Valérie Lamontagne has developed three fantastical networked fashions inspired by the peculiar fairy tale by Charles Perrault in which a young princess, to avoid marrying a king, demands impossible dresses made of the sun, the moon and the sky. Lamontagne interprets the fairy tale by creating magical fashions that use live weather data to reflect the changing barometric characteristics of the sky, moon and sun in real time. MAX/msp is used for compiling and keeping track of the data from the Weather Davis to record changes in temperature, UV, solar radiation, wind speed & velocity, humidity, and rain fall. This data is then sent out wirelessly via Xbee communication to embedded micro-controllers.
Sky Dress
The inflatable Sky dress abstractly mimics a cloud inflating with an increase of clouds in the sky and vibrating in response to the amount of precipitation.
Sun Dress
Detail of Sun Dress: 128 LEDs sewn with conductive thread
The Sun dress stitched with 128 LED lights illuminates accordingly to the ultraviolet and sun intensity readings. It also acts as a flashing warning signal in conditions of dangerous UV levels.
Moon Dress
The last dress, the Moon, is decorated with textile flowers dyed with thermochromatic inks that shift in color as the moon waxes and wanes.
Color-shifting Thermochromatic Flowers
These beautiful fairy tale fashions display the abstract climatic changes in the environment and remind us of “the co-relationship between our movements and the environment around us.” The project is currently on display at CODE Live 2 at Emily Carr University of Art and Design until February 21.
