A field of individually visible forms gives light a sculptural and bodily presence.
Sound-reactive bomber jacket · 2015
Light Spike
A white bomber jacket whose 64 translucent spikes turn surrounding sound into pulses of light across the body.
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Project typeArtwork · Tool / prototype · Collaboration · Fashiontech
ThemesEmbodied & haptic interaction · Wearables & e-textiles
FormSound-reactive wearable artwork
Developed2015
Output64 illuminated 3D-printed spikes
CollaborationPOPKALAB × Nada Van Dalen
PresentedLondon, UK · 2015
01 · Proposition
Sound gives the garment a luminous silhouette
Light Spike transforms the intensity and rhythm of sound into an animated field of light distributed across a bomber jacket.
The familiar padded volume of the bomber jacket is extended by 64 translucent, 3D-printed spikes. Electronics embedded in the garment listen to the surrounding soundscape and illuminate the spikes in response, making an invisible acoustic event visible on the wearer.
Rather than placing a screen on the body, the project treats the garment itself as the display. Its sculptural surface changes with the atmosphere around it: sound does not simply accompany the look, but continually composes it.
Video documentation
See sound travel across the jacket
02 · Experience
Listen, translate, illuminate
- 01
Listen
The embedded system receives the changing intensity and rhythm of sound around the wearer.
- 02
Translate
Embedded electronics convert the audio signal into a changing pattern of light.
- 03
Illuminate
Sixty-four translucent spikes make the response visible across the jacket’s sculptural surface.
03 · Reflection
A garment becomes an atmosphere-sensitive display
Light Spike shifts illumination away from a flat screen and into the volume, movement and social presence of clothing.
The project frames responsiveness as a relation between body and environment. The wearer does not operate the jacket through a discrete command; instead, music, voices and ambient sound continuously reshape its appearance. The spikes exaggerate the bomber’s protective silhouette while light makes that armour porous to its surroundings. The result sits between fashion object, wearable interface and performance instrument.
Ambient audio becomes a real-time visual pattern rather than background accompaniment.
The jacket’s silhouette and material surface carry the interaction without adding a conventional screen.
Exhibition history
Selected presentations
Interlaced wearable technology showcase
Interlaced
London, UK
Credits & archive
Project record
- Concept
- Ricardo O’Nascimento
- Fashion design
- Nada Van Dalen
- Electronics and interaction
- Ricardo O’Nascimento and Erik Overmeire
- Internship contribution
- Tineke Van Hilten
- Video
- Local Androids
