The design of woven smart textiles presents a discrepancy of scale where the designer works at the level of structural textile design while facets of the material express at scales beyond one’s senses. Without appropriate methods to address these unknown (or hidden) material dimensions, certain expressional domains of the textile are closed off from textile design possibilities. The aim of the research has been to narrow the gap that presents when one designs simultaneously at the scale of textile structure and electron flow in yarns. It does this by detailing a method for sensing, visualizing, and discussing expressions of electromagnetism in woven smart textiles. Based on experimental research, a method of textile surface scanning is proposed to produce a visualization of the textile’s electromagnetic field. The woven textile samples observed through this method reveal an unknown textural quality that exists within the electron flow – an electromagnetic texture, which emerges at the intersection of woven design and electromagnetic domain variables. The research further contributes to the definition of specific design variables such as: field strength and diffusion expanding the practice of woven smart textile design to the electromagnetic domain.

As an artistic space, the electromagnetic atmosphere sits akin to the notion of ether as a non-visual and omnipresent force; an "abstract everywhere" (Milutis, 2002). It forms an energetic ambiance that seems to come "from nowhere and everywhere at once" (Kahn in Vincente et al., 25). It is a space devoid of exactitudes, an invisible sandbox of infinite expressions of electromagnetic properties that afford physical interaction. As Dunne posits, the electromagnetic atmosphere is simultaneously a physical, conceptual, and notional space (102). To situate oneself in this liminal space requires a method through which to perceive this energetic ether in relation to ourselves.

The artistic research that is presented here stems from a practice of experimental textile design, through which body-based textile antenna designs are proposed. These antennas allow the wearer to explore the boundaries of their body within this electromagnetic atmosphere through means of interaction. As textile antennas receive electromagnetic waves they are converted to soundwaves that the wearer can hear in real-time through the use of headphones. Interaction with the textile antennas combine body positioning, movement, and the directional quality of electromagnetic waves, resulting in changes to the sonic expressions one hears.

Considering that the act of wearing on the body is communicative, we question how signification occurs with these body-based textile antennas as technological objects. Using Barthes' semiotic notions of dress objects and dressing, signified and signifier (Barthes, 1983), we explore the notion that these objects may carry signification through frequency-based interactions with electromagnetic atmosphere. As a result, we speculate on bodily signifiers for perceiving the abstract everywhere.

Printable smart materials offer textile designers a range of changeable colours, with the potential to redefine the expressive properties of static textiles. However, this comes with the challenge of understanding how the printing process may need to be adapted for these novel materials. This research explores and exemplifies the properties and potential of electroluminescent inks as printable smart colours for textiles, in order to facilitate an understanding of designing complex surface patterns with electroluminescent inks. Three conventional textile print methods – colour mixing, halftone rasterization, and overlapping – have been investigated through experimental design research to expand the design potential of electroluminescent inks. The result presents a set of methods to create various color mixtures and design complex patterns. It offers recipes for print formulation and documents the outcomes, offering a new design resource for textile surface pattern designers to promote creativity in design, and provides fundamental knowledge for the creation of patterns on textiles using electroluminescent inks.

Contemporarily, antennas are receding into their parent devices, minimizing or disappearing completely from sight. They are affected by the technological trend toward miniaturization of electronic devices [8]. Similarly, textile antennas are being embedded into clothing where they lay flat to the body, seamlessly integrated into the surface of the garment [7]. Yet the question arises whether textile antennas must be discrete and designed out of sight. In this paper we propose a possible alternative. Disobedient Antennas are textile interaction design examples using textile design and experimental research methods. They are textile receiver antennas that disrupt the convention of planar textile antennas [7,8] to suggest that textile antennas can be voluminous and sculptural wearable objects. Further, they occupy a performative space, suggesting body-space-object interaction by using the antennas to perceive and explore electromagnetic fields through sonic feedback. Their use opens to improvised movements and choreographies in response to electromagnetic space.

The paper presents the context and inspirations for the Flower Antenna, a large-scale, hovering, sculptural sound installation that combines sound and transmission art, computational textiles, and architectural design. Computational textiles include microcontrollers and other electronic components as well as use the natural property of the fabric to communicate information to people The Flower Antenna was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art’s (MOMA) Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America during the spring of 2021. The authors discuss the use of electromagnetic waves via an electronically active textile construction as a form of non-visual media used to represent the paradox of Blackness and the presence of Black people in architecture in the wake of the history of slavery in the United States. Electromagnetic waves are neither seen nor recognized by most people, yet they shape the spaces people inhabit and support almost every part of society today with the use of invisible networks cast by the internet and its structures. This artistic project contributes to a discussion and reconstructing an understanding of Black culture in transmission arts, textile design, and in architecture. 

 The discourse surrounding intangible materials in interaction design is often directed toward

computational materials [2, 9], however, this studio focuses on sonic and electromagnetic fields as

intangible materials with distinctive qualities and methods of interaction. Participants explore the

notion of extended body by augmenting their natural hearing abilities through body-space-object

interactions. Using analog and radio-frequency (RF) sonic extenders, participants direct, block,

amplify, and filter sounds, and perceive the surrounding electromagnetic landscape, thereby

creating a “super sense” of heightened audition. This sonic experience explores the sensorial

possibilities of the future body, where aural augmentation could take place. Using soundwalking

and soundmapping as methods, participants explore transitive sonic forms that change their

qualities and content over time in downtown Sydney. Participants produce a collective soundmap

identifying embodied sonic extensions and acousmatic techniques, along with movements,

gestures, and choreographies. This data will be used to stimulate a final discussion.

In textile design education, material expressions tend to be directed toward visual-tactile sensory domains. Yet, materials are perceived by all senses, as the body’s experience is mediated through multiple sensory modalities. This paper presents an experiential learning workshop designed to introduce textile design students to somaesthetics as a way to increase sensory competencies and enrich the exploration of sensory-material expressions in textile design. Teaching methods involved a sensitizing exercise, a reflective sense collage, a collaborative sense map task, and a final design task. An evaluative discussion is based on workshop feedback by the students and reflections by the researchers. The main contributions of the paper are guidelines as an inspirational source for introducing sensory-material aesthetics in textile design education.