[ISEA2013] Artists Statement: Tega Brain & Gavin Sade — Activist Apparel

Artists Statement

Activist Apparel launches a standout Autumn/Winter ‘13 collection at the City Data Slam. Presenting a range of speculative garments, the collection engages with future urban data streams, presenting them on a variety of different wearable platforms. This exciting new range proposes ways that information can be geolocated and displayed in public space by concerned citizens. The collection considers ways to develop a more nuanced and collective understanding of predicted changes to our urban environments.
Activist Hosiery shows the height of predicted sea level change in year 2100 at your location in the city assuming a business as usual approach to carbon emissions. Wearable LEDs light up along the leg to show predicted changes to our shorelines. Based on the same assumptions the Activst Brooch conveys this information by gripping the wearer tightly every time they cross the edge of this future shoreline.
The Activist Umbrella changes colour to indicate the energy footprint of the buildings in its vicinity. It enables the curious wearer to assess the energy footprints of different buildings and streets in their locality. Finally, the Activist Socks give future urban heat island predictions based on the colour of embedded wearable LEDs. This season data is the new black. In stores soon.

  • Tega Brain’s work explores the relationship between humans and the environment through the creation of experimental installations, situations and objects. From a background in environmental engineering, her practice is inherently interdisciplinary as it explores and rethinks issues of science and environmental
    engineering. She is interested in the creative and experimental use of technologies and works across a wide range of time based media, sculpture and installation. Tega was recently awarded a Creative Australia Fellowship from the Australia Council for
    the Arts, which recognise artists who have already made a significant contribution to Australian culture and to those that are taking an original approach to artistic practice.
  • Dr Gavin Sade is a designer in the field of interactive computational media, with a background in music and sonology. He is currently the Head of Interactive and Visual Design in the Creative Industries Faculty at the Queensland University of Technology. Gavin holds a Bachelor of Music (Sonology) from the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, and a PhD in interactive media arts and sustainability. He has been creating interactive media systems and electronic art since 1990, and has exhibited numerous internationally at venues from Taipei and Singapore to Istanbul and Belfast. In 2003 he formed Kuuki, a creative media collective, and has since lead the production of a number of high profile electronic and largescale public artworks. In 2011 Gavin won the QUT outstanding thesis award for his PhD. Gavin’s research interests lie at the intersection of art, design and sustain-ability, with a focus on transdisciplinarity and creative practice-led research methods.