x.pose is a wearable data-driven sculpture

Designers Xuedi Chen and Pedro G. C. Oliveira recently debuted x.pose, a wearable data-driven sculpture that changes opacity to expose a person’s skin as a real-time reflection of outgoing data.

According to Chen, x.pose is both an “exploration and commentary” on the current Internet culture of our generation and the relationship we share with our data.

“We have already ceded control of our digital data emissions, [so] x.pose goes a step further to broadcast the wearer’s data for anyone and everyone to see. A server and mobile app were built to collect Xuedi, the designer’s geolocation data over time to use as the basis for a personalized 3D printed flexible mesh,” Chen explained.

Using an [Atmel based] Arduino and Bluetooth, the app communicates with a layer of reactive displays that reflect the volume of information generated by the wearer.

“These displays are divided up into patches that represent neighborhoods and change in opacity depending on the wearer’s current location. If she is in the NYU neighborhood, that area will be the most active, pulsing, revealing her current location, revealing the fact that her data is being collected and at the same time exposing her skin. As her data emissions are collected, the more transparent and exposed she will become.”

As Chen notes, the foundation behind x.pose is the mobile app and server that automatically collect data from the wearer.

“They are built using Node.js and PhoneGap. The recorded data set is then fed into processing to produce the pattern and exported to Rhino to make the 3D mesh. Lots of experimentation was done at this stage to find the perfect material that would be both flexible and durable,” she added.

“The final step to putting it all together was to provide real-time data transmission through Bluetooth to an Arduino, which controls 20 hand-cut, individually addressable, reactive displays that change in opacity to reveal the wearer’s skin.”

Interested in learning more? You can check out the project’s official page here.