Just checked out the info on Olafur Eliasson's Weather Project currently at the Tate Modern. The transformation of the Tate looks magical:
The Tate has also neatly merchandized the installation by including a list of weather-related products by Eliasson, including:
this umbrella which, when with rain, reveals a line of text written by Eliasson. It's a lovely idea, actually - I'd like one for myself but don't want to think about the shipping charges from the UK. I think there's a lot of interesting work right now on clothing that reacts to environmental variables (pollution being the most common factor), but Eliasson's umbrella idea is so simple and so elegant I couldn't help imagining, say, a raincoat that would do the same. So far, I've found this one, by Prada
that starts out transparent and becomes opaque when wet. Via Wired.
INSIDE/OUTSIDE is a represents air pollution levels on a handbag; Fashion Victims represents EMF radiation levels on a variety of clothing, including t-shirts and hats. Both use embedded circuitry to sense environmental variables and translate changing conditions into a visual display. On the other hand, the raincoat I'm imagining (which, I suppose, if I had the ca$h money I could buy) is both sensor and actuator. It's a rainy day in Portland and looking out the window, I can't help but want a blue raincoat that is dappled hot pink with rain.
