Both stylish and provocative, x.pose is a “wearable data-driven sculpture” that makes us think twice about how much we reveal about ourselves online. The work is Xuedi Chen’s ITP Thesis 2014, but is made in collaboration with interaction designer and programmer, Pedro Oliveira.
x.pose is a 3D printed mesh structure framing Polymer Dispersed Liquid Crystal (PDLC) panels that change opacity to expose more or less of the wearer’s skin. The opacity is controlled via the wearer’s smartphone and reacts to how much private data is being shared. It’s a great example of New Aesthetic, where the digital world leaks into the physical.
Linked via Bluetooth to the wearer’s smartphone, the garment displays how much private data (geolocation, etc) the wearer is sharing. Each part of the sculpture represents a different geographical location, which becomes more and more transparent as more data is exposed.
Not only is this piece both conceptually sound and a technical achievement, it’s accompanied by a well-presented overview on Behance in case you want to dive a bit deeper into the project and process.