Ambient sound drives the behaviour of the wearable.
Wearable performance · 2016
Batuque
A Candomblé-inspired wearable performance in which a sound-sensing garment responds through movement and vibration.
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Project typeArtwork · Performance · Fashiontech
ThemesEmbodied & haptic interaction · Wearables & e-textiles · Materials & making
FormWearable performance
Developed2016
InputEnvironmental sound
First presentedBarcelona, 2016
01 · Proposition
Sound becomes an additional bodily sense
Batuque translates sound into movement and vibration through a sculptural garment informed by Candomblé, wearable electronics and digital fabrication.
Sensors listen to activity around the wearer while embedded mechanisms return that activity through the garment. The result is not simply a display of sound data: it produces a bodily condition that can be felt and performed.
Three-dimensional printing and laser engraving give the electronic system a material and symbolic form. Technology, movement and cultural reference operate together rather than as separate layers.
Video documentation
See Batuque in motion
02 · Experience
Listen, translate, move
- 01
Sense
The garment detects sound in its surrounding environment.
- 02
Translate
Electronic and mechanical elements convert the signal into tactile movement.
- 03
Perform
The wearer responds to an added sensory layer produced by the garment.
03 · Reflection
The wearable changes how a body listens
Batuque relocates environmental sound from the ear into a larger field of bodily perception.
By making sound tangible, the project asks how wearable systems can extend perception without presenting the body as incomplete. The garment proposes an expressive relation between cultural memory, technical sensing and performed movement.
Movement and vibration distribute listening across the body.
The wearer interprets the system through gesture and presence.
Exhibition history
Selected presentations
Manifestations
Dutch Design Week
Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Looking Forward FashionTech Festival
Gaîté Lyrique
Paris, France
Mobile World Congress
Shanghai New International Expo Centre
Shanghai, China
E-Textile Summer Camp Exhibition
Les Moulins de Paillard
Poncé-sur-le-Loir, France
Fabricating the Future · FAB12
Shenzhen Convention & Exhibition Center
Shenzhen, China
IN(3D)USTRY: From Needs to Solutions
Fira Barcelona
Barcelona, Spain
Credits & archive
Project record
- Concept and development
- Ricardo O’Nascimento
