Braindrain is a fashion-tech project by fashion designer Maartje Dijkstra. I designed and programmed the mechatronics for this dress.
Building everything into the dress was done together wit Nanda Milbreta under the umbrella of our duo: Neon & Landa.
Her design is a fusion of 3-D prints, handcrafted art, music, lighting and robotics.
The daunting Braindrain-design has two layers. The black layer is a flexible 3-D printed filament, which was hand-drawn using a 3D-printing pen. For its structure, Dijkstra was inspired by chitin, a chemical often found in exoskeletons (like the armour of a beetle). The printed fragments were stitched together using black polyester threading.
Dijkstra designed the shell-shaped flaps – a subtle reference to the golden casques of the 19th century - in collaboration with product designer Vincent Mensink. These flaps form the second layer of the outfit and consist of 3D-printed white nylon finished with transparent gold varnish. Technology artists Neon & Landa engineered the mechanism that allows the flaps to move. Its movement sets off white LED-lights that flash in harmoniously beats produced by Newk. Newk’s haunting tunes echo the sound of the monstrous Leense Hinsz-organ (1733), the sea, and the sound of shoving dirt (which refers back to the agricultural workers in Groningen).