Pauchi Sasaki’s Speaker Dress, Still A Very Stylish Form Of Communication

We revisit the Speaker Dress, recently worn by Pauchi Sasaki during her performance at New York's Carnegie Hall.

When I first laid eyes on the “speaker dress”, it looked like a work of art. Developed by Peruvian Composer and performer Pauchi Sasaki, the shoulder-to-knee dress, made up of 100 speakers, was an out of this world instrument itself, a form of communication between her and us.

Pauchi Sasaki
Peruvian Composer and performer Pauchi Sasaki, wearing the shoulder-to-knee speaker dress Photo: Janice Smith-Palliser.

Developed in 2014 the Speaker Dress continues to wow in 2017. Two dresses exist nowadays, a black and a white one. There is no denying that the dress is the kind of wearable tech that naturally makes a daring fashion statement of another kind. On her creation, Pauchi has always been unafraid to make it clear that the dress has a more profound meaning than what we visually see. The protegee of Philip Glass explained that for her it was an electrical outlet that allowed her to express herself when she played her violin.

“I don’t create an object that makes things; I build extensions for human gestures.”

The Peruvian artist, who recently performed wearing the speaker dress at New York’s Carnegie Hall, said of her creation, “I realised that it had a very iconic power and people want to reduce the object and say, ‘Oh, that looks cool.” Adding, “But I really wanted to bring out the spirit of the instrument because of every instrument, like a violin or a piano, has a spirit.” 

Speaker Dress

According to Shaun Tandon of Japan Today, “the speaker dress in itself does not have an acoustic capacity; it is connected to programming by Pauchi”. When she plays, it works by sending back processed sounds to speakers on her body. That being said, it did not all go well when she first used it. Her hair caught on fire. Since then she has fine-tuned it and is confident of its safety capabilities.

ALSO READ: Stylishly Translating Music For Those Hard of Hearing

Acknowledging that so many human experiences and interactions are filtered through smartphones, speakers or other technology Pauchi said, “I don’t create an object that makes things; I build extensions for human gestures.” Adding, “I want to be able to deliver nuances through the instrument. And what I mean with that is that human emotion is not only about randomness or about will, it’s also about fragile moments, it’s about doubt, and it’s about strength — a wide range.”

Described by her mentor, 80-year-old composer Glass as “music that people should hear,” he said, about Pauchi’s compositions, “It’s work that’s inspired, it’s very natural, and it has its own sound. You can’t be taught to write that music.” 

Founding Editor in Chief at FashNerd.com | editor@fashnerd.com | Website

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.

SOURCESource: Japan Today