"Three Dresses" was created with Pedro Oliveira as a contribution to the Transposing an Opera project, developed at the Hochschule für Künste in Bremen, Germany, based on Theater Bremen and director Andrea Moses's rendition of "Don Giovanni".
Based on personal observations of the opera's storyline, where the dual and contradictory nature of relationships plays a central role, the idea for this project was developed as an extension or further comment on how these relationships could be idealized. The three main female characters on the story were the starting point, as representations of different idiosyncrasies in human relationships. By analyzing specific verses and dialogues from each character throughout the plot’s development that expressed that woman’s innermost feelings, we traced our own perspective on what each female character desired from Don Giovanni - from physical intimacy to emotional submission or complete dedication. By choosing garments - dresses - as a medium we hoped to bring tangibility to the issues of intimacy and lust that permeate the characters’ relationships. In order to do so, however, it was clear that these objects could not be simply represent the imposition of certain meanings towards a passive audience; rather, each person exposed to the dresses would be free to apply their own layers of meaning to the garments. The spectator, therefore, had to cease to be a passive element in the equation and, instead, become an actor in a performative experience.
The dresses demand specific sets of behaviors from the actor in order to reveal what they want to express - their “secrets”, perhaps an externalization of the secrets of the wearer?
Each dress emits a constant faint sound: recorded samples from Theater Bremen’s rendition of Don Giovanni. All of the recordings were made during the final rehearsal before the premiere of the production in the theater.
Further information on how the sensors were built: project report pdf.
Detailed tutorial on how to build a conductive tassels, as used on the Elvira dress, here.
Special thanks to Statex for providing conductive fabrics and threads for this project.
Zerlina dress
Zerlina: resistor sewn on the sensor
Elvira dress
Elvira: discarded stroke sensors
Anna dress
Anna: the pressure sensor