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My name is Kate Hartman.

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And I like to make devices

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that play with the ways

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that we relate and communicate.

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So I'm specifically interested in how we, as humans,

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relate to ourselves, each other

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and the world around us.

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(Laughter)

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So just to give you a bit of context,

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as June said, I'm an artist, a technologist and an educator.

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I teach courses in physical computing

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and wearable electronics.

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And much of what I do is either wearable

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or somehow related to the human form.

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And so anytime I talk about what I do,

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I like to just quickly address

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the reason why bodies matter.

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And it's pretty simple.

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Everybody's got one -- all of you.

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I can guarantee, everyone in this room,

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all of you over there, the people in the cushy seats,

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the people up top with the laptops --

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we all have bodies.

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Don't be ashamed.

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It's something that we have in common

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and they act as our primary interfaces for the world.

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And so when working as an interaction designer,

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or as an artist who deals with participation --

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creating things that live on, in or around the human form --

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it's really a powerful space to work within.

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So within my own work,

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I use a broad range of materials and tools.

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So I communicate through everything from radio transceivers

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to funnels and plastic tubing.

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And to tell you a bit about the things that I make,

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the easiest place to start the story

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is with a hat.

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And so it all started several years ago,

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late one night when I was sitting on the subway, riding home,

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and I was thinking.

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And I tend to be a person who thinks too much and talks too little.

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And so I was thinking about how it might be great

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if I could just take all these noises --

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like all these sounds of my thoughts in my head --

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if I could just physically extricate them

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and pull them out in such a form

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that I could share them with somebody else.

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And so I went home, and I made a prototype of this hat.

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And I called it the Muttering Hat,

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because it emitted these muttering noises

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that were kind of tethered to you,

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but you could detach them

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and share them with somebody else.

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(Laughter)

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So I make other hats as well.

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This one is called the Talk to Yourself Hat.

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(Laughter)

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It's fairly self-explanatory.

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It physically carves out conversation space for one.

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And when you speak out loud,

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the sound of your voice is actually channeled back into your own ears.

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(Laughter)

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And so when I make these things,

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it's really not so much about the object itself,

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but rather the negative space around the object.

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So what happens when a person puts this thing on?

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What kind of an experience do they have?

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And how are they transformed by wearing it?

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So many of these devices

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really kind of focus on the ways in which we relate to ourselves.

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So this particular device is called the Gut Listener.

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And it is a tool

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that actually enables one

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to listen to their own innards.

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(Laughter)

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And so some of these things

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are actually more geared toward expression and communication.

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And so the Inflatable Heart

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is an external organ

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that can be used by the wearer to express themselves.

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So they can actually inflate it and deflate it

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according to their emotions.

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So they can express everything from admiration and lust

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to anxiety and angst.

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(Laughter)

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And some of these are actually meant

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to mediate experiences.

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So the Discommunicator is a tool for arguments.

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(Laughter)

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And so actually it allows for an intense emotional exchange,

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but is serves to absorb

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the specificity of the words that are delivered.

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(Laughter)

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And in the end,

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some of these things just act as invitations.

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So the Ear Bender literally puts something out there

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so someone can grab your ear

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and say what they have to say.

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So even though I'm really interested in the relationship

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between people,

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I also consider the ways

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in which we relate to the world around us.

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And so when I was first living in New York City a few years back,

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I was thinking a lot about

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the familiar architectural forms that surrounded me

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and how I would like to better relate to them.

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And I thought, "Well, hey!

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Maybe if I want to better relate to walls,

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maybe I need to be more wall-like myself."

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So I made a wearable wall

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that I could wear as a backpack.

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And so I would put it on

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and sort of physically transform myself

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so that I could either contribute to or critique

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the spaces that surrounded me.

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(Laughter)

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And so jumping off of that,

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thinking beyond the built environment into the natural world,

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I have this ongoing project called Botanicalls --

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which actually enables houseplants

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to tap into human communication protocols.

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So when a plant is thirsty,

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it can actually make a phone call

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or post a message to a service like Twitter.

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And so this really shifts the human/plant dynamic,

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because a single house plant

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can actually express its needs

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to thousands of people at the same time.

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And so kind of thinking about scale,

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my most recent obsession

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is actually with glaciers -- of course.

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And so glaciers are these magnificent beings,

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and there's lots of reasons to be obsessed with them,

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but what I'm particularly interested in

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is in human-glacier relations.

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(Laughter)

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Because there seems to be an issue.

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The glaciers are actually leaving us.

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They're both shrinking and retreating --

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and some of them have disappeared altogether.

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And so I actually live in Canada now,

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so I've been visiting one of my local glaciers.

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And this one's particularly interesting,

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because, of all the glaciers in North America,

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it receives the highest volume of human traffic in a year.

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They actually have these buses that drive up and over the lateral moraine

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and drop people off on the surface of the glacier.

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And this has really gotten me thinking

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about this experience of the initial encounter.

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When I meet a glacier for the very first time,

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what do I do?

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There's no kind of social protocol for this.

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I really just don't even know

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how to say hello.

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Do I carve a message in the snow?

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Or perhaps I can assemble one

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out of dot and dash ice cubes --

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ice cube Morse code.

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Or perhaps I need to make myself a speaking tool,

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like an icy megaphone

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that I can use to amplify my voice

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when I direct it at the ice.

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But really the most satisfying experience I've had

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is the act of listening,

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which is what we need in any good relationship.

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And I was really struck by how much it affected me.

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This very basic shift in my physical orientation

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helped me shift my perspective

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in relation to the glacier.

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And so since we use devices

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to figure out how to relate to the world these days,

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I actually made a device called the Glacier Embracing Suit.

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(Laughter)

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And so this is constructed out of a heat reflected material

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that serves to mediate the difference in temperature

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between the human body and the glacial ice.

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And once again, it's this invitation

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that asks people to lay down on the glacier

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and give it a hug.

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So, yea, this is actually just the beginning.

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These are initial musings for this project.

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And just as with the wall, how I wanted to be more wall-like,

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with this project, I'd actually like to take more a of glacial pace.

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And so my intent

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is to actually just take the next 10 years

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and go on a series of collaborative projects

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where I work with people from different disciplines --

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artists, technologists, scientists --

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to kind of work on this project

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of how we can improve human-glacier relations.

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So beyond that, in closing,

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I'd just like to say that we're in this era

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of communications and device proliferation,

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and it's really tremendous and exciting and sexy,

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but I think what's really important

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is thinking about how we can simultaneously

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maintain a sense of wonder and a sense of criticality

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about the tools that we use and the ways in which we relate to the world.

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Thanks.

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(Applause)