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Smart Textiles pp 279–302Cite as

Designing (Inter)Active Costumes for Professional Stages

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Part of the book series: Human–Computer Interaction Series ((HCIS))

Abstract

This chapter deals with smart costumes that are made for the usage on professional stages, e.g., theatre, ballet or performances of pop stars. Such costumes can be active or interactive depending on whether they are reactive to their wearers or the environment, or not. The requirements of (inter)active costumes are different in comparison with conventional costume design because the individual computational features have to be developed and integrated properly. Creating, staging and maintaining them challenge in particular the established structures of traditional production houses in theatre. This chapter analyses the crafting process of (inter)active costumes for the performances of singers or musicians and for professional theatre or ballet. Furthermore, it seeks to outline the requirements that are needed to succeed.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The creation process of these (inter)active costumes was not always discussed or explained in detail for every single phase (ideation, development, staging, maintenance) but at least for interesting points regarding the challenges and innovations when creating (inter)active costumes.

  2. 2.

    Here I assume that the creation process of costumes for ballet is similar to the process in theatre.

  3. 3.

    The departments are administration, direction, production management, stage management, scenic design and construction, lightning, sound and costume design [3].

  4. 4.

    Some manufacturers, like those of the LilyPad Arduino, claim that their sewable electronics are washable, but they propose to clean them carefully or manually. The expert interviews discovered that this will not work in every case. Additionally, I think the maintaining procedure behind the stage is not (yet) prepared to clean computational clothes.

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Acknowledgements

Thanks to Theaterhaus Jena and, in particular, costume designer V. Bleffert, who offered collaboration to us. Thanks to our enthusiastic project students (H. Abitz, G.D. Acay, M. Al-Hallak, S. Gottschlich, S. Luge, W. Mueller, T. Rueckert, H. Sahibzada and M. Schmandt), the drama educator/theatre pedagogue practitioner J. Hahn, and the actors (R. Ecker, C. Kneisz and M. Oehlke). The Frauenfoerderfonds of Bauhaus-Universitaet Weimar supported the interactive costumes project with funding. Furthermore, thanks to M. Waldemeyer and N. Vermeer who offered interesting insights into their professional projects. Last but not least, thanks to E. Hornecker for supporting my work.

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  1. Bauhaus-Universitaet Weimar, Weimar, Germany

    Michaela Honauer

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  1. Michaela Honauer
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Correspondence to Michaela Honauer .

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  1. Visualization & Interactive Systems / MC, University of Stuttgart Visualization & Interactive Systems / MC, Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

    Stefan Schneegass

  2. Chair of Sensor Technology, University of Passau Chair of Sensor Technology, Passau, Bayern, Germany

    Oliver Amft

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Honauer, M. (2017). Designing (Inter)Active Costumes for Professional Stages. In: Schneegass, S., Amft, O. (eds) Smart Textiles. Human–Computer Interaction Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50124-6_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50124-6_13

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