Stille                                         2007

is a neckpiece which explores the boundary between intimate space and public performance. It attempts to capture that moment when we gather ourselves, perhaps find some kind of inner space before a performative event.

The piece was my first real attempt to integrate interaction and textiles, and used conductive ink to create open circuits placed around the high collar. When the wearer rolls their head, or like the model here, grabs the collar, those three circuits are closed in turn, with each playing a small digital sound file through a speaker, also built into the collar. The sounds are very small and intimate, heard only by the wearer, and resemble crickets and other insect life which appears after heavy rain.

The form and sounds were inspired by the environment of Australia, new to me, and gripped by drought. The colours and patterning of the textile came from gum trees and the markings found on an owl eye moth, and the sounds were developed after a heavy, celebrated, downpour.

links:

reSkin media lab website and Flickr stream

ANAT website

Craft Australia website

Scottish Arts Council website

Stille was recently shown in Amsterdam (2009): see NIMk’s Flickr set and this site’s blog

papers & articles:

Kettley, S. (2007). Distribution - craft and speckled computing. Presentation given at the Wear Now Symposium held in association with the reSkin Wearables Lab, National Museum of Australia, Canberra, 3 February 2007. In Craft Australia’s library.

Kettley, S. (2007). Reflection and Transparency: Rhythms in Experiences with Craft. In Proceedings New Craft – Future Voices International Conference, pp 304-310. University of Dundee, Scotland, 04-06 July 2007.

Reflection and Transparency.pdf

Stille was developed at reSkin, a three week wearables media lab at ANU in Canberra, organised by the Australian Network for Arts and Technology (ANAT) and Craft Australia. My participation was made possible by a Scottish Arts Council interdisciplinary development award. I am also grateful to Stephen Barrass for his help in creating the digital sounds for the project.