The dress shown above is one of the many pieces of clothing I own that I can no longer wear due to experiences of sexual harassment. It has inspired me to think about wearable E-Textiles as a commentary on the female experience of sexual assault and harassment within club culture.
The left image is my initial sketch of the idea, showing the dress and in black the conductive fabric in hand shapes. On the right is a physical imagination of the sketch using paper cut outs to represent the conductive fabric. The conductive fabric will be used with capacitive touch, when the fabric is touched, the circuit is complete and a sonic event is triggered. Since making a physical copy of my sketch, I have realised that the hands should be bigger so that people of varying hand sizes can interact with the dress.
In a 2017 DrinkAware YouGov study surveyed a group of 18-24-year-olds, it found that 52% of women received inappropriate or unwanted physical attention and 46% have been on the receiving end of inappropriate sexual touching on nights out [1]. These statistics are insanely high and make this artistic commentary feel necessary.
Sounds that could represent these statistics in a wearable E-textile; alarm, siren, Shepard tone, a noise of discomfort.
Repurposing a dress I own but feel uncomfortable wearing in public due to how I feel men could potentially act towards me because of how it makes me look (and have when I wore it in the past) adds personal context to this work. In situations such as groping in the club, I feel in two minds; I want to scream and shout and put the worlds to right, but contradicting this I cannot bring myself to speak. Being the subject of male violence and misogyny puts you in a position of vulnerability and danger, advocating for yourself can feel unsafe. This is why the dress sonically expresses the discomfort felt.
Moodboard/ visual inspiration.
References: [1] Drinkaware (2017), Inappropriate behaviour in pubs, bars and clubs. London: Drinkaware. https://media.drinkaware.co.uk/media/4hcgnghc/drinkaware-1824s-report-v40_bars.pdf