Airbrush hyperfabric
Issue: XXIX.3 May - June 2022Page: 8
Digital Citation
Authors:
Brett Halperin
Airbrush Hyperfabric is interactive storytelling fabric that connects garments to AR/VR/3D digital experiences of motion graphics and music to amplify countercultural voices. The project investigates how the style of streetwear originated in defiance of social norms such as formalwear, a style inaccessible to many people. Mainstream cultural appropriation and mass production of streetwear, however, has increasingly contributed to the erasure of its socioeconomic and racial origins. To address this dynamic, the Airbrush application allows users to custom create interactive storytelling fabric both physically (e.g., embroidering QR codes) and digitally (e.g., creating 3D filters to overlay on garments). On the backend, the mobile application links audiovisual 3D/AR/VR environments to QR codes embroidered on archetypal hooded sweatshirts. This exploratory design of enhancing the expressivity and sensory experience of fabric through interactive narrative suggests a promising opportunity to put storytelling power back into the hands of the creative counterculture.
The application allows users to custom create interactive storytelling fabric.
Brett A. Halperin is a researcher, designer, and Ph.D. student in human-centered design and engineering at the University of Washington. Previously, he studied at Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design. [email protected]
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