The Body Accordion brings together two concepts: music and movement. The Body Accordion is designed to emulate the behavior of an accordion, being flexible and allowing circular movement yet fitted to the body like a corset. The Body Accordion is made of laser-cut plywood “ribs” that attach to a harness designed of recycled leather. 3D printed hinges secure the plywood ribs to the harness and allow the ribs to move and yet be stable at the same time. 

We redesigned the Body Accordion to be a piece in NuVu's "Nature-Tech Collection" for the 2013 Emerging Trends Show during Boston Fashion Week. The corset didn't need to have versatile movement for fashion, so we went much farther with the design, more in the direction of a cage skirt. The structure has three belts in which everything connects - one at the top, one at the waist and one just below the butt. We also experimented with making the original ribs much bigger and more dramatic.

Merkaba is a 3d printed exotic looking bracelet that worked as a musical prosthetic.  The bracelet itself has sharp points sticking out on one side and extends down the bracelet, unevenly. The bracelet has an arduino attached to the bracelet for the final presentation, and multiple wires connecting the bracelet to the patch on a users arm.  The wires are soldered and placed in the correct holes of the arduino to send the data to the sensors. Each bracelet has two touch sensors, which play two different sounds according to the instrument each player is assigned.

In our team Isabella had the vocal bracelet - one of the sensors on the vocal bracelet manipulates the volume of her recorded singing , while the second sensor manipulates one of her coaches beat-boxing recordings. Jasper had the melody bracelet- both sensors on the bracelet are piano based sounds and has the manipulations of the volume. Lizzie had the beat bracelet- both sensors on the bracelet plays two different beats and has the manipulations of the volume aswell the other two bracelets.