Montreal-based fashion designer Ying Gao has created a pair of robotic dresses that respond to their environment by rippling, expanding and contracting as if they are alive.
The two dresses, called Flowing Water, Standing Time, are the latest examples of autonomous clothing created by Gao.
Whereas her previous projects have reacted to nearby people, by twisting and curling when strangers approach or lighting up when someone stares at them, the new dresses instead respond to colours in their immediate surroundings.

The contextually reactive garments use colour and light sensors, as well as tiny cameras linked to a raspberry PI computer, to gather information about their environment.
This data then activates a series of actuators and magnets interlaced with silicone to cause the fabrics to ripple and move.
"Technically and technologically speaking, this project is different from the previous ones because the clothes have a much greater autonomy," Gao told Dezeen.
"They not only interact with the people around them, but also, and especially, with their environment, so the human body is no longer at the heart of the project."

Gao was inspired to create the project by a novel by one of her favourite authors, the neurologist Oliver Sacks. It tells the story of one of Sacks' patients ? a traumatised, middle-aged ex-navy sailor called Jimmie G, who reverts back to his 19-year-old self.
"Much like Jimmie G, the garments evolve between two states and displ...