Everyday clothing embedded with powerful magnets, introducing unpredictability and bodily awareness into dense urban space.

About

RECOIL was inspired by dense urban environments and the micro-spaces people occupy during daily travel. Accelerated living within urban environments causes many people to close themselves off to unexpected encounters and minute details in the environment. Recoil introduces an element of unpredictability and challenges the wearer's personal body space by making unsolicited connections in unexpected, uncomfortable, and possibly inappropriate ways.

Process

Small, powerful magnets are embedded into everyday clothing, causing unexpected and sometimes uncomfortable physical connections between people and objects in the city. Powerful magnets also have the ability to erase data contained in many memory devices — such as credit cards — creating a data-free zone around the wearer, which also functions as a form of data terrorism. These garments serve to heighten awareness, in both the wearer and others, of the high penetration of digital technologies into everyday life, reasserting awareness of bodily presence in the environment.

Achievements

Recoil was presented at the Break Festival in Ljubljana, 2003.