Angella Mackey
Bicycle Jacket with lights
Designer, March 2010 I've started making bicycle jackets. They have white
lights in the front and red lights in the back for riding at night.
Shown here is the picture of my first design/prototype. Click
HERE to
see more!
Heart Monitoring Vest Project
Research Assistant, Feb 2009 - May 2010 George Brown College's Fashion Techniques and
Design program has partnered with Ocorant
Inc. on a multidisciplinary project to create a wearable medical device.
Ocorant is a Canadian company that has developed
a new type of heart monitoring system, and it is the goal of the George
Brown team to design the vest that houses the electronics for this
device. I have worked on creating multiple vest prototypes that
address the many design challenges involved with this project.
Particularly, I have been worked on the interaction design of
the vest so that a patient will be able to wear the vest at home and
be able to place the six electrodes on their chest without the help
of a nurse. Click
HERE for
examples of my early ideas. Samples of my protoypes were also
exhibited at the OCAD professional gallery for the show Fashion
Forward. Click
HERE to
read about this exhibition.
Neighbourhoodie
Apparel Designer, Feb 2010
Neighbourhoodie is a project by Kathleen Climie, Rose Bianchini,
and David McCallum - a team formed at the
Canadian Film Centre, Interactive Arts and Entertainment Program.
The hoodie is an accessory for the iPod Touch and iPhone, that
can put its wearer into a video game in the real world. Prototyped
so that three wearers could play a game of "zombie tag",
the hoodie lights up and responds to gestures (such as putting
the hood up) to enter into a world of collaborative experience.
The team commissioned me to make one of the hoodie prototypes-
particularly concentrating on a hoodie design that would seamlessly
integrate the electronics. I will post pictures of this version
soon. More HERE -
video HERE.
Seasons UV Design Competition
Designer, December 2009
A rashguard is a type of athletic shirt made of spandex that is typically used for light coverage in warm to extreme summer temperatures for several watersports including surfing, scuba diving, and snorkelling. Also, people who are uncomfortable without a shirt will sometimes wear rashguards while swimming. In September 2009 Seasons UV Solutions, a company that specializes in UV-protectant activewear, announced a competition to design a rashguard that appealed to the fashion sense of a woman, as opposed to the many sporty designs on the market today.
Interested in the convergence of form and function in this project, I applied and placed 2nd. My winning design will be manufactured by the company in the near future. Click HERE for images of my initial concepts, and final sample design.
Ways to Hide Your Notebook
Designer, December 2009
Pockets are amazing. Existing as the most basic functional element of any garment, Ways to Hide Your Notebook is a concept for a clothing line inspired by pockets, and all they have to offer. My goal was to integrate large pocket designs into each garment so they were extremely useful and key to overall look and style of the clothes. Click HERE for my some of my initial illustrations - the beginning of a theme that will carry throughout most of my future clothing designs.
FROGR
Co-Creator, In Progress
Artists and hobbyist using the Lilypad Arduino inevitably run into several problems. The most common problem is, How can I design many projects without having to buy and sew in a new Lilypad for every project? What the Lilypad is missing is an easy way to add or remove it from a piece of fabric. Frogr is a system to allow for easy prototyping with, deployment of, and testing with the Lilypad. To borrow from the Arduino vocabulary, the Frogr is a "shield" for the Lilypad. It is a stiff piece of fabric that the Lilypad is sewn on to. Each pin of the Lilypad is tied to fabric snaps circling the outside of the Frogr. Snaps are placed on the garment of project using a stencil that ensures proper mating with the garment and Frogr shield. Now, all that's required for each project is a few snaps, and the Lilypad can be used for many projects. Easily swapping out the Lilypad opens up many possibilities, such as using the Lilypad to record data from many garments throughout the week, or sharing data and behaviours between many garments. Click HERE to learn more and download the Frogr template.
Coding Cloth
Guest Editor, August 2008
Coding Cloth is the 69th issue of Filter Magazine, a publication managed and printed by the Australian Network for Art and Technology. After doing a short curatorial residency with ANAT, I was asked to act as Guest Editor of their upcoming publication themed 'electronics and textiles' in art. Contributors included Joanna Berzowska, Alison Lewis, and Sabine Seymour. You can read Coding Cloth online HERE, or download a pdf version HERE.
Workshops
Instructor, October 2007-Present
Introducing artists and designers of all types to the world of electronics and textiles, I teach the following one-day workshops in Toronto, Canada:
Mostly, these workshops take place at InterAccess Electronics Media Art Centre. Click HERE to see highlights.
About Me
I am a Toronto-based media artist and clothing designer. I have a BFA, specializing in New Media, from Ryerson University (2005) and have worked extensively within the Toronto media art community over the past 7 years in an administrative and curatorial context. In 2008 I focused my work on wearable technology and the integration of electronics into clothing, and thus began studying fashion design in order to gain an understanding of clothing from an architectural point of view. Due to graduate in April 2010, my work now focuses on analog and digital ways of integrating functionality into fashionable garments. Currently finishing up a 2-year research project at George Brown College designing a vest that integrates a heart monitor, I plan to continue collaborating on ideas and prototypes for wearable devices, and fashion designs for the future runways of cyborgs.