Artist Statement

WEARABLE EXPERIENCE

Imagine travelling through an unknown land, through its cities and natural reserves, without relying on overbooked hotel-rooms, intricate tent-structures, or camping sites. With DressWare the traveler of the future will be able to trek around the globe fully ‘off-the-grid’, independently and comfortably.
DressWare is a long-term design and development project, concerned with mobile, wearable and self-sustaining shelters for contemporary nomads. Following the legacy of Archigram and Michael Webb’s Suitaloon and Cushicle, the project evolves the idea of clothing as portable architecture in random ‘you never know WEAR?’ situations. For example, the SleepingBagDress prototype is a multipurpose kimono-dress that can be inflated to form a cylindrical inhabitable container.
The DressWare research has been conducted in two main threads, one dealing with powering the shelter in its inflated form, and the other focusing on materials that can respond to external stimuli and adapt their functionality to fit the needs of the wearer/inhabitant. The current availability of solar panels, efficient batteries and fuel cells as `green’ sources of energy has been incorporated. The use of ‘smart materials’ is being explored for the purpose of camouflage, thermal and physical protection, as well as increased wearability and sleeping comfort. This research has been documented and sampled for integration at a later point.

The presentation at ISEA2004 will involve a documentation process from urban interventions in the cities of Brussels and Tallinn.

• Ana Rewakowicz (CA) is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher living and working in Montreal, Canada. She works with inflatables and explores relations between temporal, portable architecture, the body and the environment. Her prototype, SleepingBagDress has been developed at Foam laboratory in Brussels, Belgium. fo.am

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