This work deals with Smart Textiles in interaction with the body. We design textiles and outfits as tools that can influence fashion and textile design. Central to our work is that artistic envisioning can point to new possibilities and values, in which we want to stress the importance of combining traditional materials and methods with contemporary and future functions in order to obtain sustainable ideas. The film documents a performance, where dancers create a link between the body, the textile material and the room surrounding the body. The textile material and the garment are to inspire movement that, in turn, creates development; when a person wears the garment and moves in a certain way or touches other persons, the visual expression of the room changes through an electronic signal. In this case, the colour of the pattern of the textile draping changes to the static pattern that is printed on the person’s outfit. The point of the show was to show possibilities of non-static and dynamic design through scenic expression.
In this project we create a link between body, textile material and space. Textiles and garments shall inspire to motion that generates variability. When a body moves through a space, touches other bodies and parts of its garment, it affects the visual expression in the room. More specifically the background changes and adapts partially to the pattern of the garments. The base for our investigation is to perform artistic work with the expression of set design in the centre, that shows the possibilities, matters and values of fashion and textile design beyond the traditional boundaries. The tapestry is weawed in cotton, steel and wool. Print in heat sensitive pigment (supplier Variotherm Zenit Konsthantverk AB). The dresses are knitted in cotton and silverthreads. Acknowledgements: The burn-out experiments were made at IFP Research in Borås. The knitted samples and the tablecloth were made together with Tommy Martinsson and Folke Sandvik at the knitting department at the Swedish School of Textiles, University College of Borås.
Computation and new materials are entering the world of textiles, challenging our view on the textile material. As new techniques and electrically conductive fibres enable the design of textile circuits and computationally active textiles [2], the areas of smart textile design and interaction design start to merge. Wearable computing [cf.1], the notion of moving computational tools directly onto the body, might have been the first approach to bring computation technology closer to the area of clothing.. In an approach to investigate new enhanced forms of expressional interaction through textiles, the relationship between tactile and visual aesthetical properties are explored in the present paper. Textile Dimensions, an interactive set of textiles, shows how clothes and textiles become interfaces themselves, able to sense and react on external stimuli in expressive ways.
In art and design practices, materials and technology are means of expression as well as sources of inspiration. On the other hand, in technical development processes art and design provide meaning, direction and expressions of functionality. In some sense this duality of perspectives is what defines the loci where art, design and technology meet. Over the past ten years, the Swedish School of Textiles have taken part in the ongoing discussion on how practice-based research can further develop our understanding of the expressiveness inherent in new materials and new technology. In this context it is clear that art, design and technology meet in the lab and in the workshop. However, for discussions across borders between the perspectives of art, design and technology we need meeting places outside of the labs and the workshops as well. The Ambience exhibition is an exercise in building such a meeting place, but also an exercise in providing conference space for interaction between artistic practice and theory. As designers and artists working within a research setting, we often work in parallel with writing, presenting conference papers and exhibiting in different arenas. It is then only natural to include two ways of presenting results at a conference for artistic research; to let paper presentations and exhibition interact to create wider perspectives and deeper understanding. All exhibition contributions have been subject to a peer review process similar to the review process paper submissions are subjected to. And just as for paper submissions, reviews focus on originality and skills with respect to both results and presentation. This exhibition is the first in the series of Ambience conferences. The conference is organized by the University of Borås in cooperation with Tampere University of Technology and is a part of the Smart Textiles Initiative – www.smarttextiles.se In this catalogue you will find images, artist statements and/or project descriptions presenting the works displayed at the exhibition. Welcome to the Ambience´11 exhibition!
In this practice-based experimental design research project a tablecloth reacting on external signals is designed. The tablecloth is connected to mobile phones and reacts to incoming calls and messages with burned out patterns. Due to the mobile phone activity, changes in colour and structure appear in the table-cloth. The tablecloth is a way to explore visual and tactile changes in a textile surface. It is also a way to investigate how our relation to mobile phones and mobile phone technology is affected by the way the phones are being expressed.
We are developing a dynamic textile wall hanging as an interface to the atmosphere of a room. Atmospheres are elusive. An atmosphere is the result of an ongoing negotiation between the activities in the room and the expression of the material objects, the lighting, the temperature, and the boundaries of the room [4, 8]. The wall hanging will play an active part in that ongoing negotiation. The activities in the room will influence how the textile wall hanging changes structure, form, color, as well as the pace with which it happens, and the activities in the room may in turn be influenced by the expression of the wall hanging.
