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Int. Seminar 2 Final Paper May 16, 2014 The Future is Wearable All types of wearable technology have at least one thing in common: they facilitate self-improvement through access to self-knowledge. Humans have always been relentlessly driven to improve themselves and to challenge the boundaries of what is possible. Immanuel Kant theorized that self-improvement is not just a possibility it is a responsibility. “ ‘A human being’ …has a duty ‘to cultivate his natural powers.’ ”1 And now wearable technology is a new tool with which to broach the endless human struggle to better understand oneself and to improve accordingly. Tales of self-modification and enhancement are everywhere, not least the history of human evolution. The Ancient Greeks had the myth of Icarus and Daedalus, who created wings that helped his son, Icarus to fly until he rose too close to the sun.2 More recently, Lance Armstrong’s story of succumbing to the pressure to be the best, fastest cyclist and using performance enhancing drugs and blood-doping to stay ahead of the competition.3 Although Icarus’s wings were a sort of ancient wearable technology, Armstrong’s blunder is not directly related to wearables. But the compulsion—the human desire to be the best—that drove him to dope, is the same force propelling people toward wearable technology.
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qtd. in Robert N. Johnson, Self-Improvement: An Essay in Kantian Ethics (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 1. 2 Apollodorus, The Library of Greek Mythology, Oxford World’s Classics (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 140. 3 Greg Botelho and Josh Levs “Deeply flawed' Lance Armstrong admits using performance enhancing drugs,” CNN, January 18, 2013, http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/17/sport/armstrong-doping/.
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Wearable technology—also known as wearables—is any clothing or accessory that contains electronic or computer technology.4 This includes ancient Chinese abacus pendants, pocket watches and wristwatches, as well as the new, more high tech gadgets. 5 Most electronic elements that make wearable technology possible were originally products of military research programs.6 Any data that goes into a computer system is called input.7 A cyborg, or a “cybernetic organism,” is part human and part machine, and often has greater abilities than normal humans. The term originates in science fiction, but now it describes reality.8 There are two categories of wearables that are flooding the market. The first is a group of devices that work to augment reality. Google Glass exemplifies this category.9 The other type the data-collector. These devices gather data from the wearer’s body and then either give charted data feedback about the person’s health and fitness levels, or use the body’s input to motivate a change of some kind. For example, body heat changes the color of thermochromic fabric,10 a material that Alexander Wang featured in his Fall 2014 ready-to-wear collection.11 Fitbit is one of the leading companies to make wireless, wearable health and fitness trackers that monitor daily activity with small embed sensors, collect data, and give analyses of it, which are displayed in the wearer’s online dashboard in charts, graphs, and pie charts.12 Fitness trackers are the most popular type of wearable on the market right now, and I suspect that 4
Sabine Seymour, Fashionable Technology: The Intersection of Design, Science, and Technology (New York: SpringerWien, 2008), 12. 5 Nick Bilton, “One on One: Steve Mann, Wearable Computing Pioneer.” NYTimes.com. August 7, 2012. http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/07/one-on-one-steve-mann-wearable-computing-pioneer/. 6 Macarena San Martin, Future Fashion: Innovative Materials and Technology (Barcelona: Promopress, 2010), 238. 7 Seymour, Fashionable Technology, 17. 8 “Cyborg,” Merriam-Webster Dictionary, accessed April 11, 2014, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cyborg. 9 I shall return to this category, but it is not my focus. 10 Mike Miodownik, “The Time For Thermochromics,” Materials Today 11, no. 11 (2008): 6. 11 This sparked my initial interest in fashion and technology. My research led me forward from there. 12 FitBit, “Make fitness a lifestyle with Flex™,” http://www.fitbit.com/flex.
