EXPLANATION!!!!!!

THE LIGHT FANTASTIC

THE TEMPO T-shirt

The Tempo t-shirt is a piece of wearable fashion technology that is primarily aimed at the younger crowd that likes to party. The t-shirt has a unique visual aspect that represents the stars in the evening sky when it is transitioning from day to night where the darker the environment the more intense the visuals will become. The t-shirt is meant to show a slow progression of a typical young student mellowing out during the afternoon preparing for the night ahead of them and when the nighttime comes the atmosphere intensifies starting with what they will be wearing.

Description

The idea behind my project was inspired by the music visualizer t-shirt that is so common in today’s party, rave etc scene. I wanted to create a similar piece that would primarily be used in the same sense and for the same kind of atmosphere. So I chose to use a light sensor to depict the intensity of the visuals that are on the t-shirt. Where more light will slow the LED circuit down and less light will speed it up. In terms of LED installation I wanted the setup to be seemingly random and reflect the stars in the evening and for the color I chose to use red and blue LEDs to reflect the transition from a blue afternoon sky into the red sunset evening.

For this piece I wanted it to really grab peoples attention, I wanted them to be physically drawn to the aesthetic visuals that are being portrayed by the t-shirt, to be curious in finding out where the flashing LEDS are coming from. The t-shirt is meant to emotionally lift the users tempo as the environment gets darker, the party rave gets bigger and the LED circuit speeds up. When there is a decent amount of light around the visuals are very subtle so that when the lights goes out they become increasingly brighter and that seemingly helps capture peoples attention.

On the technical side of things my project is powered by 1.5v battery and programmed using an Arduino Lillypad and 15 blue and red LEDs all together. There are two switches involved that can both be found on the inside layer of the t-shirt. One switch represents the main power source and the other switch is used throughout the night to connect and disconnect the circuit if the user chooses to do so.