Imagine that the table is set and dinner is ready. It’s time to sit down and share the moment. That is what we do also in terms of sharing a one time pattern change in the tablecloth, and in terms of sharing each others’ mobile phone activity. Incoming phone calls and messages are not notified by the phones themselves, but through a burned out pattern in the tablecloth, in between our plates. The Burning Tablecloth serves as a design example of the design technique for irreversible patterns, expressing colour and structure-changes in a knitted textile. The Burning Tablecloth changes colour and structure according to mobile phone signals (calls and text messages) with burned out patterns and acts as a medium for raising questions about interactive tactile and visual expressions in textiles. The project is a design example of research into three fields, knitted circuits, textile patterns and peoples’ relation to computational technology. The tablecloth is knitted with cotton yarns and a heating wire in a Stoll flatbed knitting machine. The pattern that appears when using the tablecloth is built up as squares with the potential of becoming chess-patterned over the whole tablecloth surface. The table-cloth is connected to a microcontroller and various electronic components. The heating wire knitted in the table-cloth is the active material; when heated it is able to change the colour and structure of the table-cloth. The burning tablecloth reacts to mobile phone signals by getting warm so that colour and eventually structure changes is appearing in the tablecloth. The experiment demonstrates a design example where visual and tactile interactive properties are expressed in a tablecloth by mobile phone signals. Combined in a material structure, textile circuits are controlled by external stimuli adding an aesthetical value to the textile expression. With a foundation of experienced knowledge from latter experiments, the tablecloth shows an example developed by the design technique for irreversible patterns. The Burning Tablecloth also demonstrates how information can be expressed in an esthetical way through textiles, acting as an interactive colour and structure changing ambient textile display.
Two pieces of interactive furniture were exhibited in the exhibition "Like Textile" as a part of Milan design week, 12-17 of April 2011. The print on the surface of the furniture can change its expression over time, or in relation to someone touching or sitting on the surface. The prototypes were developed in a project called Recurring patterns, where we explore the process of designing dynamic patterns over time.
Two pieces of interactive furniture were exhibited at the Stokholm furniture fair, 8-12 of February 2011. The print on the surface of the furniture can change its expression over time, or in relation to someone touching or sitting on the surface. The prototypes were developed in a project called Recurring patterns, where we explore the process of designing dynamic patterns over time.
Through a smart textile design project we have identified two sets of complex issues generally relevant for design with state changing materials. Specifically, we show how the temporal dimension of smart textiles increase the complexity of traditional textile design variables such as form and colour. We also show how the composite nature of smart textiles creates a series of interdependencies that make the design of the textile expressions additionally complex. We discuss how these forms of complexity provide opportunities as well as challenges for the textile expressions, and we show how we dealt with them in practice.
No longer is it sufficient to add ‘smart’ to textiles to secure interesting research results. We have surpassed the initial stages of explorations and testing and now need to raise the bar. We have thus specified a research program in which we investigate what it means to design with smart textiles. What can we design with smart textiles? And how do we design with smart textiles? We now explore how these complex, often abstract, materials can enter traditional design practices and what role smart textile can play in the design of our environment. In this paper, we discuss the challenges we see at present, we outline our new research program and we qualify it through three examples of our ongoing projects: The smart textile sample collection, Dynamic textile patterns, and Bonad [tapestry]. The paper is as much an invitation to join forces, as it is a description of a maturing process within design research. We are over the first love, now what?
A new design technique for irreversible textile patterns has been developed. This technique can be compared with commonly used burn-out techniques (Ausbrenner etc.), but without using chemicals. Kanthal, a highly resistant heating wire, was knitted together with a blend of “conventional” textile yarns like cotton, wool, polyester and viscose into twelve different textile samples. In the samples, about five courses of heating wire were embroidered into parallel connections with a copper yarn. The textile samples were put on wooden frames and connected to a power supply. As the heating wires get hot, burned out patterns appear. The material combinations react to heat in different ways and the grade of expression varies in the samples. Some materials melt, others become dark/burned and some vanish or burn very quickly. The burned out expression depends on a range of factors such as the textile construction, access to oxygen, yarn combinations, length and number of heating wires used for the parallel connections, power supply etc. Being able to design a textile material by incorporating heat directly into the textile construction is considered as a new design technique for burned out patterns. By this technique, colour and structure changes in the material can be affected to create an aesthetic expression designing holes, stripes or cuts etc. The design technique enables a novel way of decorating a textile after a fabric is produced. It would be possible use this technique for showing information through colour- and structure changes in the textile using it as an ambient textile display. Technique: knitting, embroidery Materials: Kanthal, Kevlar, cotton, wool, polyester, viscose
In this ongoing practise-based design research project, a new technique for designing textile patterns is developed and explored; a non chemical burn-out (ausbrenner) technique. As a first part of the project, experiments with conductive and traditional textile materials in knitted structures were designed. The knitted samples were made in cotton, wool, viscose, polyester and Kevlar (Kevlar 2008), and have all been combined with Kanthal heating wires (Kanthal 2008). When a voltage is applied to the textile, the heating wire leaves burned out patterns in the textile material. The result is a new technique, where we can design irreversible textile patterns. We also suggest new design variables of relevance when designing dynamic textile patterns. The overall aim is to explore different materials, material combinations and techniques for developing textile circuits and designing dynamic textile patterns. The knitted textile patterns change over time when a voltage is turned on or off in the textile circuits.
