The Smart Apron is an attempt to incorporate current technologies, particularly wearable computing and new mobile technologies, into an existing art practice that is engaged with social, political and cultural issues. Specifically, it seeks to highlight the working conditions of certain foreign domestic workers in Singapore and to address the social and cultural perceptions governing domestic work. Each apron incorporates a fall detector, a heat sensor, a tilt/mercury sensor that sounds a buzzer when the user is bent-over forward for more than the pre-set amount of time, a panic button that sends an SMS message for help when activated, and a cord that when pulled, lights up three LEDs while sending an SMS message “call me” to the other apron. All sensors are attached to a (second-hand) mobile phone that sends these SMS messages from the apron to my laptop when the sensors are triggered.
Smart Apron
An Artist-in-Labs (AIL) project, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Zurich; and in collaboration with the Swiss Centre for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM) Alpnach, Switzerland
2004
Technical Collaborators: Jens Krauss, Erick Busse-Grawitz, Andreas Schiffler
Testing the fall detector unit
