Fashion has never followed any rules, except for those of extravagance and innovation, so, it was only natural for tech fashion to do the same. Over the recent few years, we have seen quite interesting tech clothing items, some that might actually fall under the category of high fashion, but others are plain peculiar and not exactly useful. One of the latest tech fashion creations can certainly be defined as an element of the latter category, namely the Taiknam Hat, developed by Ricardo Nascimento, Ebru Kurbak and Fabiana Shizue, students of the Kunstuniversitat Linz, Austria.

This hat is an interactive clothing item that is ‘feather rising’ literally and figuratively. More precisely, the Taiknam Hat is a kinetic head-wear that reacts and animates in accordance with the changes in its surrounding medium wave radio signals.

 

The aim of the project is to materialize the invisible and to contribute to the awareness of the increasing electromagnetic radiation. The co-existence of all electromagnetic waves that radiate from physical devices (light, microwaves, x-rays, and TV and radio transmissions) creates an invisible landscape that interacts with physical space and its inhabitants. It has long been noted that the expansion of uses for electrical, electronic and radio devices is converting this landscape into a new form of pollution known as electrosmog.

 

The Taiknam Hat intends to do that by emulating horripilation, an automatic instinctive reaction of living creatures to sources of irritation and stress.

 

Horripilation can be defined as the raising of hairs or feathers in various species under certain emotional conditions (better known as goose bumps in human body). The idea of using clothing as extension or should I say ‘recreation’ of our lost sensory information source of the skin that we usually cover up is great.

 

The Taiknam Hat is composed of fixed and movable actual feathers attached on a fabric base together with a detecting/motion-driving system. A radio frequency detector constantly traces signals that are sent to a micro-controller, which in turn activates a motor that changes the kinetic behavior of the feathers.

 

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