Wearable Weapons is currently building visual & interactive wearable costumes to be worn by a musician during a live performance/video.
Right now we are focusing on a new series of collars with hacked Violet Wands connected to software that pulses mini-electrical arcs through voice interaction. This is part of a larger series of interactive costumes built with different forms of electricity, fire, sound sensors, open source software, hardware, plant fibers, confiscated scissors from airport security, recycled razor blades, and zip ties.
These Wearable Weapons are built to provoke, inspire, and protect the wearer. They do not attack. When one is interacting, wearing or handling the pieces with respect there is no injury. If one is not cautious or aware then yes, then they can cause harm. Initially I first started using the term ‘weapons’ because it had to do with the confiscated TSA scissors from airports that the US government had defined them as a ‘weapon’.
On a broader scale this work also investigates the charged intensity of war and explores the cultural edge and choices we each have to make to destroy or transform. These pieces explore the role of beauty in our cultural of militarization and speak to the influence it is currently having on trends in pop culture, education, entertainment and high-fashion.
The motivating questions:
How can I best visually represent the feeling of being vulnerable? For me, there’s an equivalency between feeling vulnerable and the sensation of burning. You get this heightened sense of awareness; you want to hide; you want to move. This burning is similar to what fire or lightning does, so it is natural to use electricity as a medium to explore these ideas.
When I speak of vulnerability, I also speak about the other half of the equation which is protection. We cannot have one without the other; they define each other. I began by exploring themes around personal intimacy and the dynamic of intimate relationships – the need to feel safe and protected when being vulnerable and the delicate boundaries between opening and the potential to be hurt.
If the Gods wore armor, what would the substance of the armor of the Gods be? Fire. Pure intensity. Impenetrable density. I represent this Fire-of-the-Gods by using physical fire and electricity. There is a way to reach the sublime by taking this risk to be vulnerable.
Radio Interview: Break Through Radio ~ Art Uncovered, January 2011 ~ Carrie Mae Rose Interview by Thomas Seely
Eyebeam Interview: Eye To Eyebeam: A Conversation With Carrie Mae Rose