True North
Inspired by our northern Canadian landscape, and the common fascination with the night sky “True North” explores the human relationship to the earth, magnetic fields, and Canadian climate in a delicately visual way. “True North” is a 2-piece garment; the top portion will be composed of boning made from fibre-optic tubing, woven within into a delicate structure. Powered by high-bright LEDs this top portion circles through a variety of colours emulating the northern lights.
The accompanying floor length flowing skirt houses an under layer of patterned LEDs. This skirt is connected to a microcontroller and an accelerometer sensor, when the wearer is facing north the front skirt panel will light up, as the wearer turns away from north the light strip will fade with a delay. Visually the skirt is completely lit up followed by a sequenced panel slow fade when the wearer spins in a circle.
True North contains:
Phi : Illuminated
PHI is a new-media art collective focusing on performance, wearable art, and wearable technology. Interested in the crossroads between art, fashion, and technology, PHI is constantly seeking methods and media that engage and empower cultural participants through technology.
Members Stacey Morgan and Kenzie Housego met while attending the Alberta College of Art and Design, where they both received Bachelor of Fine Art. They began collaborating in 2013 on wearable art pieces featuring bright colourful classic dress forms and accessories that all reacted to sound, touch, movement, or the wearer’s heartbeat. PHI’s third member Sophie Amin joined the collective in 2015 and brings to the team over seven years of experience as an Electronics Technologist as well as a shared passion for leveraging new technological tools to facilitate visual expression and participant engagement. The pieces that PHI has created have housed LEDs, sensors, and microcontrollers that collect and output data about the wearer’s environment, and relationship to others.
Since 2014, PHI has had the opportunity to showcase their performative wearable art/tech collections nationally and internationally, notably at GLOW Fest 2017, Calgary, MakerFaire Bay Area in California, CES New York, CES Las Vegas, Xiamen Fashion Week, China, The Festival of Curiosities in Dublin, Ireland, and at a two-week art residency in Shenzhen, China.
The accompanying floor length flowing skirt houses an under layer of patterned LEDs. This skirt is connected to a microcontroller and an accelerometer sensor, when the wearer is facing north the front skirt panel will light up, as the wearer turns away from north the light strip will fade with a delay. Visually the skirt is completely lit up followed by a sequenced panel slow fade when the wearer spins in a circle.
True North contains:
- Arduino Mega Mainboard for underskirt lighting
- Arduino Pro Micro for fiber optic top lighting
- BNO055 Absolute Orientation Sensor for skirt direction
- 600+ addressable LEDs for skirt and top (WS2812B)
Phi : Illuminated
PHI is a new-media art collective focusing on performance, wearable art, and wearable technology. Interested in the crossroads between art, fashion, and technology, PHI is constantly seeking methods and media that engage and empower cultural participants through technology.
Members Stacey Morgan and Kenzie Housego met while attending the Alberta College of Art and Design, where they both received Bachelor of Fine Art. They began collaborating in 2013 on wearable art pieces featuring bright colourful classic dress forms and accessories that all reacted to sound, touch, movement, or the wearer’s heartbeat. PHI’s third member Sophie Amin joined the collective in 2015 and brings to the team over seven years of experience as an Electronics Technologist as well as a shared passion for leveraging new technological tools to facilitate visual expression and participant engagement. The pieces that PHI has created have housed LEDs, sensors, and microcontrollers that collect and output data about the wearer’s environment, and relationship to others.
Since 2014, PHI has had the opportunity to showcase their performative wearable art/tech collections nationally and internationally, notably at GLOW Fest 2017, Calgary, MakerFaire Bay Area in California, CES New York, CES Las Vegas, Xiamen Fashion Week, China, The Festival of Curiosities in Dublin, Ireland, and at a two-week art residency in Shenzhen, China.