Modified Environments

Modified Environments examines how humans modify their surroundings, and themselves to interact with said surroundings. Utah has been supplementing clouds through the process of cloud seeding to augment winter snowfall and manipulate our accessible water. By crafting wearables that engage water in various stages of the water cycle, the project provokes how we modify our body’s environment.

We modify our bodies every day as we dress for the season, location, activity. Clothing has changed over time to reflect what the surroundings require. The overcoat is the barrier between wearer and environment. It enables engagement with surroundings by encapsulating the body while allowing for mobility.

It protects the wearer from the elements.

It immerses the wearer in the elements.

Starting with research about cloud seeding efforts in Utah and how humans modify the natural environment, then researching how clothing affects the body’s environment and temperature regulation, this project asked more questions than it answered. The research resulted in two garments, designed to be modifications of the human body’s environment while incorporating references to cloud seeding and the water cycle.

This project pushed my research process through the history and interworkings of an environmental process and challenged design and making skills by turning those concepts into products. It was presented through a runway walk accompanying printed, mounted board presentations in a critique format.

Garment 1, a raincoat constructed from hundreds of hexagons (the molecular shape of Silver Iodide) is not breathable, and fogs up from the body’s heat while wearing. In the lining are sealed hexagonal pockets with water inside.

“The goal of this garment is to protect the wearer from environmental processes of the water cycle.

Double-layered quilted plastic creates an insulating, waterproof garment. In between the layers, water-filled hexagons rest at the hem of the coat. As it’s worn, the wearer’s body heat creates condensation, on the interior, that can be seen through the clear plastic to the outside.”

Garment 2 is a vest, constructed from recycled parachute with live chia seeds growing through mesh, mounted on neoprene. It pushes the wearer to consider how each movement and action impacts the natural world, and the literal weight that carries.

“The goal of this garment is to immerse the wearer in processes of the water cycle, and engaging the natural environment by including it in the construction of the garment.

Chia seeds on the lower part of the garment collect water that runs off the garment, and sweat that is produced through wearing.”

Sewing Chia Seeds
Sewing Plastic
Hexagon Seams
Sprouting Chia Seeds
Hexagon Construction
Pattern Pieces
Garment 1 Hem
Water Pockets
Trimmed Excess Thread

Research:

Cloud seeding is “the intentional treatment of individual clouds or cloud systems for the purpose of increasing precipitation by augmenting snowfall, extracting water from the atmosphere to raise water levels” This is done by burning Silver Iodide in acetone to make it a gaseous consistency, and releasing it into clouds via ground-based seeders or with the help of airplanes. This process is controversial and hard to measure, while adding a new step to the water cycle, joining evaporation, diversion, condensation, and others.

Map of ground-based seeders in Utah state

Molecular structure of Silver Iodide

Cloud Seeding methods

Part of my research also looked into the steps of the water cycle, and where humans modify the steps.

Condensation

Water Diversion

Precipitation

Water Storage

Finally, I researched thermoregulation in outerwear, and how materials have historically been modified to protect or enhance the body and deal with elements in nature