REBOOT is a project by Aoi & Esteban with a team of collaborators including me as their wearable designer. The project was born from a desire to reimagine the audience’s journey and experience of a performance. Built as a triptych, it moves away from traditional theatre shows to offer a more complete experience on and off the stage. An interactive website, the first part of the triptych, will allow the audience to engage with the AI characters pre-show and reconnect with them post-show, letting them immerse themselves in the story of each character.
Here I worked closely with costume designer, Lara Jensen and AI developer, Eodyne to prototype, develop, and program 2 sets of interactive costumes for the performer and an audience member. My role specifically focuses on the interaction, where I tested and sourced the electronic components, set up data protocol for sending data to the server, and worked with Lara to embed the electronics into the costumes she designed. Each costume is embedded with biometric sensors, pneumatic fans, and a control system that enable data to be shared with a central AI server that uses the data to control the stage set.
The costumes were to be used in a live performance setting where the stage set, a “breathing” pneumatic structure controlled by the AI, will represent a character, Lilith. 20 audience members, equipped with biometric sensors (through the costumes), will join five dancers on stage. They will wander in the set throughout the performance while sensors capture their heart rate, breathing, stress level, etc. The collected data will feed the AI, reacting to the audience’s behavior through the kinetic stage set. The immersed audience, therefore, becomes an active part of the performance, unwillingly impacting the narrative through emotions they can’t control.
