Body Accordion

Kate Reed

We created a corset that acts like an accordion. The corset has two belts, one at the waist and one above the bust. In between these two belts are eight arms. The arms are an organic rib-like shape that is laser cut out of plywood. Each arm is made of two pieces, which are connected together using a screw and a lock nut. We had to use lock nuts because normal nuts would fall off with the amount of usage of the arms. The arms connect to a 3D printed hinge that connects to the belt. The hinge allows the arms to move and be stable to the belt at the same time.

There are two flex sensors on the corset, one in the front and one on the side. They are positioned at the bottom of the arms and sense when you are bending forward or sideways. The flex sensors give a number based on how bent they are. That number gets sent to the computer and into a program called Max MSP. We programmed Max to change the pitch based on how bent the flex sensor is.