This page contains the materials for my thesis presentation and the notes for each slide, not the thesis itself, which was recorded as a podcast with an accompanying visual aid document.
Presentation notes:
I’m Ana Belen Cobos, as a third year Costume Production student this was my thesis: Take a Breath and the product of my thesis is this thing I call the Breathing Agama Collar.
How it works is that there is a pulse sensor that feeds data to a microcontroller, in this case a circuit playground, which is an easy microcontroller to use for beginners and code can be uploaded via a USB cable. The circuit playground outputs a signal to a transistor that turns two air pumps on, to inflate an air bladder that makes this scaly part move and look like it’s breathing. The whole system is powered by 4 AA batteries in this battery pack. The reason it revolves around breathing is because the code that’s running the system is code I borrowed from an open source platform called Adafruit that was created for a meditation trainer. The code takes the data from the pulse sensor, reads your current heart rate and uses many lines of mathematics to compute if you are in a calm state. There is a breath pacer that is running at the same time to guide your breathing for you to maintain a calm meditative state. If you are successfully keeping your heart rate relatively even and stable, the top two onboard neopixels on the circuit playground turn green, when your breath and HR destabilizes, these lights will turn blue then red. I altered the meditation trainer code to turn the two air pumps on when the light turns red and you are theoretically in a less than very calm state.
Aside from making costumes and art, I am very interested and passionate about different sciences and happen to be driven to try my hand at new things. In pursuit of finding this sweet spot between arts and engineering, nature and technology, I enrolled in an IDeate course, E-textiles that was a micro, 3 weekend course, that was my first introduction into electronics in general and the implications of combining electronics with textiles. We did some exercises to demonstrate circuitry, power, resistance, and how you can get creative with making switches. My final in that class was a theoretical design for a flamenco costume that could sense the intensity of the dancer’s movements and send a signal to affect the volume and tempo of the music, thereby giving the dancer the power to control the music with their body.
I then took a mini half-semester course called digitally responsive costumes, that expanded my experience to building a prototype for a design idea. My project was meant to look like a jellyfish- there's that nature theme again- where there were neopixel strips hanging from pannier hoops, shaped to be undulating and the peplum had fiber optic lights. It was programmed so that the fiber optics would glow while the neo pixels trickled. My takeaways from that class were that it was not easy, prototyping, coding and working with electronics was very tricky. But I also left the class feeling confident that these were skills I could really build upon.
I definitely want to see more wearable electronics in art that are engaging, thought provoking and whimsical. I love imagining all the amazing things costume makers could do with electronics for performing arts. And I don’t even have to try too hard to imagine it because it’s already happening in cosplay, tech forward fashion designers, on Lady Gaga, on Charlie XCX in ‘used to know me’ music video, on some Broadway shows, just to name a few examples. It was really easy for me to get caught up in all the possibilities and my desire to run before I walk.
I had realized I was trying to cram years and years of learning and experience into 5 months, into one project after having only done one prototype and one micro class. I started scaling back almost every aspect except one through line. I was really inspired by called (RE) Connect, made by Jasna Rok Labs in collaboration with NASA. (RE)Connect reads your emotional state through biosensors and voice recognition and displays what state you’re in on the piece through light and the garment puffs up to mimic a puffer fish’s defensive response. Sounds familiar? I wanted to find a way to reach for a similar concept, but in a much simpler, more prototype level. I decided to allow myself to still borrow code, limit my project to no more than 2 motors, use as many materials that were already available to me from stock, and make an accessory wearable art piece as opposed to an interactive electronic dance piece.
The main goal was to make a wearable piece that uses a sensor, the sensor readings would signal an automated action on the piece, in response to the wearer. My love of nature and science, and the inspiration of (RE)Connect led me to research what natural response I wanted my piece to mimic. I looked into how flowers can bloom only at night, how carnivorous plants move, how porcupines use their quills for defense. I ended up deciding to use the Arabian Toad Headed Agama as a visual and behavioral reference. To keep cool in the blistering desert heat or to hide from predators, it disappears by burrowing into the sand.
I thought up various ways to create a “shimmy effect”. I practiced getting a servo motor to move the way I wanted, and see how I could make scales move. I tested how I could use the light sensor on the circuit playground, and I also tested using the air pump. I went down the route of using the air pump because I thought it would be more likely to get a nuanced and pronounced effect. First sample, failed, second, not better, third just as ineffective, so I switched to a different method. I was going to use silicone tubing with small holes in it to push air behind the scales to make them “shimmy”. The test I did in small scale was still not great, but better than the other trials, and I had to move forward so I committed to the silicone tubing. Once I had decided to use the meditation trainer code after some searching and attempts at using other, other even trying to write my own, I recruited David Crittenden and elliot Queale to help me resolve the timing of the air pump since the specs said it could not be running for more than 15 seconds. I got the code to work the way I needed it to, built and installed everything, turned it on, and there was essentially no effect to the scales. So I pivoted to making these air bladders, and here we are.
To keep in theme with trying new things and unfamiliar things. I recorded a podcast for the presentation of my thesis. Which was a blessing and a curse but mostly I enjoyed getting to convey information and my journey in a more personable, candid manner. I most appreciated getting to unpack what went wrong and why and then get to turn into something that could be useful for some who, like me, was a maker who had never tried doing anything with electronics but was wildly interested in getting into it.
Overall, the journey was extremely humbling. If I could go back and give myself some advice, I would say to give myself some grace and embrace the knowledge that failure is a certainty in this process. It will not work and not work and continue to not work in any number of ways, until it finally does. And only exploration and patience will get you to the finish line.