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their success reflects a widespread desire among consumers to know themselves on a datacentric level. But is it doing them any good? Theoretically, data allows people to make betterinformed decisions, but numbers on a graph are meaningless on a visceral, sensory level. They only make sense if a computer interprets, translates, and explains them, and that computer is, of course, at the whim of the programmer who dictates the terms of its behavior. Suddenly, meaning and a person’s understanding of herself is coded, programmed, and vulnerable to corruption. If, as a hypothetical example, a drug company creates a wearable monitor that interprets body input in a way that supported the idea that someone should be taking a particular drug, the fiscal success could be huge, but so would the ethical bankruptcy. And yet I can just imagine the legal loopholes that corrupt wearables might sneak through. Businesses have an incredibly intimate connection to consumers through wearable technology, which gives them huge pools of data to research and use to improve their profit margins. So, even though everyone is collecting data, the big businesses are the ones who know how to use it, while the individual users strap on the sensors and start streaming stats that will, somehow help to change their lives. My research suggests that as wearable technology is advancing and being places on the body more and more, no one is considering human beings’ built-in systems for sensory perception that seemed to serve the species well, until recently. In the more recent past, we have become predominantly dependent on our sense of vision, neglecting to exercise the four other systems nearly enough. Now, the five systems sensory perceptions are being pushed further aside, as digital alternatives step in, and replace them. This seems to happen under a common
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assumption that digital is better, which is sometimes true but which has yet to be proven in relation to wearable technology. Bubelle, the blushing dress (2006), from the Philips Design Skin Probe Project collects data from the wearer’s body, but instead of producing charts and graphs it mimics human skin by blushing when if picks up on certain biological cues. LED lights in the fabric respond to input collected through sensors in the dress that have contact with the body. 13 LED lights are more spectacular than flesh, and it is exciting that this sensation is possible with current technology, but beyond those things, what does Bubelle offer people that skin does not? I suspect that as the novelty factor wears off and the lights are less thrilling, this project will not offer other new advances. The reality augmenting wearables are also more sensationalist curiosities at this point, but as they becoming more common, and theirs aims to enhance humans and their interactions with the worlds around them. This type of wearable also aims to streamline how people use technology and make it more integrated. For example, Google Glass shifts the user’s focus from a handheld screen to one just in front of her eye. Another prominent augmenting example is called EyeTap, a pair of glasses that Steve Mann (who is know as the original cyborg,) has been engineering and wearing for the last thirty years.14 These add-on devices try to create all new experiences that have not been possible before the advent of the technologies. About a month ago, I had the opportunity to try Google Glass. My experience only lasted a few minutes, but in that time I had looked through the applications and started scrolling through an address book. The interface was easy to use. I was dictating commands and sliding my fingertip over the edge of the glasses to control a pleasingly petite device that had a 13 14
San Martin, Future Fashion, 214. Bilton, “One on One.”
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competent computer brain. It felt empowering and exhilarating and the possibilities began to feel endless. Although, having a small screen within a couple of inches one of my eyes already felt strained already. This is another potential side effect that needs some attention and consideration. Whether wearable technology’s contributions to an individual’s daily life will ultimately be more positive or negative remains to be seen. But until the tech tools are proven detrimental they will continue to move toward a broader retail space, especially with fashion designer collaborations to make the gear more ‘palatable’ for the masses. To make the vital shift from wearable to being worn, Fitbit has teamed up with Tory Burch for a line of more fashionable trackers, that they hope customers will no longer limit to the gym and sweatpants situations. Burch is a very good choice for a crowd-pleasing product that has a ‘one size fits most’ sort of aesthetic. It will not be spectacular, but it will be tasteful and safe. This is the sort of work that Burch specializes in, and it has been enormously successful. Google’s Sergey Brin and Larry Page teamed up with Diane von Furstenberg and the models in her fashion shows have worn Google Glass for the last few seasons. Von Furstenberg is head of The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) and she is a leader among New York designers.15 Diane von Furstenberg’s approval is almost as valuable as that of Anna Wintour, Editor-in-Chief of American Vogue. If von Furstenberg’s models have worn Google Glass on the runway, other designers may now follow her lead. Support for wearable endeavors is also vital. At the beginning of 2014, Intel started the ‘Make It Wearable’ design challenge that offers a $1.25 million prize. The Creators Project published the Make It Wearable video series around the same time. The Creators Project is a 15
Stephanie Rosenbloom, “Tightening Belts? She’s the Expert,” The New York Times, July 19, 2009, sec. Business, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/business/19diane.html.
