Je suis – project

From the “Je suis Charlie” quick hack (https://myfablab.wordpress.com/2015/01/11/je-suis-charlie/) after quite a lot of modifications, this post provides some documentation of the “Je suis” project.

The project name has changed from “Je suis Charlie” to “Je suis”. In the idea of defending our “sacred” European civilization by joining in with the public outcry around the events in Paris this Januari there are too many issues – if you think about it.

Engagement is tempting but in the end individuality and doubt get the upper hand. Do we defend our freedom of speech and cartoons by necessarily offending others? On the other hand do some killer madmans – probably with some brain defects – defend their civilization by taking a gun and shooting around? Neither seems likely.

Therefore the essential “Je suis” is retained. This is an enormous shift in meaning!

Not the “I am because I think”, just the “I am”. Whatever that “I” is – whatever “being” is. Thinking closely to a text always dissolves the meaning. Individuality, supposedly developed during what we call the Renaissance is diminished paradoxically by all the “sharing” and copy pasting of the Web 2.0 and “social media” anyway.

Back to the project.

Temporarily showing “Je suis” is funny because this is the way thinking about individuality or the “I” works. Most of the time you just don’t think about it, sometimes it pops up. This voice inside our head, is it the “I”? And even when it is, why does it think it is different from  “the others”. Better? Worse? If the “I” pops up, it is only confusion. You seem to be “a thinker” if you state a blunt theory about this confusion, like “I think therefore I am” or “Sein und Zeit”. But how can just one voice inside a brain superimpose a static local idea on this evolving humanity of milliards of other voices?

The shift in meaning retained the idea of “content”, which is lacking most of the time in wearables. Combining design and interaction is already difficult enough!

So the “Je suis Charlie” flat 3D prints were replaced by “Je suis” 3D prints. In the middle the two hands, reference to the hands of Michelangelo…but in an 8 bit version! Which seems appropriate for our primitive understanding of the “I” and being.

The cord and the clips were discarded. The clips provided weight, needed for getting the plates down again. With just a cord the plates where not pulled down. The solution was to use a string of beads. This necklace is also a “normal” accessoire used in combination with this type of dress.

To pull the plates up, some mechanical problems ad to be solved. The part had to be attached to the dress to give it a rotation point – there was a black slip providing for the necessary frimness under the fragile upper layer of this party dress. And there had to be some distance from the end of the plate that is to be lifted to get an “arm” to work with. This was done with a small part 3D printed:

The angle to the horizontal and the grip on the beads of the neacklace proved essential for a proper lifting.

At the back the electronic was fitted to an acrylic transarent plate with two holders over the shoulders: (this part will be renewed by a shape done with the lasercutter)

The electronics remained the same, there is a distance sensor which triggers lift of the plates by a stepper motor at the back. For presentations there is a special button for immediate action.

The beads were making the lifting a big job for the steppermotor, so the voltage for this motor was increased to 7.5V, two lipo’s in series. The AT328 is protected by a 3.3V Voltage regulator.

Most of the wearables hide the electronics. In this project about “je suis” it seems right to show the electronics, although on the back. You can watch the stepper motor pull physically at a cord to reveal the “content”.

A small demo movie sketch can be found here:

http://youtu.be/KB-T2YPOPfY