Developing Sustainable Communication Interfaces Through Fashion Design

The recent technological developments made electronic devices become imperative and indispensable, being present in our daily routines, all over the world. But, the continuous exposition of people to the electromagnetic radiation might cause illness. Electrosmog is the invisible electromagnetic radiation that results from the usage of electric equipment and wireless technologies. Some studies present electro sensibility as a contemporary illness affecting more and more people. This paper analyses some of the challenges this reality puts to the fashion design and how textile materials may be used to protect the human body against the harmful radiation and to develop smart cloths incorporating textile antennas able to capture these radiations and feed low-frequency devices. Thus, one considers the notion of “Transparent Sustainability” and the search for the smart energy explorations of/or in the human body. This way, the association of fashion design and technology can transform the garment in a sustainable communication interface.

Keywords

Textile antennas Wearable development Energy harvesting Smart clothing

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.6/15172

Citation

Caroline Loss, Rita Salvado, Catarina Lopes, Pedro Pinho, Ricardo Gonçalves, Fernando Velez, Jorge Tavares, Henrique Saraiva, Norberto Barroca and Luis Borges, “Developing sustainable communication interfaces through fashion design”, 5th STS Italia Conference A MATTER OF DESIGN Making Society through Science and Technology, Milano, 12-14 June 2014.