Will You Wear Your Emotions

Plenty Magazine is reporting that Phillips Design has developed a series of garments that, through “emotional sensing,” can read and project wearers’ emotions through the LED lights installed in the garment. These cotoure creations illustrate an accelerating appreciation that feelings and emotions underlie one’s personal identity. Feelings and emotions are the foundation of personhood.

In contrast, the project’s designers say the line is meant to question whether an increasingly digitized society improves the quality of life. By defining their clothing in relation to digital technology, the designers answer their own question, revealing their mistaken belief that digital technology is separate and distinct from human experience. Such a lack of vision limits the scope of technological development to the realm of problem solving.

In failing to identify their work as a preview of an approaching zeitgeist it’s fair to say that we won’t be wearing our emotions on our sleeves anytime soon.