Something new to shake your hips to

Hip shaking is normally a private affair, but an award-winning invention from a Monash University PhD student could change all that.

Danielle Wilde, PhD Candidate from the Faculty of Art and Design has been awarded for designing hipDisk, a unique device that lets you make music by moving.

“I wanted to make something that encourages people to explore and extend the range of movement of their hips – outside of coordinated activities such as dance and sport,” said Ms Wilde.

The result is a pair of horizontal disks worn around the hips with electronics, speakers and conductive fabric sensors that play music when the wearer bends and the disks touch. hipDisk is ungainly, funny, and very entertaining. The aim is to improve flexibility, musical and spatial awareness, enhancing wellbeing while having fun.

Danielle is the only artist to receive a prestigious Australian Prime Minister's Endeavour Research Award and is the first to practice a PhD in Fine Arts at the CSIRO, where she works in the Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering.

In early July, hipDisk won first prize on the popular ABC TV program The New Inventors where it competed against two life-saving devices for use in sports. It is now in the running for the Invention of the Year award, which will go to air on The New Inventors in August.

On the back of her success, Danielle is preparing for her upcoming solo-exhibition at Monash University in Clayton, where visitors can try her inventions firsthand. Amongst the works being demonstrated are a series of body-worn lasers and interactive LED garments that allow you to play with movement and light, created at the University of Tokyo as part of her PM Endeavour Research Award; a human hip-controlled etch-a-sketch system; and devices and structures to help people explore their body-technology desires and dreams.

“I encourage everyone to come along in August to see and interact with my designs. hipDisk will make you laugh and smile. All of my designs are for everyone – no matter how you move, my designs will help you to enjoy moving and discovering movement in surprising and playful ways. People are surprised when they wear my designs and realise how fun it can be. It’s astonishing the kind of attention something like hipDisk brings to the body,” said Ms Wilde.

hipDisk and other works by Danielle Wilde will be exhibited at Building 55, Monash University, Clayton on Sunday 28 August.

For further information visit www.daniellewilde.com