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.
As a way of opening a space where methods from the fields of fashion design, textile design and interaction design overlap, the project Repetition intersects different methodologies through practice-based research in design. Experiments were conducted to explore ways of creating relationships between body and space by means of translating information as pattern design between garments and interactive knitted walls. By arranging a startup performance, we reflected on the expressional variables that influence the expression of the pattern translations; variables concerning the garments, the walls, the print and the movements were illustrated by the expressions found. The result formulates specific descriptions regarding accuracy and distribution of pattern translation, illustrating basic concepts of pattern formations identified in visual changes appearing in the garment. By communicating our understanding of basic expressions, Repetition aims to formulate a new framework for collaborative work as a method for further design.
This paper describes a practice-based research project in which design experiments were conducted to explore how knitted structures can be designed with particular emphasis on various interactive heat expressions. Several heat transformable structures, able to both sense and react to human touch, were developed in the textile collection Knitted Heat. The designed textiles serve as references to reflect further on the role of interactive textiles as materials for potential designs. Specific scenarios defined by shrinking, breaking, stiffening, texturizing and warming expressed by the textile transformations exemplify and discuss their potential as complementary for other design processes.
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.
A computer mouse is a generic interaction tool designed for navigating graphical elements on a two dimensional plane. It is developed in a context of technology and formed to serve the ergonomics of the desktop work situation. A textile mouse, on the other hand, engages a different context. The textile alone evokes the traditions of clothes and home décor that will inevitably influence how it is perceived and consequently used.
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.
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.
The new spatial context in building design exceeds the limits of conventional architectural space. A major aim of the new architecture is to create a close emotional connection to the user besides physical enclosure. In this context the emotional of role of the surface is explored both visually and physically in the space perception (Schittich). The interaction between the viewer-user and the viewed space can also be expressed physically due to the integration of computer technology. By means of computational technology new possibilities for the traditional materials to express their aesthetic and haptic properties of the surface can be created in order to appeal to the user emotions. The architectural surfaces exceed their value in this case; from static they become dynamic (Addington and Schodek) interfaces between the user and the physical environment. By touching a complex perception concerning space and objects is provided through shape, softness, texture, vibration, temperature, etc. In this context the sense of touch in the perception of the space becomes fundamental together with the sense of sight. The present paper investigates the new forms of expression integrated into textile materials that are meant to participate actively to our space experience. By facilitating the relation userthe built environment, the focus of the project is to explore a dynamic way to design textile materials that join together aesthetics and computation as manner to expand human experiences. The purpose of the project is to correlate the physical and visual perception of space and focuses on tactility as asset to create interactive architectural environments. Tactility and heat are explored as integrative part of the textile design process in order to generate interactive patterns. By combining conventional textile yarns together with conductive yarns, the result investigates the emotional sensation of warmth through the design of two knitted structures capable to emit heat as a feedback to the human touch.
As computational technology and new materials enter the world of textiles, our view on textile materials is challenged. Textile interaction design suggests a new design space in which the fields of textile design and interaction design are merged. This work contributes to the introduction of textiles as material for interaction design and focuses on spatial and temporal design of the dynamic elements of textiles – the elements that enable interaction. The result is various interactive textile material examples which are meant to inspire new expressional uses of textile materials thought of as slow, interacting hardware able to inhabit our everyday environments through responsive light, tactile connections, and informative decorations etc. Design experiments conducted within this thesis are framed by a research programme, which is set up as an initial guideline to explore visual and tactile interactive properties of knitted textiles. Together with practical knowledge, the result is a theoretical framework that frames essential features of an interactive textile design where the defined design variables introduce a way to formulate what it is we design when we design for dynamic elements. By introducing notions such as the potential and precision of interaction, design variables relating to both physical and programming design are derived from the design of the dynamic elements of a material. A retrospective analysis of the experiments in relation to four acknowledged interaction design dimensions establish a link between the fields of interaction design and textile design. This work is based on the design experiments Electrical Burnouts, Costumes and Wall Hanging, Touching Loops, Designing with Heat, Functional Styling, Repetition and Stretching Loops, where the implemented structures are seen both as materials for further design and examples meant to provide inspiration in a more general sense.
As computational technology and new materials are entering the world of textiles, our view on the textile material is challenged; the areas of textile design and interaction design start to merge. Designing interactive textiles means communicating new expressional forms through textile material. This thesis aim to contribute to the exploration of designing interactive knitted textiles with focus on linking interactive properties, especially visual and tactile, to different ways of expressing them. Design examples and experiments presented are meant to show new possibilities for designing textile material able to change structure, colour and temperature in different ways in response to environmental stimuli. As a way of presenting, and reflecting on, these interactive properties, a notion of expression diagrams is introduced.
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.
“Repetition” is a Fashion Design and E-textile design project, which explore the use of thermo-chromic ink fabric and its interaction when designing a garment for performance art centering the body and movement as its design element.
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.
Aiming to open a new design space that connects three areas of architectural, interaction and textile design, the knitted structures Furry lines and Groovy squares were designed. By combining conventional textile yarns together with conductive yarns, the result investigates the sensation of warmth through the design of knitted structures. The purpose is to offer a synesthetic experience that correlate the physical and visual perception of space and focuses on tactility as an asset to create interactive architectural environments. The structures were made using different knitting techniques, combining a silver-coated copper yarn and conventional textile yarns. The silver coated copper yarn is used both for heat generating and touch sensing properties. Connected to a microcontroller able to sense and react on small differences in electricity, the textile becomes a touch sensor itself. By offering feed-back to hand touch DESIGNING WITH HEAT DELIA DUMITRESCU ANNA PERSSON by becoming warmly pleasant to the skin, new types of patterns can be created using the combination between heat and human touch that exceed the visual dimension. Designing with heat exemplifies how visible and invisible expressions merge into one experience, expressed through the textile material. The textile structure is perceived both through the eyes of imagination and the skin as heated patterns. The prototypes show how heat could be part of the surface aesthetics alongside with colour and shape.