Promoting the Hacking the Body project

1. Camille Baker, PhD Digital Media
Media artist/researcher/lecturer
Digital Media/Broadcast
Brunel University, London, UK
Dublin, Ireland
April 27, 2012
Tech Garments &
Mobile Media Performance
Mediamorphosis
May10, 2013
Westminster University, London
Camille Baker, PhD Digital Media

2. background/ interests
online portfolio http://www.swampgirl67.net/

3. • mobile media art and
participatory performance,
• participatory video and
electronic media installation,
• wearable devices, smart
fashion, synaesthetic
interfaces,
• networked & telematic
performance;
• responsive environments
design and interaction;
• digital and electronic art,
interactive and performance
media curating.
background /bio
research interests
still from video piece ©2001
online portfolio http://www.swampgirl67.net/

4. SMARTlab PhD media art research 2006-2011:
MINDtouch mobile performance
–to uncover any new understandings of the
sensations of ‘liveness’ and ‘presence’ that may
emerge when using mobile technologies and
wearable devices in performance contexts–

5. MINDtouch: mobile devices as non-verbal expression
first video collection workshop in Vancouver June 2007

6. key points
Image from MINDtouch 2007 Dublin
MINDtouch: mobile devices as non-verbal expression

7. Images© 2007 C. Baker - stills from participants’ videos from Dublin workshop October 2007
MINDtouch: mobile devices as non-verbal expression

8. Video Love Letters’ involves developing a novel method to repurpose the mobile phone,
To send video message to wearable technologies and smart textiles to touch the skin.
Images from MINDtouch 2007-2008
MINDtouch: mobile devices as non-verbal expression

9. sensors + software
Images © 2008 C. Baker – Michael Markert working on biosensing electronics for custom software

10. MINDtouch: prototype 2: garment
Images © 2009 C. Baker – beta garment with embedded electronics by Tara Baoth Mooney and Rachel Lesebikan
(completed August
2009)

11. MINDtouch: 1st participatory event - July 2009

12. MINDtouch: still of mixes for broadcast 2009-10

13. Graphic by Dave Palmer 2012
a collaborative
research project with
dance artist
/choreographer Kate
Sicchio

14. sensors, soft circuits +
DIY electronics
Images © 2008 C. Baker – Michael Markert working on biosensing electronics for custom software

15. Hacking the Body

16. Hacking the Body
Image by Camille Baker 2012

17. Image by Camille Baker 2013
Hacking the Body

18. Handmade sensor experiments
http://vimeo.com/56206772 and in the dark http://vimeo.com/56206771

19. Hacking the Body
!
Image from Sander Veenhof 2011

20. Images by Kasia Molga 2012 and Camille Baker 2010
Hacking the Body

21. Hacking the Body
Image by Kate Sicchio 2013

22. Image by Kate Sicchio 2012
Hacking the Body

23. Images from live events for MINDtouch C.Baker 2009-2010
participatory events and installation

24. For Hacking the Body we are:
1) working with open-source and live coding with custom
interfaces and emerging devices in performance, focusing
on revealing hidden, intimate and sensuous ‘code’ of the
body for interaction and play;
2) working with inexpensive electronics kits with easy to learn
open-source programming environments, soft circuits and
other technologies for wearable crafting;
3) consider the possibilities of playful, expressive, gestural,
live coding, as well as using the DIY maker ethos in multi-
sensory participatory performances with new devices;
4) developing artworks that explore a new performance
aesthetic using mobile and other ‘hacked’ devices for live
coding, performance and interactive artworks;

25. For Hacking the Body we are:
5) adapting to and developing new technologies, creating
generative visual and sensual pieces with custom
software and mobile media ‘apps’ and sensors (GPS,
Accelerometers, QR readers, AR apps etc.) and
gestural gaming interfaces (Wii, Kinect, OmniTouch);
6) developing visual methods for tagging & categorising
network media to create ambient narrative
constructions and performance interactions, generative
elements incorporated into custom interfaces for
various platforms;
7) learning from dancers, live artists, musicians and others
in the DIY and ‘Maker’ movement to create new
wearable electronics and mobile applications;

26. http://www.iheartswitch.com
http://www.fashioningtech.com/
http://www.kobakant.at/DIY/
current activity – “DIY” Fashion & Tech crafting explosion

27. current developments – fabric and textile innovations
Fabric stretch sensors – knitted
fabrics coated with conductive
material
Conductance

28. Deep breathing vs short shallow
breathing
current developments – multi-sensors & techniques

29. current developments – skin-like electronics
Electronic Fingertip / smart surgical gloves and stick on ”tattoo” electronics

30. commercial work – functional wearables
Voltaic – solar powered bag
Heated gloves
iPod jacket
Solar panel bikini, TISCH,
NYU
ChanelRodarteHussein Chalayan

31. Suzanne
Lee
BioCouture
current developments – bio-fabric/skin-like textiles
Ande Domaske - German
microbiologist - Milk
Fabric

32. Emily Crane
Micro-Nutrient Couture
current developments – bio-fabric textiles

33. Donna Franklin,
Fibre Reactive, Coded Cloth
Exhibition
current developments – bio-fabric textiles
Pia Interlandi
Symbiotica Lab, Australia

34. current developments – conductive inks and paints
Bare Conductive Ink

35. Hacking the Body
A media performance research
project that explores ways to
‘Hack’ the data from the body
and create new visual and
performance feedback
mechanisms for users to
engage and play with their
mobile devices
ImageS from Kate Sicchio 2011

36. Panel Topic Questions:
1) How do bio tools provide new strategies for
communicating sensory experience and exploring subtle
bodily impulses through performance work?
2) How might Open-Sourcing biosensor technologies play
an important part in the development of these tools and
bio-sensing performance culture?
3) How, as practitioners, do we assess the efficacy of the
tools we are using, both in development and through
feedback after a performance?
4) How do we balance garnering information about interior
states from technology whilst working with our senses
directly?
5) What role does visualising and sonifiying bodily signals
have in defining how authentic our mediated experiences
are?

37. contact details:
Camille, Baker, PhD Digital Media
Media Artist / Curator / Lecturer
Brunel University< London
www.swampgirl67.net
camille@swampgirl67.net
Kate Sicchio, PhD Dance Technology
Choreographer/ Media artist Performer
Lincoln University, Lincoln
www.sicchio.com
kate@sicchio.com
Kate Sicchio and Camille Baker August 2010