The philosophers vest

Ever wondered what happens when we open up a personality? We think we will enter a world of the most wonderful innermost feelings and thoughts (called “zieleroerselen” in Dutch). But no! We will only see numbers! Numbers, numbers, numbers! What cannot be put in reality by sheer numbers? What escapes the database?  Are we not just text? (Text being just numbers??)

So i made this vest to reflect on numbers being us and us being numbers. The vest will be very helpful in the future remembering all our numbers, pin codes and security numbers, and reminding us of buying milk and getting the children from Kindergarten in time. (Making the sound of a final countdown when we try to forget about these children…)

The felt vest has an inner and an outer layer. The outer layer consists of strips of felt. Here and there the outer layer of the vest opens up and the numbers peep through. Not only numbers, also bits of text, patterns, flows of numbers, half sentences…
My innermost feelings, my protective layer of rationality?

The question posed by this vest is simple: what of us cannot be put into a database? How long can we keep denying that we can copy ourselves inside some computer in the (near) future?

The felt vest is double layered, the felt is hand made and uncut, the felt is fastened together using a happy-locker. For the rest it contains a few double digit displays (in three groups, one big group in front and two smaller at the back),  a handful of chips (14 ATtiny2313′s and one ATmega328). At the moment of writing about ten different number, character or sign patterns are programmed.

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