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collaboration between Intel and VICE that began in 2010 and has become an international network for art, culture, and technology. It includes documentaries, videos, and editorials, and holds event around the world.16 Intel also bought the Basis fitness tracker company for $100 million last month.17 All of this activity suggests that Intel is keen to break into the wearables market. And for good reason. The financial projections and research they are based on show huge growth potential18 and support Steve Mann’s rejection of the idea that people are going to stop adorning themselves with wearable tech in exchange for implants.19 The possibilities are endless and unfortunately, so are the potential side effects. But in the whirl of excitement of these new, life-changing creations, no one has begun to research them yet.20 Support for wearable endeavors is also vital. At the beginning of 2014, Intel started the ‘Make It Wearable’ design challenge that offers a $1.25 million prize. The Creators Project published the Make It Wearable video series around the same time. The Creators Project is a collaboration between Intel and VICE that began in 2010 and has become an international network for art, culture, and technology. It includes documentaries, videos, and editorials, and holds event around the world.21 Intel also bought the Basis fitness tracker company for $100 million last month.22 All of this activity suggests that Intel is keen to break into the wearables market. And for good reason.
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“Mission Statement,” The Creators Project, http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/about/. Wood, “No Longer Clashing,” The New York Times. 18 Megan Rose Dickey, “Thanks to Apple and Google, Wearable Technology is on Track to Become a $50 Billion Market,” Business Insider. May 19, 2013. http://www.businessinsider.com/wearabletechnology-market-2013-5. 19 Bilton, “One on One.” 20 Seymour, Fashionable Technology, 21. 21 “Mission Statement,” The Creators Project, http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/about/. 22 Molly Wood, “No Longer Clashing,” The New York Times. March 6, 2014. 17
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Wearable tech is emerging as a market with huge growth potential23 as people happily mount devices all over their bodies. But when does so much integration become too much, or at least too much of the wrong kind? A technology that uses the body’s systems for sensory perception in conjunction with some of the digital components could be more beneficial; in the same way that the blend of the natural man and machine give the hybrid abilities that neither could have on its own.24 This may be our best strategy for further self-improvements using the current wearable technology.
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Megan Rose Dickey, “Thanks to Apple and Google, Wearable Technology is on Track to Become a $50 Billion Market,” Business Insider, http://www.businessinsider.com/wearable-technology-market2013-5. 24 William S Haney, Cyberculture, Cyborgs and Science Fiction Consciousness and the Posthuman (New York: Rodopi, 2006), http://site.ebrary.com/id/10380404. Donna Haraway, A Cyborg Manifesto, is also an excellent source on the subject of cyborgs.
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Bibliography Apollodorus. The Library of Greek Mythology. Oxford World’s Classics. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. Bilton, Nick. “One on One: Steve Mann, Wearable Computing Pioneer.” NYTimes.com. August 7, 2012. http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/07/one-on-one-steve-mann-wearablecomputing-pioneer/. Botelho, Greg and Josh Levs. “Deeply flawed' Lance Armstrong admits using performance enhancing drugs.” CNN. January 18, 2013. http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/17/sport/armstrong-doping/. Dickey, Megan Rose. “Thanks to Apple and Google, Wearable Technology is on Track to Become a $50 Billion Market.” Business Insider, May 19, 2013. http://www.businessinsider.com/wearable-technology-market-2013-5. Haney, William S.. Cyberculture, Cyborgs and Science Fiction Consciousness and the Posthuman. New York: Rodopi, 2006. http://site.ebrary.com/id/10380404. Johnson, Robert N.. Self-Improvement: An Essay in Kantian Ethics. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. Miodownik, Mark. “The Time For Thermochromics.” Materials Today 11, no. 11 (November 2008): 6. Rosenbloom, Stephanie. “Tightening Belts? She’s the Expert.” The New York Times, July 19, 2009, sec. Business. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/business/19diane.html. San Martin, Macarena. Future fashion: Innovative Materials and Technology. Woodbridge: Promopress, 2010. Seymour, Sabine. Fashionable Technology: The Intersection of Design, Fashion, Science, and Technology. New York: SpringerWien, 2008. Wood, Molly. “No Longer Clashing,” The New York Times. March 6, 2014.