Photo by N. Maxwell Lander
Hi! I’m Kate Hartman (in the photo above, I’m on the left). I’m an Associate Professor at OCAD University in Toronto where I teach in the Digital Futures graduate and undergraduate programs. I also teach wearable electronics and physical computing courses across the university. And every June I come back to New York to run ITP Camp, a summer camp for grown ups at New York University.
I’ve been working in wearable electronics since 2005 when it used to be a lot harder to get ahold of all the cool materials we work with to make wearables today. Recently I published a book called Make: Wearable Electronics that is all about how to get up and running with wearables projects.
I’m the Director of the Social Body Lab at OCAD – a research group focused on exploring body-centric technologies in the social context. We produce working technological prototypes, material proof‑of‑concepts, design iterations, and at times artistic explorations. Works to date have included instructional materials for creating wearables that can communicate wirelessly, posture feedback systems for office workers, kits that enable designers to better work with electronics and clothing, fashionable lighting for cyclists, and muscle‑activated kinetic textiles. Currently we (Izzie Colpitts-Campbell, Boris Kourtoukov, and I) are working on a new project titled “Inquisitive Devices”, a zany exploration of possible futures for wearable devices. More on that soon!
I’m sabbatical for the 2015-2016 academic which gives me the opportunity to do cool things like E-Textile Summer Camp, ITP Something-In-Residence, and Autodesk Artist-in-Residence. This week I have the lovely opportunity of hanging out and working on wearables at Adafruit. You’ll be seeing some blog posts from me and I’ll also be co-hosting the Wearable Electronics show with Becky. See you on the internets!