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A project named “Incertitudes” by Canadian designer Ying Gao features a dress made of PVDF (Polyvinylidene fluoride), dressmaker pins and electronics that cause the garment to respond to sound, specifically activated by a spectator’s voice.
Says the designer, “Through the motion of the pins, the garments engage the spectator on a conversational level, which is filled with misunderstanding(s) and uncertainty. Individuals are pressured by time and technical innovation; they live in a divided present with an uncertain future. They exist in a transitory state, always on-the-go and believing that they are never in the right place at the right time. A hypermodern individual is a being of the here-and-now, pressured by a logic of urgency, and worried about the future.”
Gao is also a professor at the University of Quebec at Montreal. Recognized worldwide, her designs are frequently shown in museums and galleries. For Gao, design is the medium, situated in the technological rather than in the textile realm; sensory technologies allow garments to become more playful and interactive.
