Trombone Breathing Vest

Boris plays trombone in the Street Noise Orchestra and has commissioned a garment accessory to add to his outfit that will visualize his breathing and use of his right hand in playing the trombone.

Without light:

Videos:

Cake and Commission (27/4/2018)

The day Boris placed his commission we spent some time finding out about his orchestra, their style and motivations. Orange and green are their colours, but they they try to not become identical in order to contrast the tradition of marching bands. They play outdoors and on stage, at events and demonstrations, so show solidarity and add musical atmosphere.

From this conversations we noted some ideas for what we could make for him. We’re currently busy with 3-4 other commissions, but will start work on this towards the end of May and plan to have it finished before July.
We will start with a toile of the vest and some material experiments/samples of the lighting.

Some more thoughts… (28/4/2018)

The next day Boris came back with some more thoughts based on what we talked the previous day. He is concerned that the vest/jacket we make him does not reference the traditional, masculine (military) attire of marching bands. Rather he wants to move away from that aesthetic, be more festive… something asymmetrical could achieve this – even if the pattern is symmetrical for it, the detailing could be asymmetrically dynamic…

First Tests (5/5/2018)

Taking apart the street worker sleeve.

trying out different fabric structures from which to shine light out from.

Arranging Structures on the Mannequin (6/5/2018)

Fixing the light

The jacket came back from Boris as the light broke. As we connected the SMD neopixel directly onto the conductive thread sewn onto the tape by soldering the pads, it breaks very easily when it is bent at the joint, or rubbed against hard material (i.e. sitting on it). After making some tests, we decided to add hot glue around the LED and the joint so the joint is protected with stiffer material of the glue.

We had to make sure that all the LEDs are working good as it is very difficult to access the LED after gluing. (Although, I tried it and it is possible to peel it off. But it is messy) Then place glue blob on the LED, wait for 5 seconds, dip the finger in water and press the glue with the finger to flatten the glue and cover the joints evenly. The glue is very hot and I did burn my finger in the beginning, but after getting the timing correct, it is easy to manipulate the glue into the shape you want.

So far, the fix looks great. I did test rubbing the jacket and see if it affects the light, and it looks very stable. I hope it survives the next street gig action in June!

The calibrate button is also revised. Now it is made into two press snaps that is facing inwards, connected to the fabric cable that has also press snaps. The previous version was a permanent connection to this fabric cable as the press snap was going through both the jacket and the cable, now it is made into two snaps so one can detach them in case of washing the jacket. (hand wash only!) The way to activate the calibration sequence is the same. Touch both the metal bits with spoon or something conductive and it will start the sequence.