Chloe Chen

Pound of Breathing Flesh is textile art that incorporates tangible media and interactive design. By combining fashion and technology, I wish to have people understand and empathize with others’ embodied experiences through the process of wearing the costumes. The costumes will mimic the real world actions putting the wearer in anothers’ situation. Therefore the costume will allow the wearer to feel and respond to gain different experiential perspectives, and further generate conversations.

“The Anxiety Machine” and “The Living Self” are interactive wearable arts that aim to demonstrate the struggles and frustrations of a capitalist society. The costumes are intended to provoke discomfort and irritation, further addressing the question of whether we are living or surviving. However, in contrast with the disturbing features, the works are also designed to look cute and cheerful, reflecting the deceptive nature of capitalism and life.

Aside from my sewing and researching skills which both improve significantly throughout my study, I consider myself evolve the most in the field of technology. I was once extremely scared of tech and only interested in traditional textile making, but creative coding and tangible media showed me the infinite possibility of the combination between fashion and technology, further inspiring me to explore interactive design. As a designer, I’m now a lot more open to new media and wish to continue create arts with different machines and techniques.