Dance in the Rain

Its almost the end of the semester. The passed two weeks was a hectic for me since all the projects are due in the coming 2 weeks. I haven’t been updating about my final project. So here it is. For my final project, I have a chance to work with Ellie and here is our concept.

Living in Vancouver forced me to live with the rain almost 300 days out of the 365 days in a year. I never liked the rain ever since I was born because of the wetness and puddles on the streets. Studies say that approximately two percent of the population in Canada resulted in SAD (Seasonal Affection Disorder) who suffers from depression during the cold rainy season. In result, many people would rather stay indoor than enjoy the rain in the nature. It inspired me to base my final project in this direction— a concept raincoat. Working together with Ellie, we hope to encourage more activities in the rain and promote the idea that raining can be amusing and beneficial to the environment. Our vision for our raincoat design is that it embraces functionality, aesthetics and playfulness. Our concept is to incorporate hydro-chromic pattern on the raincoat, and embed the weather forecast technology into the raincoat to signifies the user to wear the raincoat.

Here are some existing designs that inspired me:

Luminescent Raincoat juxtaposes electricity and water in a raincoat that luminesces in response to droplets of rain. Embroidered water sensors act as inputs to a system with sealed electroluminescent panels that illuminate based on patterns of rain. The raincoat/cape and hood recall the retro-futuristic designs of Pierre Cardin and Andre Courreges in the sixties while incorporating computational behavior beyond an aesthetic notion of what technology looks like.

Hydrochromatic Umbrella by SquidLondon

Similar to the thermochromic ink I’ve previously used, this hydrochromatic ink responds to water. I’ve contacted this company and they agreed to send me a sample of their hydrochromatic ink. Hopefully they will be here as soon as possible so we have a better idea of how we can apply to the raincoat.

Ambient Umbrella — a weather forecast umbrella