Garments are becoming a living organism. No longer a form of 3-D expression, clothing can interact with our (sub)conscious and regulate our emotions. Sensory input, voice, and brainwaves can already interact with a garment’s look & feel, structure, and sound. Practical applications in the not-too-distant future include: training for concentration improvement, detecting early-stage disease, soothing distressed children, and even intergalactic communication. While emojis have been a popular emotional language substitute, they will soon become the cave drawings of human/social communication because garments go beyond language. Fed by emotive data and sensory information, garments can develop their own communicative, self-regulating brains that feel for-and-with you.

Programming descriptions are generated by participants and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of SXSW.