Disobedient Wearables
Making disobedience the core of wearable use
Disobedient Wearables is a critical exploration positioned at the intersection between wearables – those clothing and connected accessories worn on the body – and social issues such as work, freedom of conscience, and state violence.
Starting from the premise that these technologies represent a slow but inevitable change in our lives, Disobedient Wearables aims to anticipate the emerging and long-lasting controversies surrounding the social and cultural impact of these connected devices, which we willingly attach to our bodies and personal space.
The multifaceted notion of disobedience acts as the common thread for these speculations: how can we disobey these connected objects that track our data and intrude on our private lives? And how can these technologies, in turn, disobey the expectations and demands of their designers and users?
↑ The RecovR necklace from Data2Debt enslaves its user by betraying its promise of financial freedom.
↑ The manual of a DIY Civic Armor, a wearable documenting police violence and supporting civil disobedience.
Disobedient Wearables is structured around three complementary parts, each opening up new perspectives.
A triptych of fictional wearables captures the essence of the exploration, with :
- Civic Armor, an undergarment that records and broadcasts instances of police violence.
- Data2Debt, a set of wearables that sells users’ personal data to repay their debts.
- Rectified-Self, an earpiece that rewards or punishes the wearer depending on whether their daily goals are met.
To open speculations up, the project also features a workshop open to all, raising awareness about the potential misuse and abuse of wearables, in relation to social issues like precarity and marginalisation.
In addition, a playful toolkit, Obey Obey Disobey, engages critical users and speculative designers to imagine new disobedient wearables.
From a methodological standpoint, Disobedient Wearables also establishes itself as an experiment in what an Open Design Fiction process could be. he project’s structure has sought to test a complementary approach, combining design fiction scenarios, toolkits, and participatory events within a single framework and around a shared theme. By engaging the public in a co-design fiction process, publishing project resources, and documenting both the methods and collected feedback, Disobedient Wearables lays the groundwork for new methods and perspectives, enabling others to build upon and iterate on our visions.
Data2Debt was exhibited at the Biennale Internationale de Design Saint-Étienne (France, 2017) and at the Vienna Design Biennale / How Will We Work? (Austria, 2017).
↑ The smart earphone from Rectified-Self extrapolates a radical step for quantified-self, with a wearable rectifying users when their goals aren’t reached.
↑ The card game Obey Obey Disobey challenges players to design new disobedient wearables.
↑ Snapshot from the Critical Textiles workshop at Stereolux (Nantes, FR) in 2015, which marked the launch of the Disobedient Wearables series.
