Tear Catcher Dress Definition:
“Tear Catcher Dress” is a smart and fashionable piece, which features the technology of stimulating “the act of crying”. We were inspired by the idea of “tear catchers” were commonly used during Ancient Roman times, with mourners filling glass bottles with their tears, and placing them in tombs as a symbol of their respect for the deceased. We wanted to mimic this idea in a garment. The garment has tubes that can connect to your face to catch your tears and will flow through the tubes and collect in the pocket at the bottom. This also mimics what is happening internally when a person cries. Their tears flow through a tube and collect in the tear ducts before they are released.
Questions that spawned our project:
-How can we convey an emotion, such as sadness, through a garment?
-What about making a tear catcher wearable?
We explored the answers to these questions by creating the “crying dress” or “tear catcher dress” based off the system shown above. A person cries, the years are collected and flowed through tubes, and the collected in a pocket.
Materials used:
-Cotton
-Vinyl
– Medical Tubes
-Nasal Tubes,
-Adafruit 12V Peristaltic Pump
-9V battery
After researching tear catchers, we wanted to mimic this idea in a garment. The garment has tubes that can connect to your face to catch your tears and will flow through the tubes and collect in the pocket at the bottom. This also mimics what is happening internally when a person cries. Their tears flow through a tube and collect in the tear ducts before they are released. An alternative option to using real tears, the dress can cry on your behalf if you have run dry of tears. We have connected a motor that pumps the water into the dress to mimic the action of crying. The drop of the water from the tube to the pocket most similarly mimics the action of a tear as it rolls down the vinyl. We decided to use white fabrication as we researched funeral wear in other countries, such as India, where they wear white to the ceremonies of the deceased. The white fabrication also more clearly demonstrates the flow of tears.
Further Exploration:
As we explore this project of an emotional garment further, we would like to experiment with other aspects. First, we would like to figure out a system for recycling the tears/water. We would like to experiment with better materials and fabrication so the dress is a better representation and easier to wear, such as making the pocket collecting water able to dispose of the water or collect it permanently.