Future Textile

More extensive brainstorming. When the idea got more formed of what sensors and elements we want to use and what kind of interaction and space we wish to create, we formed to teams. Team one discussed the interactive part of the Installation, what kind of sensors, what action will be required to trigger a  reaction and how does that respond  to the poetry of the Installation. The other team discussed to find ways how to treat the textile in relations to space, body, movement and interactivity. Later we met and combined it all. At the end of Day 3, we found ourselves cleaning and emptying the space, and to get started to prepare the textile element of the Installation.

During the whole day we made some tests, for expample: with the thermochromic paste and conductive wire plus carbon non woven textile, to create patterns that disappear/appear (depending on how you use the thermochromin paste as a negative or positive print) and we did some tests with sound and textile (through wire (textile stripes, wire) connected to a motor and attached to a textile – different textile qualities, like silk or cotton give different sounds. This motor-sound movement gives a funny shivering movement to the textile.

Riccardo was writing the scripts needed to get our circuits to work and to connect the needed hardware to it – LED´s powered by Solar Cells, sound from motors connected to textile captured with mini loudspeakers and physical movement created by motors upon textiles.

We received a deeper briefing upon Arduino and soft circuits done with the Arduino Board or a Lilipad.(www.arduino.cc) by Riccardo. The Lilypad is concepted to be used in textile/wearable surrounding and is invented by Leah Buechley (http://thehighlowtech.com/). You can attach the Lilipad with conductive wires/yarn upon your textile and it can even handle a careful handwash (take out the power supply! first).
The difference of a Lilypad to an Arduino Board is that it has no on/off connector and has an external USB interface and connector. They both usually run with 5V (Lilypad from 2,7V), exactly the amount provided by your computer when you connect it via USB. After you uploaded the program you created on arduino software, you can unplugg the board and it runs the program you loaded (it is saved on the chip). Difference to an Arduino to a Lillypad is, that you can push the restart button mounted on the pad, the program will start from the beginning. You can attach several microcontrollers, like accelerometers (movement sensors), heat sensors, light sensors, LED´s etc. If your are a green minded person, I recommend powering the board with a rechargeable lithium battery, or by solarcells. Be aware, when working with el-textiles it requires that you – before touching processors and your arduino boards, etc, that you touch metal. You will get rid of your electrical charge/voltage – that can destroy your electronic hardware.
When writing programs with the arduino software, you need to define wether you want your board to be an Input, or an Output to tell via your board what you want it to do (to turn sth on or off – a reaction).

An Lilypad/and Arduino is capturing what the sensors are sensing from the surrounding (via light, heat, motion, touch etc ). We got an insight in different ways of sensing the environment, the digital (simply on and off information  – to bring an LED to blink (0 and 1)) and the analog (a fading LED from on to fading off). We explored and made tests with different textile sensors like the soft textile touch button (you can buy at PlugAndWear – this sensor works very nice just by a gently touch, almost stroke, I really liked that one) and a sensor called potentiometer, here you can slide for example a bead along a conductive material (we used a knitted tube produced with metalthread and textile yarn (PlugAndWear) to control the intensity of a LED blink (fast or slow).

After this lecture it was time to begin with brainstorm for our project that the team will produce the next 2 days. To get into the right creative productive mood the Team of Diffus showed us again some examples of interactives projects with the focus of kinetic sculptures and responsive spaces.
In fact one of the first kinetic sculptures run by solarenergy was done by Charles Eames, called The do nothing machine, 1957.
Referred Artists: Scenocosme (http://www.scenocosme.com/), http://undertheumbrella.net/, Daniel Chadwick, Meridith Pingree, Jason Bruges, Philips Lumiblade, Random International (http://www.random-international.com/), Art+Com BMW museum.

Brainstorm briefing: Our input for the project are solar cells sensors analog and digital, on/off potentiometer, photo transistors. We will use Arduino as a processing tool, and the Output will be LED´s, motors and heat. The theme will be to transform sunshine, emotional expressions, relationship between us and our objects, body and movements and space. Slogan: What you see is what you get!

The group made brainstorm, and after 1 hour extensive talk we came to the solution that it would be nice to use thermochromic color (pigments you mix into transparent binder) (to order for example at (http://www.zenit-konst.se/Servlet), contact microphones (piezos), miniloudspeakers, our solar cells and to make something where people can interact – with the textile and the space.

Interactive textiles and how textiles visualize the environment and power my mobile.
The day begun with a presentation of the design team Diffus and of all participants.

