¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥

Dance by co-investigator Lindsay Eales, Photo by Marc Chalifoux

When the Government of Canada’s New Frontiers in Research Fund recipients were , a project based at the ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ – and involving numerous researchers from the College of Social Sciences and Humanities (CSSH) – was selected as one of six recipients. 

“Co-designing a Smartwear Revolution,” which will receive a $24 million Transformation grant over six years, is an ambitious interdisciplinary undertaking with the potential to drastically impact lives. 

Principal investigator and professor of medicine has assembled researchers from eight U of A faculties – including disciplines in the social sciences, humanities and fine arts – as well as researchers and collaborators from across Canada, the United States and Europe.

The team of 64 is working to develop assistive technology for people with injuries or conditions that inhibit their movement. According to the project summary, this “radically new smartwear” will look like normal clothing, but will have adaptive mechanical properties (to aid posture, balance, arm movements and walking) built into the fibres of the fabric itself. 

“The College of Social Sciences and Humanities is hugely delighted at the engagement of our researchers in this high-risk, high-reward multidisciplinary research,” says Associate Dean Research Temitope Oriola. 

“Our scholars routinely produce groundbreaking socially transformative work. To be worth its salt, science must meet the needs of society. This research does. This is a fine example of the sheer incandescence and life-changing potential of collaboration among scholars from multiple disciplines.”

Co-creating inclusive solutions

The decision to bring visual artists and cultural studies researchers to the table alongside colleagues from areas like engineering and medicine, according to co-principal investigator, Reisa Klein, is taken “very, very seriously.”

“This is what is novel and unique about this project: it takes an approach that recognizes the importance of the human subject in technology development,” explains Klein, who is an adjunct academic colleague in the Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies. “Co-designing a Smartwear Revolution recognizes how social justice approaches are critical in solving grand challenges and making an impact on people’s lives.” 

Klein, whose research examines representations of gender and health through an intersectional lens, is working with co-PI from the Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport and Recreation to lead the project’s approach to social justice in design and policy, as part of the larger social justice working group. Their focus will be on facilitating discussions that ensure the end users’ lived experiences are an integral part of the research process. 

“Technology is often seen as a fix or an enhancement, which really assumes that people have a lack,” says Klein. “We’re trying to break that sensibility and to ensure a diversity of voices and perspectives are being brought forth so we can create culturally relevant, meaningful and imaginative kinds of technology that are informed by the needs articulated by users.”

Curating conversation

This co-design approach also welcomes input from the public, who will be able to preview aspects of the project’s work through festivals planned by the art and design working group. 

The group is led by co-PI Marilène Oliver from the Department of Art & Design, who brings an extensive background creating artwork with digital medical imaging and as curator of the “ ” and “ exhibitions.

“Including the arts in a project like this is so important,” she says. “The most exciting thing for me is showing the value of having artists sharing, often very bravely, the reality of their lives.”

Taking place in years three and six of the project, the festivals will feature exhibitions of work from disabled artists reflecting on what smartwear means for them. There will also be conferences, open labs for a behind-the-scenes look at the technology development and live fashion events that highlight garment design for different body types. 

“We really want to think about the body as much as the technology,” Oliver explains. “The festivals open a space for a different kind of contemplation of what smart technologies mean to people. We want to ask some difficult conceptual questions – like what does it mean for people to feel their lives being supported by and then to rely on technology? – and invite in many different voices.”

This public-facing arm of the project will draw on the expertise of faculty members from the fine arts in areas such as visual art, performance and theatre costume design.

Embracing collaboration

As the project gets underway, both Klein and Oliver are appreciative of the early experiences they’ve had collaborating with colleagues from across the academy. 

“The pleasure of working in interdisciplinary spaces, of building common languages with researchers and communities that don’t often come together is learning from one another so that we can build something meaningful,” says Klein. “It’s a joy.”

CSSH researchers on the Smartwear project

In addition to co-principal investigators Klein and Oliver, a number of other researchers from the college are involved with the project as co-applicants and collaborators:

• , Department of Political Science
• Yannick Desranleau, Department of Art & Design
• April Viczko, Department of Drama
• , Media Tech Studies
• Gillian Harvey, Department of Art & Design