Kate Hartman: Go-Go Gloves

Title:

Go-Go Gloves

Artist(s) and People Involved:

Creation Year:

2005

Medium:

Gloves, conductive fabric and thread, electronic components including Pic chip, control panel, Computer & monitor running a program created in Processing, sampled images from 1960s McCall Needlework & Crafts magazine.

Artist Statement:

Go-Go Gloves situates itself within Lively Objects as an interactive diversion for the MoV public, affording a chance to retreat to a period when inhibitions were abandoned and governments were on alert. Go-Go Gloves are wearable, electronic gloves that interface with a program created in Processing. An electronic puppet show of sorts, the user is able to control the movement of the dancers onscreen by touching thumb to fingertip. A control panel allows the user to select characters, backgrounds, and music. With images drawn from 1960s McCall Needlework & Crafts magazine, Hartman pays homage to the history of women’s “hobbies” acknowledging the domestic antecedents to the craftivism that has reinvigorated the “domestic arts.” Blending textiles and physical computing, Go-Go Gloves typifies Hartman’s approach to technology and it’s potential. Being an early interactive work for the artist the work exhibits a sincerity characteristic of DIY culture. Deeply concerned with the user experience, the work is meant for two – with the slightest movement, two strangers can have a virtual dance party on screen. While not a wearable as such, Go-Go Gloves predicted Hartman’s current investigations in the Social Body Lab where she conducts research into wearables that explore body-centric technologies in the social context.