We listened to a great lecture by Diffus, it was an interesting theoretical approach to the topic of el-textiles and wearables. The journey started with how we became posthumans, beginning with the attitude towards technology seen as a curious utopian element like you can see in the great movie: Metropolis from 1927 (the machine mensch). Diffus mentioned Bauhaus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhaus), especially the scenic theatre and the costume design of Oskar Schlemmer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oskar_schlemmer), as one of the inspirational sources for the design team. The approach towards technology and body changed to something scary, powerful and dark in the 80´ties, Hollywood movies like Terminator and Bladerunner opened the way of experiencing technology embedded in human tissue – the skin. The Blockbuster Matrix in the 90ties added another layer to the thematic of technology and body – can we believe our reality? Technology now approaches us as something fancy, and clean. In the movie humans are used as power supply for the world runs by robots. Technology now has found its way into our mind, – as a mindgame.

referred readings: How We Became Posthuman, Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics by N.Katherine Hayles referred Artists: Patricia Piccini, Stelarc.
Later in the speech the focus turned upon the body. That space is made wearable, the body as a sensor to trigger an experience.
referred Artists: Diller and Scofidio – Blur Building, Lozano Hemmer, Bill T. Jones/Paul Kaiser and Shelly Eshkar.
Referred projects in the part Fashion and Technology: Hug Shirt by http://www.cutecircuit.com/, Elena Corchera http://www.lostvalues.com/, The Bubble mood-sensing dress by Philips and the Sonic Fabric (http://www.sonicfabric.com/).
Later we got an insight on how the project of the Diffus design team actually work, what technology stands behind projects like the CyberAngel, 2004 and Costumes Choreography 2006.
One ongoing project is the Interactive Sample Book, that will display a number of possibilities where computer technology, smart materials and textiles are mixed such an extend that the textile can react to different kinds of input from the surrounding world. (http://diffus.dk/projects.htm).
They showed and explained us the journey from experiment to fashion, on the Climate Dress 2009. The ways from experimenting to finding a company that can do delicate embroidery, to a commercial product of the ready functioning dress.

We got an insight into the thematic of electronic, how circuits and soft circuits are working by Riccardo, that is the owner of Inntex (family inherent old textile knitting company in Italy / Firenze) and of the webshop, called plug and wear (http://www.plugandwear.com/) where you can order electronical gadgets (LED´s, el-wire, conductive fabrics, manufactured sensors, etc …).

The company Inntex is producing smart textiles like pressure sensitive fabric and luminescent fabric just to mention some of the commercial samples. Inntex creates for example textiles with very thin metal threads (stainless steel, copper), later the fabric gets embossed creating with it a pattern or it is being printed upon. Visit their homepage to see more of the innovative textiles – that can be used as ready canvases for your el-textile idea!

To prevent our head from burning (lots of input) we ended the day with a material hour. The team of Diffus showed us their inventions for real, the fabrics and textiles with it the electronic and technology used. We touched and looked at carbon non woven fabric that can transform electricity into heat and let the thermochromic ink react, at Lillipads, mini LEDs, muscel wire, solar cells, … . Riccardo showed Inntex and Plug and Wear´s innovative and conductive metal fabrics, like heat resistant polyester mix with tin copper thread, stunningly beautiful looking copper tubes and stainless steal weavings.

I invite you to visit the slideshow of the Day1 worklab with Diffus, there you can get the same fantastic feeling of what we had after the material hour and the very informative first day.

During 2010 Atelier Nord, in collaboration with Bergen National Academy of the Arts (KHiB) and the Swedish School of Textiles in Borås carries out the project Soft Technology, which is an area of commitment for Scandinavian competence building and exploration of “smart” materials, electronic textiles and textile electronics. Through a series of work labs, seminars and open workshops the possibilities and challenges which lies in the meeting between professional knowledge, new technology and art practice are being explored. Soft Technology is the first project to introduce e-textile to an audience outside the educational institutions in Scandinavia. As a natural continuation of the project, Atelier Nord plans a travelling exhibition in 2011. The exhibition will show current international works using or based on e-textiles and e-textile techniques. The exhibition will tour all the Scandinavian countries. First show will be at Galleri Soft in Oslo in April 2011.
 Smart materials are responsive and dynamic. They can change colour, shape and size according to the surroundings. Many of them also have the ability to remember their original condition or return to it.
 Electronic textiles are textiles where electronic components are incorporated in the textile material, either by seam, weaving, pressure or other techniques.
 Textile electronics are textile materials with characteristics corresponding electronics or elctro-mechanic components like weaved circuits, sewn sensors, live threads and fibres, pigments reacting to light, sound, pressure, heat or humidity.
E-textiles are used as a collective term for all the above mentioned.

From 1st till 4th of June, Diffus Design holds a four-day worklab at Atelier Nord.
Diffus is a design company, working with theoretical and practical approach towards art, design, architecture and new media. http://diffus.dk

The theme of the worklab is interactive textiles, soft circuits and alternative energy.
We will investigate different kinds of textile conductive techniques, use of photovoltaic materials and Arduino Lilypads. The worklab will include an individual introduction to the Lilypad, programming and conductive materials. The final result will be a group project presented to the public, making an environmental statement with alternative use of solar cells, LEDs, optical fibers, thermochromic ink or other materials that offer an interactive approach to textiles.

We are working from the point of view that what you see is what you get. Electronics and circuits are not hidden, but become a crucial part of the expression and the aesthetics. There has always to some degree been alienation in the relation between man and technology – on the other hand textiles are the most integrated materials in our everyday life. What happens when new technology gets integrated with the well-known textiles. Our everyday use of textiles combined with our everyday need for electronic devices to guide and amuse us will be the essential starting point of the workshop, theoretically as well as practically.

The worklab is a part of the e-textile project Soft Technology at Atelier Nord. The project is supported by the Norwegian Arts Council and Nordic Culture Point.