The Directing Jacket
Artist and designer Dominic Wilcox was challenged by Microsoft Surface to come up with two solutions to everyday problems for an exhibition called Extraordinary Solutions to Everyday Problems held in the Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, London from the 21st to the 23rd of May.
The Directing Jacket aims to solve the age old problem of walking straight towards an oncoming person and neither knowing what side to walk by on. There is a ‘Dance of Indecision’ as you try to work out what side the other person is deciding on.
This jacket aims to end this problem by using green LED arrows that can point oncoming pedestrians to walk by on the side the arrow points to. Soft buttons on the sleeves are pressed by the wearer to activate a chosen arrow. These battery powered lights can last up to a week depending on how many people you need to pass by.
“This may be a very niche problem but it must happen a million times a day around the world. That’s about 4 million seconds of time lost through dithering.
I’ve tried it out on the streets of London and it seemed to help, I’ll never be late for anything again, unless the batteries run out.” Dominic Wilcox