Push the little red button and I belong to you: electronics for wearables workshop
Push the Little Red Button and I Belong to You
A hands-on workshop to prototype interactive wearables
About the Workshop
“Push the little red button and I belong to you” is a practice based workshop to design wearables, created by Paola Tognazzi.
This workshop based on Tognazzi’s methodology to design wearables garments that transform with movement like The Dragon is Alive and Metamorphosis examines how to capture qualitative data and use it to control interactive feedback.
Most wearables today are designed around technology, not the body—resulting in gadgets that feel disconnected from human needs. “Push the Little Red Button and I Belong to You” reverse this approach.
It’s a hands-on workshop where you’ll learn to prototype wearables by first understanding which body data matters, and only then writing code to respond to it.
Designed for fashion designers, artificial intelligence academics, interactive installation developers, it integrates methodologies of body qualitative data analysis, programming and wearable prototyping using the BBC Micro:bit board.
Why Wearables haven’t boomed
The wearable industry hasn’t boomed as predicted because designers rarely ask: “What data truly reflects the body’s story?” Instead, they cram in sensors without questioning their purpose. This workshop teaches to reverse the process: study the body’s language and needs first, then build technology that listens.
BBC micro:bit
In this workshop, students will harness the power of the Micro:bit BBC board—a versatile, beginner-friendly microcontroller—to bring their wearable prototypes to life.
The BBC micro:bit board is a compact, programmable microcontroller equipped with:
Led display
A 25 LED matrix that can display simple images and text.
Programmable buttons
Two programmable buttons for user input.
Input and output rings
Input and output rings that can be used to connect the micro:bit to other devices or sensors.
Accelerometer Sensors
An accelerometer and compass, enabling movement and orientation detection.
Temperature sensors
A range of sensors for temperature, light, and sound.
Connections
Bluetooth and USB connectivity for interaction with other devices and the internet.
Workshop Focus
The workshop theme is Rebel Machines / Subversive Bodies to Unlearn automated behaviors, wearable systems that give the superPower of teaching the sensory system to regain the confidence to trust itself.
It focuses on the study of qualitative movement data as a way to explore space, both within and
around the body, and as tools for communication, transformation and connection.
Outcome: By the end, you’ll prototype wearables that augment human ability, not just track it—because you’ll know exactly which data to capture and why. This is how real innovation begins.
Three Focus points:
- 1. Limbs-back connection and movement qualities: Physical
exploration of the connection between limbs and back, to understand which body part data is best to capture to control the wearable. - 2. Capturing Movement dynamics change: Developing systems to capture and measure movement qualities data like limb direction and speed (fast to slow, soft to sharp) and breath.
- 3. Codying: Writing codes for the Microbit to apply the data variations, to transform the wearable feedback.
Workshop Structure
Part 1: electronics
Basics of electronics
This session begins with a course in basic electronics.
Micro:bit Programming
From logic to action. Learn to write responsive algorithms that translate body data (like movement or breath) into real-time wearable feedback.
Wearable design
Participants will ideate the design of a wearable that gives superpowers.
Part 2: Work With the body
Body mapping
Students based on their design will learn how to map human body to be able to capture the data they need.
Crafting tools for body data measure
Participants will craft with rope, elastics, paper …tools to measure movement data.
Micro:bit
Students will embed the micro:bit in their tools to check data values.
Part 3: Group Prototyping
Interaction design
Teams will define how their wearable interacts with the body and environment, refining user experience through iterative testing.
Micro:bit coding
Students will adapt the interactive codes to their design.
Wearable prototyping
Students divided in groups will cut, tailor and assemble the wearable integrated with the electronics.
Methodology
This workshop is a methodological shift to learn to design wearables that augment human abilities
by learning to listen to the body first. Participants will collaborate in teams, sharing expertise to collect, analyze, and apply body data to prototype their wearable ideas.
To design interaction codes for the microcontroller students will apply physical and choreographic techniques to:
Body mapping
Study and explore the human body physical structure and dynamics
Customise measuring tools
Build measuring tools to visualize, segment and extrapolate data of interest
Data capturing
Learn to capture, filter and calibrate data, to map physical movement to algorithmic action triggers.
Learn more
Motivation first, technology follows
Designing consists in the formulation of rules and limits based on a meaningful goal.
The strength of a design lies in its underlying idea, not necessarily in the complexity or sophistication of the materials or technology used. While the use of digital machines in the designing process is handy, the difference between a design that has a solid idea behind and one that does not, is that the former can be prototyped for testings with basic elements like paper, pencils and tape to be scaled afterwards.
Students will learn
- 1. Body-first data design:
Most wearables fail because designers force the body to fit technology—not the other way around. You’ll learn to identify the right physiological signals (e.g., muscle tension, breath patterns) and discard the noise, ensuring your prototypes are grounded in how humans actually move and interact. - 2. Data with purpose: Critical analysis of how to collect the data that matters to inform, code and test effectively the prototypes ideas.
- 3. Crafting tools: Skills to design custom made data detectors .
- 4. How to listen to body data: Techniques to attentively listen and understand the workings of the body.
- 5. Team work: Collaborate and interact with diverse expertise to effectively achieve meaningful results.
About Paola Tognazzi
Paola Tognazzi blends industrial design (IED Milan) with movement arts (Cunningham, Ballet, Flying Low, and Body Mind Centering at SNDO Amsterdam), creating unique intersections between technology and the human body. In 2008 founded Wearable_Dynamics. She is known for her reactive 3D printed wearables garments that transform with movement The Dragon is Alive and Metamorphosis. Her work explores the sensuality of interactive systems, creating artistic experiences that engage audiences physically and emotionally.