Wearable Utopias: Imagining, Inventing, and Inhabiting New Worlds

A collection of thought-provoking interviews with cutting-edge designers who transform ordinary wearables into extraordinary sites of personal expression, public engagement, and radical political action. Wearable Utopias explores the promise of wearables for reimagining social and political problems of today for diverse and inclusive worlds for tomorrow. Kat Jungnickel, Ellen Fowles, Katja May, and Nikki Pugh entangle science and technology studies, gender studies, and cultural studies with contemporary issues to highlight the role wearables can play in forging alternative paths through conventional landscapes. Featuring twenty-three interviews with new and established international designers, this collection covers everything from coats designed to protect digital privacy to high-performing jeans that combat air pollution and to hi-vis cyclewear as a response to urban harassment. The interviews in Wearable Utopias are organized into six key themes addressing a selection of pressing civic issues: expanding (wearables that push physical, social, and political boundaries), moving (wearables that enable participation in a wider range of sport and activities), concealing (wearables that defend privacy or keep secrets), connecting (wearables that link individuals to large-scale issues); leaking (wearables that challenge the idea that urinating and menstruating are problematic or taboo), and working (wearables that address inequalities in the workplace). Wearable Utopias offers insight and inspiration for students, researchers, designers, and anyone making things to wear who is frustrated with daily inequities and normative limitations and wants to do things differently. This book is part of the European Research Council–funded project Politics of Patents (POP): Reimagining Citizenship via Clothing Inventions, hosted at Goldsmiths, University of London, led by Kat Jungnickel with Ellen Fowles (Research Assistant), Katja May (Postdoctoral Fellow), and Nikki Pugh (Research Assistant). Wearable Utopias offers insight and inspiration for students, researchers, designers, and anyone making things to wear who is frustrated with daily inequities and normative limitations and wants to do things differently. Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: Wearable World-Making Embodied Acts of Resistance The Extraordinariness of Ordinary Things The Role of Wearables in Civic Concerns A Collection of Creative Conversations Organization of the Book 1. Expanding Rebirth Garments Body as Material Dress Tents Third Thumb, Vine Arm, Materialise Arm, and Synchronised Arm 2. Moving Burqini Fehr Trade Ride With Wolves Petticoat Dress and Urban Blanket 3. Concealing Project KOVR Backslash The Dazzle Club I am THEM 4. Connecting Pussyhat Project Catalytic Clothing The Social Studio Refuge Wear and Nexus Architecture 5. Leaking Shewee Carrie Qué Rico Menstruo (My Delicious Period) 6. Working Unhidden Iyá Àlàro (Indigo Dyers) SÜK Advanced Style 7. Conclusion: Making and Wearing New Civic and Social Futures Notes Introduction Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 References Index