutting the paper to determine your seam lines and new pattern pieces. The skirt pattern we were working from used the same technique as Nakamichi used in this dress, the otoshiana (or "drop-hole").

However, the drop-hole in the skirt felt like it needed to have something coming out of it. I envisioned sound and music emerging from the hole, and designed the drop-hole to be large enough to hold a speaker cone. I also added a pocket to hold a small pre-built amplifier circuit, batteries, and an mp3 player.The resulting garment allows you to bring your music along with you and play it out loud wherever you want.

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