As interactive materials enter the world of textile design, a new area is defined. From an interaction design perspective, interactive (or smart) textiles obviously differ from, for example, a computer game or a word processing program in various ways. One difference is that interactive textiles are experienced as physical materials and are not pixels changing colour on a computer display. But the main difference lies in the diverse aesthetical values; computer software and hardware are related to advanced technology, hard material and functionality whereas textiles are familiar, tactile, flexible and touchable. Still,textiles can build on advanced technology.To be able to understand the full potential of interactive textiles, we need to consider them as something new, designed in the intersection between textile design and interaction design. The experimental approach taken in the Functional Styling project is inspired by the work made at the Interactive Institute within the IT+textiles design program where a series of experiments and design examples were made in the field of interactive textiles, exploring the aesthetics and emerging expressions of smart textiles rather than technical functionality. This paper reports on a collaboration between the Smart Textiles Design Lab at the Swedish School of Textiles, University of Borås, and designers and technicians at Kasthall, a company with a long tradition in producing hand tufted and woven high-class quality carpets.
Resurser och hållbarhet är nära förknippade. Hållbarhet innebär att hushålla med resurser - materiella, miljömässiga och mänskliga. Och hushållning är per definition kärnan i ekonomi. Man börjar alltmer se framväxten av en hel arsenal av verktyg och förhållnings- och angreppssätt för att bygga hållbarhet. Detta förenas av ett synsätt att det som hitintills setts om avfall och värdelöst, och rent utav besvärligt att ta hand om, nu blir en värdefull resurs. Det glömda och gömda kommer åter. Faktum är att många ord och begrepp kring detta börjar på just åter- eller re- . Internationellt talar man om Redesign, Recycling, Remake, Recycle, Recraft, Reuse, Recreate, Reclaim, Reduce, Repair, Refashion.
Vad är då allt detta? Ja, vill man dra det långt, är det inte mindre än framväxten av ett nyvunnet sätt att tänka, ja av en ny samhällssektor, en bransch och en industri, sammanbundet av filosofin att återanvändningen, spillminskningen, vidarebruket, efterlivet anses som viktiga faktorer för ett miljömedvetet samhälle. Re: blir paraplytermen för detta. I denna antologi av forskare från skilda discipliner vid Högskolan i Borås lyfts ett antal av dessa begrepp inom Re: fram.
What if your furniture expresses appreciation when you sit on them? Or what if they call for attention if they have been empty for too long? Textiles always change expression over time due to use and exposure to sunlight, moist, etc. The textile on these pouffes changes expressions in a dynamic interplay with their use. A bright pattern is gradually revealed when someone sits on them but hid again when they stand idle by. In other words, their patterns are recurring in both space and time.
Textilt Motstånd / Textile Resistance is a collaborative project between Smart Textiles Design Lab and Syntjuntan. The project explores design possibilities of raw textile materials that can be used as textile music instruments, which will be used by Syntjuntan in their music performances.
Utställning "Color Memories"
Designing Dynamic Textile Patterns Progress in chemistry, fibres and polymers technology provides textile designers with new expressive materials, making it possible to design dynamic textile patterns, where several different expressions are inherent in the same textile, textiles that, for example, could alternate between a striped and checkered pattern. Textiles are traditionally designed and produced to keep a given, static expression during their life cycle; a striped pattern is supposed to keep its stripes. In the same way textile designers are trained to design for static expressions, where patterns and decorations are meant to last in a specific manner. However, things are changing. The textile designer now deals also with a new raw material, a dynamic textile, ready to be further designed, developed and/or programmed, depending on functional context. This transformation in practice is not an easy one for the designers. Designers need to learn how to design with these new materials and their specific qualities, to be able to develop the full expressional potential inherent in “smart textiles design”. The aim of this thesis is to display, and discuss, a methodology for designing dynamic textile patterns. So far, something that mainly has been seen in different experimental and conceptual prototypes, in artistic expressions and for commercial efforts etc. In terms of basic experimental research this thesis explores the turn in textile design practice through a series of design experiments with focus on contributing to identifying and characterizing new design variables, new design methods and new design techniques as a foundation for dynamic textile patterns.
