Is it art? Fashion? A ferocious predator? This 3D printed wearable cape knows when you’re looking at it and responds accordingly.

Behnaz Farahi is an architect and interaction designer who specializes in mixing technology with art. Inspired by natural systems and mechanisms, she regularly mixes primal and chic. She is currently working as an artist in residence at Pier 9, and already has a handful of awards attached to her name.

As part of her residency, she has utilized the popular design software Autodesk to create Caress of the Gaze, an observant, responsive cape-style top. The 3D printed top is equipped with a camera and microcontroller that not only records a viewers gaze, but analyzes it. The age and gender of the viewer determines the exact movements of the garment.

The project would have been even more complicated without the Objet Connex500 3D printer, which, according to Farahi, allows “the fabrication of composite materials with varying flexibilities densities, and can combine materials in several ways with different material properties deposited in a single print run.”

The material moves in a truly natural and animalistic fashion, not just shocking, but inspiring. It also really makes us want to touch it. What in the world must those 3D printed quills feel like?

The implications and uses of Caress of the Gaze are an art student’s dream. It reminds us of our primal past, our technological advances, and the way we interact with the world around us. It’s a piece that could only be created by someone able to mix technology and art in a deeply fluid fashion.

Very little has been made public about the art-fashion piece, and the mystery has prompted a lot of discussion. Is it scary? Empowering? Sexual? No one can agree what exactly it means. Whatever it is, it’s moving.