Resistive Threads in Ivy Film Festival New Media Exhibition | Providence, RI
Exhibiting electronic streetwear as social movement material: an interactive denim jacket that plays audio stories, poetry, and music from embedded speakers
One of my latest works, Resistive Threads, is exhibiting in the 2024 Ivy Film Festival New Media Exhibition on Saturday, April 13th - Sunday, April 14th. The exhibition is located at Brown University, Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts.
Resistive Threads is an electronic denim jacket that plays audio stories, poetry, and music from embedded speakers when interactive patches sewn with conductive thread are tapped upon. The tangible artifact refashions the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project (AEMP)’s (Dis)location Black Exodus print zine as an investigation into how wearables might open up alternative horizons for urban life, spatial formation, and speculation. It provides a glimpse into a future where electronic streetwear amplifies urban social movement organizing and community-driven computing infrastructures.
I made this jacket with Afroditi Psarra, Daniela Rosner, Kai Leshne, and William Rhodes, as well as community partners in NYC, LA, San Francisco, St. Louis, and Seattle (AEMP, Be:Seattle, WA Community Action Network, and Rolla Renters Association). It plays the music of Kai Leshne (CHANNELS) and Gabrial Thompson; the poetry of Marcus Moore; and stories of Marie Harrison and Raymond Tompkins.
Stay tuned for a peer-reviewed publication about the project (hopefully) coming soon!