Comments on: Dude, those pants are loud!

Dude, those pants are loud!

dobbs — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 06:48:51 -0800

(woven from 50% cotton and 50% audio cassette tape) emits sound when you run a tape head over it. Because the tape retains its magnetic quality through the weaving process, it acts as a big wide band of tape." Here's an interview with the creator. {via Apartment Therapy}

By: quonsar

quonsar — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 06:56:10 -0800

the sound one hears is very much like scratching a record backwards, but more garbled yeah? so what?

By: Blazecock Pileon

Blazecock Pileon — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 07:09:32 -0800

Nevermind the snark. This is pretty cool stuff.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 07:23:27 -0800

Oh man, this is gonna be all over sound art/electronic music festivals like Ars Electronica and Sonar. Everybody leave your laptops at home! Just show up with a tape head and a shirt made outta this stuff! Wheeee!

By: redteam

redteam — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 07:37:53 -0800

Excuse me if I'm a bad searcher, but I can't find an audio sample or video anywhere. Has anyone found either of those?

By: ob

ob — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 07:57:07 -0800

Hmmm... This is pretty interesting, but only if the music is actually good. It seems quite a cumbersome task to actually make the clothes, but still, it's a pretty cool idea.

By: gorgor_balabala

gorgor_balabala — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 08:17:40 -0800

F.A.Q. -- Washable?

By: ZenMasterThis

ZenMasterThis — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 08:20:50 -0800

Does Laurie Anderson know about this?

By: quite unimportant

quite unimportant — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 08:47:23 -0800

This thread is useless without sound files.

By: Slarty Bartfast

Slarty Bartfast — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 09:06:30 -0800

Send her $5 via paypal and you get your sample via cassette. If they're actually trying to generate interest in this, it seems pretty stupid not to put sound files on the site.

By: jamjam

jamjam — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 09:07:10 -0800

Interesting.... I have my doubts RFID signals will go through this stuff. I wonder about cell phones, too. Since it seems that tinfoil helmets actually tend to increase the amount of electromagnetic radiation reaching the brain, a stocking cap of this material is probably what we all should replace them with.

By: owhydididoit

owhydididoit — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 09:13:52 -0800

That is hilarious. I love the Thangkas.

By: wsg

wsg — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 09:15:57 -0800

Audio files are not included because the sound is prolly anticlimactic.

By: squirrel

squirrel — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 09:31:11 -0800

Perhaps this seems like splitting hairs, but this isn't actually sonic clothing unless it makes noise on it's own. Rather, this is magnetically embedded clothing. I mean, if running a microphone over my zipper makes noise, do I have a sonic fly? When I first read the headline, I thought of thousands of tiny speakers--THAT is sonic clothing, and seems cool. Clothing made out of a recycled plastic is, well, mass-produced every day. And the fact that the plastic has some completely disordered magnetic particles on it doesn't change much by way of interest for me.

By: peewinkle

peewinkle — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 09:41:11 -0800

Ok, so a trip to the local Salvation Army will yield an old cassette player (the top-loader kind) for five bucks and then a swing by Radio Shack, and it is very feasible to have fashion that is audible...... Very cool. Who needs radio?

By: jamjam

jamjam — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 10:08:30 -0800

I don't know, squirrel. I really do think a stiff sheet of "sonic fabric" would probably rustle or boom, or both, if you hit it with an intense EM pulse of the right range of frequencies.

By: drezdn

drezdn — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 11:32:19 -0800

I was thinking this was going to be an advance in corduroy technology.

By: glycolized

glycolized — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 11:57:52 -0800

"Hi cutie, can I rub my heads on your fabric?"

By: jack_mo

jack_mo — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 12:00:51 -0800

Nice idea - would be better if you could send in tapes to be recycled, rather than having a shirt made of this person's '...high-school punk band, Jack Kerouac, ocean surf, shamanic medicine songs recorded in the Peruvian jungle, ambient city street noise, the improvisational/experimental ensembles of myself and my friends, the Beatles'. Not that the source would have much impact on the fabric sounds, I suppose. Does Laurie Anderson know about this? Or Nam June Paik? Or, for that matter, Reed Ghazala?

By: Phantast

Phantast — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 12:01:22 -0800

My first response was 'lame' but I suppose it beats this for fashion... probably comparably unbearable for sound.

By: fenriq

fenriq — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 12:54:29 -0800

Its an intersting idea but what kind of interest can they hope to generate without some audio samples to listen to? Its like a photography site where you have to buy the prints without seeing them first. Recipe for failure. But that Mu-mu is hawt!

By: dmd

dmd — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 14:29:22 -0800

If the interview isn't recorded on the pants, I'm not interested.

By: jenovus

jenovus — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 15:59:30 -0800

This thread is useless without sound files. This sound file is useless without threads.

By: Skwirl

Skwirl — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 16:17:09 -0800

Wouldn't it make more sense to try to embed synchonous tones, instead of a mismatch of the artist's fav stuff? Maybe (probably) it'd come out as gobbedy gook either way, and instead it's the symbolism that matters. But ya'd think a really motivated artist would have some more experimenting to do before going all capitalist on their idea like this.

By: jeanpoole

jeanpoole — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 18:19:41 -0800

the girl is rad! here's another interview i did with her in january 06.

By: Joseph Gurl

Joseph Gurl — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 18:35:19 -0800

Paik Namjun did this 25 years ago

By: squirrel

squirrel — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 19:57:09 -0800

Okay, jenovus wins.