Lackluster- I was as excited for the Lilypad as I was for cross-stitch! The concept of wearable tech (WT)? “Machines for communication” (Eco, 1986)? Yes, please! Fashion has always been a means of communication, and now combined with technology, this interface seems unapologetically visible. It is visual, textual, and tactile. This interface demands to be seen and wearers want it to be visible. What we wear, as Eco (as cited in Ryan, 2014) posits it is how we exist in the outer, how we communicate. I wanted to create a wearable with the Lilypad that had meaning and reflected something cultural. In the time of COVID-19, I could think of nothing better than a WT face mask.
I chose a bandana with the Barefoot wine logo on it. Not only does the bandana face mask become a text of the COVID-19 stories, but the logo adds to that text going beyond the brand and symbolizing all of the rhetoric and action regarding drinking during quarantine. My concept was to put the Lilypad in the middle of the mask and have the LED lights light up the stars on the pattern; however, after the first flash of light when I put the battery in the holder, it wouldn’t light up. I stitched and stitched (and bitched and bitched), but I could not get the circuit to work. I went to several websites. I tried long stitches and short stitches. I tried knotting the thread and not knotting the thread. I tried everything the websites said to no avail. I read that the circuits and LED lights were fussy and shorted out often. Since I had one brief flash of light, I am assuming this could be the issue. I am very disappointed. I had envisioned wearing my mask to the grocery store and observing reactions. Instead, I opted to put an edited photo on this page. Once quarantine is lifted and COVID-19 isn’t as much as a threat, I want to buy more supplies and try this again to hopefully put on something in addition to a face mask.
