This Art Installation Uses Wearable Tech to Help You Grieve

Wearable technology can do a lot of things. It can, for instance, let us see the world in a new way or send out tweets via a variety of clothing. It can make us warmer when it’s cold and make us colder when it’s warmer. Wearable tech can be just about anything to anyone, which is why writing about it in its infancy is so much fun. About the only thing wearable technology can’t do, however, is bring the dead back to life. No, we are just as bound to this mortal coil now as before the invent of the smartwatch. According to this amazing and touching art installation, however, wearable tech can help us grieve the loss of life a bit easier.

“Traces of You” by Zubin Pastakia from the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design uses digital information and social networks to chronicle the life of a departed loved one. This information is integrated into materials that explore the grieving process. Using a combination of GPS and tagging data, the movements of the deceased are stitched as a memory-trail by those left behind into a stunning tapestry. It’s like seeing the entire life of someone you loved stretched out across a piece of wearable fabric. It’s enough to make you, well, sigh.

It’s not just wearable tech, either. The installation also features a nifty light display that scrolls emails and conversations from the departed whenever their name is brought up. This working prototype can only be viewed in Copenhagen for now. We’ll let you know when this moving piece of art, or something like it, comes to a town near you. In the meantime, check the video below.