The Echo Coat Series is an exploration of the contemporary relationship of sound, women and public spaces. Inspired by the tradition of music, modernistic movements within sound, and the current ubiquity of individualized soundtracks, this series of historically aesthetic, technological, sound-driven garments creates a female-centered narrative of embodied wandering. The current environments of retail, architecture, and transit are transformed by deflections of consumerist language, real time echoes of boot heels, and the rapture of durative tones, impacting the nature of public sonic space in new ways.

My project includes three coats that are designed in modernistic styles. They celebrate the point in history that sound began to open up conceptually and noise was incorporated into the classical music tradition. The coats are entitled Andante Coat, Staccato Coat and Largo Coat. Each coat has a character associated with them that have been further developed in a video work accompanying their display. The technology includes using RJDJ1, a platform for reactive music for the iPod Touch and iPhone2, using re-configurable “scenes” to create real-time sounds. Speakers embedded on the outside of the coats project the sounds to claim sonic space, celebrating sound embodiment through the body carrier. The names are based in the classical tradition of music; Andante and Largo connoting tempo in beats per minute (Andante: at walking pace, 76 to 108 bpm; Largo: the slowest tempo, 40 to 60 bpm), and Staccato describing a stiff attack of a note. The coats celebrate noise, experiments with randomized language, and minimal composition, in an attempt to celebrate public movement.

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Kosmalski, T., Fashion, Technology and the Sonic Wander: The Echo Coat Series, Submitted as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts in Electronic Visualization, Graduate College, University of Illinois at Chicago, April 26th, 2010.