Wearable Utopias

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NEW BOOK
Published Sept 2024.
MIT Press
FREE OPEN ACCESS

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Wearable Utopias. is an edited collection by Kat Jungnickel, Ellen Fowles, Katja May & Nikki Pugh

 

A collection of thought-provoking interviews with cutting-edge designers who transform ordinary wearables into extraordinary sites of personal expression, public engagement, and radical political action.

Wearable Utopias explores the promise of wearables for reimagining the social and political problems of today towards building more diverse and inclusive worlds for tomorrow. Kat Jungnickel, Ellen Fowles, Katja May and Nikki Pugh entangle science and technology studies, gender studies and cultural studies with contemporary issues to highlight the role wearables can play in forging alternative paths through conventional landscapes. Featuring twenty-three interviews with new and established international designers, this collection covers a range of projects including coats that protect digital privacy, high-performing jeans that combat air pollution, and hi-vis cyclewear designed as a response to urban harassment.

Wearable Utopias offers insight and inspiration for people who are making things to wear, be they students, researchers, designers or anyone who is frustrated with daily inequities or normative limitations and wants to do things differently.