Jag blev beviljad ett vistelsestipendium på Eckerö Post och Tullhus, Åland under perioden 10 juni till den 21 juli sommaren 2013, detta är min reseberättelse om vad jag gjorde, med dagboksanteckningar och bilder från vistelsen och utställning i min atelje i samband med öppethus. I naturen och årstiderna finns en ständig föränderlighet, samtidigt som det finns en konstant upprepning i dygnet och året. I mina textila experiment växt-färgar jag utan betmedel (alltså inga tillsatta kemikalier) för att undersöka naturens inneboende flyktighet, där något träder fram och ett annat försvinner. Kommer de Ålandsfärgade textilierna förändras om tio månader, ett år, fem år?
The past decade has seen an increasing interest in our small-scale experimental textiles at the design lab at the Swedish School of Textiles. Representatives from various industries and professions have visited to find out more about our so called smart textiles and to collect product samples. We want to encourage designers to work directly with the textile material in the design process to enlarge the understanding for how to design with smart textile materials. Weand we are currently working to develop a collection of samples of “smart textile sample collection ́s for designers to use and work with, enabling them to better understand the great potential of smart textiles. This article also describes some new design variables regarding dynamic textile patterns; a result from the thesis Designing Dynamic Textile Patterns (Worbin 2010).
Contemporary preconception of color within textile design is more or less seen as a static and measurable phenomena, but in this project will the opposite be investigated, textile colors are crafted to investigate expressions that is evolving over time. This practice based design research project presents a series of textile color samples that will give guidance to a number of plant dyed expressions. Textiles are dyed without any mordant, meaning no added chemical or salts that will influence on the color or color fastness. The objective in this project is to investigate and visualize color changing textile expressions from plant dye, and to verify the changing process within the color samples. This will be documented and fulfilled in two phases:
Åland 2013 - Report no.1 (this report) plant dyed samples are documented and presented as visual scanned color samples with foundational information like; materials, plants, dyeing methods etc. Evaluation of first phase in the project covering what visual color you get from different combination of textile materials/fibres and plants etc.
Åland 2013 - Report no.2 (to be presented) same samples will be juxtaposed and presented a second time, after being exposed to light etc. in x time. Evaluation and comparison between the scanned samples presented in report no. 1 and in report no. 2 with respect to visual color changes.
Textile can be more than just patterns and washability. Today it can have other functions, visible or hidden and they can be interactive. Textile has simply become high-tech. What used to be considered science fiction is today reality. The exhibition TEXTILE POSSIBILITIES focuses on experiments that explores the possibilities that modern textile materials offers. There are no actual products on display in the exhibition, instead the latest research from textile is shown. For instance, visitors can experience how electricity, heat and movements alter colours and structures within the textiles. The exhibition shows the research process and lets the visitor interact with the different textile prototypes. The exhibition TEXTILE POSSIBILITIES aims to inspire, convey knowledge and to visualise a possible textile development. It shows a way for how experimental design research through collaboration with the commercial community can affect and build it’s own future here in Sweden.
Trace Textiles are traditionally designed and produced to more or less keep a given, static expression during their life cycle; a striped pattern is supposed to keep its stripes. Also textile designers are traditionally trained to design for static expressions, where patterns and decorations are meant to last in a specific manner. However, things are changing. The carpet Trace is part of a series of design experiments that focus on contributing to identifying and characterizing new design variables, new design methods and new design techniques as a foundation for dynamic textile patterns. Textile designer deals with a new raw material, a dynamic textile, ready to be further designed, developed and/or programmed after its being produced. Expressional changes in real time due to pressure This design example is made as a carpet that lights up when someone walks on it. The light is achieved by using an electroluminescent wire, that requires an electrical power source to be switched on / off which is controlled by a program. This is a reversible textile pattern and will change back to its initial expression when there is no applied pressure on the carpet. Not only designers need to learn how to design with these new materials and their specific qualities that can be seen as a kind of functional styling with dynamic textile patterns. Both users and production perspective need to be further investigated to be able to develop a fully expressional potential and function inherent in these “smart textiles”. If you are interested to know more about dynamic textile patterns and our design examples all our publications are available from The Swedish School of Textiles digital library Bada (bada.hb.se). For example you can find Linda Worbins thesis Designing Dynamic Textile Patterns and Anna Perssons thesis Exploring textiles as materials for interaction design. Trace is funded by Smart Textiles, Vinnova and The Swedish School of Textiles, University of Borås, Sweden. The project is initiated by Linda Worbin and made by Anna Persson, Christian Mohr and Linda Worbin Smart textile Design Lab, in a collaboration with Kasthall Carpet AB.