image,event,physical object,moving image

Touching Loops is a collection of three knitted textiles with structure-changing interactive properties. The textiles are able to sense and react to touch by shrinking, breaking or becoming stiff. The textiles are thought of as interactive architectural material. When they are touched, a specific area in the textile becomes hot. A microcontroller that is connected to the textile is programmed to sense and react to touch. The materials in the samples react to heat in different ways by shrinking, becoming stiff or by breaking into pieces. The developing process consisted in programming the patterns for industrial machines in such a way that the conductive silver yarns are of important matter for the material aesthetics besides their function to generate heat. The three knitted pieces react in different ways when current passes trough the conductive yarns. The first piece combines a silver coated copper yarn and Pemotex yarn in a ridge pattern. In the second sample a Jaquard pattern combines shrinking polyester monofilament, a Grilon yarn and a silver coated copper yarn. This piece reacts to heat by breaking and shrinking. The third piece is constructed with partial knitting and ridge patterns and the yarns used are Pemotex, a Grilon yarn and the silver coated copper yarn. When the conductive yarn gets hot, the ridges shrink and harden. The aim of the project is to explore possibilities for expressive interactive tactile knitted materials and structures. The textiles are seen as a possible material to use in the context of architecture.