Nocturnal

If night lasted forever, how would we adapt.

Prompt:

Create something within the theme of "alternative" or "another way", and incorporate microelectronics.

Overview:

Nocturnal stems from the idea of humans actively living at night rather than during the day. I wanted to explore how fashion could evolve within this environment. I intentionally used second-hand clothing, to simulate a new form of at-home alterations that may arise from these circumstances. Constant existence in darkness would increase the necessity for lights, and the potential for them to be incorporated into clothing. Through the LEDs, the jacket can also portray how the wearer is feeling. This acts as a “do not disturb” rendition, with colors and flashes signifying anger, sickness, happiness, and sadness.

Brainstorming:

jacket brainstorming sketch
pants brainstorming sketch
Illustrated diagram for jacket lights
Illustrated light layout option for pants

Materials:

  • Arduino Lilypad USB
  • Lilypad LEDs
  • Stainless steel conductive thread
  • Lilypad coin cell battery holder
  • CR2032 batteries
  • necklace clasps
  • Fabric glue

Shirt:

full jacket with lights
jacket close-up, lights off
jacket close-up, yellow lights on

My original design iterations were naive to the extremely low conductivity of stainless steal thread. My final designs, primarily for the pants, were scaled down greatly in order to improve functionality.

Pants:

pants close-up
pants lights off
pants lights on

In contrast to the funtional design on the jacket, I created these pants to relfect a cute DIY sort of appearance. The fireflies are meant to feel like a simple, approachable embroidery project, something anyone could add to their clothing. In this world, though, it's common for embellishments like embroidery, patches, and stitching to emit light.

Broken Ardiuno Lilypad board

Troubleshooting

The micro USB port broke just as I finished the jacket, cutting off the main way to power and program the Arduino. Fortunately, the code was already uploaded, so I only needed an alternative power source. I soldered wiring to connect extra coin-cell batteries, allowing it to function. I also wasn't able to source the correct Lilypad switches for the lights, so I improvised by using insulated necklace screw clasps instead.