Pioneering the fusion of wearable tech and music is Grammy Award-winning musician Imogen Heap. Her Mi.Mu Gloves have the power to create an entire musical composition right at her fingertips.
With Mi.Mu, Heap can interact with a computer to make music, which she considers “very two-dimensional”. Heap set about putting together a team of musicians, makers, hackers and technologists to bring her ideas to life.
It took five years for British-born artist Heap finalise Mi.Mu and get the gloves to a point where they would help her embody sounds that are hidden inside the computer. How it works is that, each glove is loaded with a myriad of sensors, buzzers and buttons that all send a chorus of information wirelessly back to computer software. It then interprets each gesture and produces sounds.
“Movement for me is key,” Heap says. “I have a body and I have a mind and in my mind I have music.” Clearly the one to watch, Heap is creating a musical revolution with Mi.Mu gloves which has technologists and music makers standing up and taking notice. Set for international stardom, the gloves are collecting fans like Ariana Grande who plans to wear Mi.Mu gloves on her next tour.
Founding editor-in-chief of FashNerd.com, Muchaneta is currently one of the leading influencers writing about the merger of fashion with technology and wearable technology. She has also given talks at Premiere Vision, Munich Fabric Start and Pure London, to name a few. Besides working as a fashion innovation consultant for various fashion companies like LVMH Atelier, Muchaneta has also contributed to Vogue Business, is a senior contributor at The Interline and an associate lecturer at London College of Fashion, UAL.
