Concept¶

The Hearty Party¶

The Hearty Party is a wearable music maker inspired by the beat of the heart. The project aims to create a dialogue between wearable tech, parametric design and traditional craft to raise awareness of heart disease in a fun and playful way.

Heart disease is the largest cause of death in Iceland and also world wide. Women in particular display different symptoms to men and are up to 50% more likely to be misdiagnosed. I had a heart attack in June 2022 and this was the experience that put me here, now, on my Fabricademy journey. All of my projects during this journey so far have centered on the heart and cardiac issues and this is the input that is going into my final piece.

The Hearty Party will be an interactive wearable using the heart in different ways.

The heart will form the basis of an exploration in computational parametric design. Atanomical information will be used to create new forms and 3D surfaces in moulded fish leather.
These fish leather pieces will form a visual representation of the heart outside the body. The aim is to visualise the heart in other ways in a form of display involving light.
The sound of the heart will be isolated and used in an interactive way forming another dialogue between the inner and outer world, if the heart could speak what would it say?
What does the heart feel like? The project will also explore the tactile interactions of this inner and outer world.

This will be a wearable piece that the user will interact with using fish leather, a local resource. I have lived in Iceland for 10 years so I want the project to be based close to home but as this will be a fully open source project I hope that it could be replicated worldwide.

I hope that the exploration I make in computational design, wearable tech and fish leather research will lead to future buisness ideas post Fabricademy.

I also hope that this project will highlight and inspire a dialogue surrounding heart disease in women and its issues. I would also like to bring a little fun and joy to those affected by this issue as I have been.

Heartspiration¶

Awareness¶

The Reykjavik Study. The Icelandic Heart Association, Hjartavernd
Misdiagnosis of Heart Attacks in Women. The British Heart Foundation
Long-Term Survival of Icelandic Women Following Acute Myocardial Infarction Scandinavian Cardiovascular Journal
State of The Health in the EU, Country Profile, Iceland 2021. European Commision
Diseases of the circulatory system and neoplasms the main causes of death in the past 10 years. 2021. Statistics Iceland
Cardiovasular Diseases. World Health Organisation
Why Heart Disease in Women Is So Often Missed or Dismissed. 2021. New York Times
Womens Heart Alliance Awareness Campaign featuring Lady Gaga.

Ms. Diagnosed Documentary 2019

Heart Cell Acoustic Choreography¶

Here you can see a facinating study at Stamford showing acoustic choreography in heart cells that has been my main inspiration throughout my Fabricademy journey. Utkan Demirci PhD, an Acoustic Bioengineer and Professor of Radiology and Cardiologist Sean Wu MD, PhD use acoustics to manipulate heart cells into intricate patterns. A simple change in frequency and amplitude puts the cells in motion, guides them to a new position and holds them in place. This study inspired me into looking at ways that the heart reacts with sound and also how this data can be used in parametric design to form shape and pattern.

^{Acoustic Signals Steer Heart Cells through a Gel to Form a Series of Precise Patterns. Video courtesy of Sean Wu and Utkan Demirci.}

Arterial Stents¶

I have also been inspired alot by Arterial Stent architecture. I have had 2 of these stents placed in my Coronary artery. As I was reserching them, I found that they reminded me very much of parametric design using kerf patterns and auxetic Patterns. I have used these patterns in my explorations of 3D printing.

^{Bioresorbable Scaffold Stent Designs. (Iqbal J, Onuma Y, Ormiston J, Bioresorbable scaffolds: rationale, current status, challenges, and future. Euro Heart Journal.}

3D Printed Hearts and Arteries¶

There have been many amazing advances in the treatment of heart disesase that I have found through my research. In particular the advances in biotech in printing arteries, arterial stents and even whole hearts. Below I have added some links and videos regarding these new emerging technologies.

^{New Advances in Medicine and Engineering are Letting Surgeons Print Arteries in 3D to Personalise Treatment for Heart Disease by the University of Melbourne}

^{Tel Aviv University in Israel revealed the first three-dimensional vascularized engineered heart in 2019.}

^{A full Sized 3D Printed Heart Made by Adam Feinberg at Carnegie Melon University Using Alginates and Collagen}

^{A Study at Technion Showing 3D Printed Blood Vessel Technology that can be Potentially Used for Transplants. Find the Study here}

Heart In Your Hands¶

A really nice awareness project called Heart In Your Hands allows the interaction with a robotic heart that beats in time with your own or someone elses heart that can be held in the hand. This was designed to also advance the understanding of the heart and health health.

Hussein Chalayan¶

The most influencial designer on my work through the years has to be Hussein Chalayan. His work capitivated me when I was younger. His designs were the first wearables I was aware of and I was lucky enough to see his show at the Design Museum in London for my 30th birthday. I spent hours in there staring closely at all the construction. I still love watching his old runway shows even today.

Hussein Chalayan from Jennifer Cipperly on Vimeo.

EJTECH¶

The Liquid Midi fromEJTECH is an experimental modular textile interface using screen printed conductive textiles as a fader and a trigger for sonic interactions. I particularily love the way its printed giving an idea of the way it sounds as you play it.

Jessica Stanley¶

Of course I couldn´t of not been inspired by the amazing work of Fabricademy Alumni Jessica Stanley. Its fun and playful and all the things I´m channeling in the Hearty Party.

David McCallum¶

Another alumni project from 2018 is David McCallum´Performing the Machine where he constructed a harp controller to play a 3D printer.

James Merry / Björk¶

One of my favourite artists working in Iceland is James Merry. This video in particular, directed by Andrew Thomas Huang, and made in collaboration with Björk, shows the heart as a central theme, in relation to textiles, sound and the Icelandis landscape. Merry uses digital fabrication and traditional craft in his work inspired by Icelandic flora and fauna in new and inovative ways.

Ýrúrarí¶

Another local inspiration is the Icelandic Textile Artist Ýrúrarí. She has a wonderfully playful way of looking at the human body through forms such as upcycled jumpers and felting. face Masks in Covid ^{Ýrúrarí wearing a handmade face mask in response to COVID 19}

Lynne MacLachlan¶

I always been inspired by the work of Scottish Jewelery Designer Lynne MacLachlan since I found her colourful and playful 3D printed accessories some years ago. Now I´m using 3D printing I hope to create 3D printed designs from stent patterns very soon. * Below you can see an interview with her about her work and process for Victoria and Albert Museum Dundee.

Lovia¶

I recently found this company that seem to be working with Nordic Fish Leather. It´s honestly difficult to find anyone doing stuff with it in Iceland let alone anything interesting. I really like the enviromental stance this maker has made though so I look forward to contacting them after Fabricademy.

Moodboard¶

Last update: 2023-03-24