Touch Me: Tiffany Trenda's Wearable Technology
Tiffany Trenda '12 (M.F.A. Design Media Arts)
Tiffany Trenda '12 talks with KCET about how her body-based art practice, which makes use of the latest technology while remaining grounded in art history, explores the effect of technology and environment on social behavior and physiology over time.
"What’s most surprising about the soft, red vinyl suit stretched tight across the lithe body of Los Angeles-based media artist Tiffany Trenda is just how warm it is. Touching her arm, cautiously at first -- there are more than 100 other people either watching your every move from a safe distance in the gallery or wishing they could be doing exactly what you’re doing and anxiously awaiting their turns -- you want to slide your hand in a curious caress up to her very warm shoulder.
But now she’s reaching for you, drawing you to her, and you see up close at one of the suit’s 43 embedded cell phone screens. They flash a series of prosaic phrases: "It’s OK. Go ahead. Don’t worry about it."
So you go ahead. You touch one of the screens and it turns into a camera, and now you’re seeing the flesh beneath the suit and recognizing instantly where you’ve touched this warm, red body. At a certain point you’re wishing you could take a selfie -- this would look awesome on Instagram -- and the moment is over. She has turned around in some seriously high platforms and is stretching to embrace someone else."— Holly Willis, August 3, 2016
Read the full article at the KCET website.
Top image: "Proximity Cinema," Black Forest, 2013. | Photo: Xarene Eskandar, © Tiffany Trenda.