Future Textile

Day 1

with Hillevi Munthe, Hilde Hauan, Terese Stenhjem, Øyvind Mellbye, Nick Stevens and Amanda Steggell
16-19 November 2010

- a working session drawing on the experience and knowledge of the participants. We will experiment with muscle wire/shape memory alloys (SMA) in textiles. Soft Technology is initiated by Hillevi Munthe and is a collaboration between Atelier Nord and ”Future Textiles” at  Bergen National Academy of the Arts. The project is funded by The Arts Council of Norway, Nordic Culture Fund and Norwegian Association for Arts and Crafts.

Shape memory alloys are metalthreads/wires that can “remember” a given shape.  When cold, the wire is relaxes and flexible.  When heated to a certain temperature by water, air or electricity, it contracts to the formed shape.  Reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deLMg9JOMKc

Drawing on the experience and knowledge of the group, we will test the possibilities and limits of the SMA, experimenting with power supply, shapes and structures and effects in different textile material, using Lilypads,  Arduinos and more.

Based on previous experiences and experiments that Hillevi has had with using muscle wires (nitinol), the workshop starts with a talk about unknown variants that can affect the behaviour of  annealed (prepared for shape shifting by heating) muscle wires.

When unannealed (not shaped) the wire has a 3-5% shape shifting ability.

1. Temperature: muscle wires should be heated to 540° C. When reaching this temperature they must be immediately cooled.

Using a gas torch to heat the wires requires observing the wire, looking for “glows” and twitches to determine whether it has reached 540 degrees.

Question: how can we achieve a more accurate way of heating the wire to avoid under/over heating?

2. Power supply: voltage requirement, 0.3 volts per cm of muscle wire irrespective of diameter of wire.
We are using this information regarding volts/watts applied to different lengths/breadths of muscle wire.

Question: Experiencing “random” behaviour when applying the advised current/amp to various widths/breadths of muscle wire, what ways of testing can we find to make more precise decisions about what current to apply to different lengths/breadths of wire?

So, the problem is a combination of temperature (not being able to be precise about when the wire actually reaches 540° C) when using gas torches, and electrical current.

We need BENCHMARKS!

Solution:

Build a small gas kiln (as used in ceramics) with a thermometer that can measure 540° C.

Make test-dummies for annealing:

• All muscle wires have a length of 21 cm
• Breadths mm; 0.25, 0.38, 0.005

Make springs by coiling wire around different objects that do not melt at 540° C.

Test the annealed wires’ ability to remember their shape in boiling water instead of using an electrical current to avoid frying them.

If they work, test with a lower current/amp than suggested in the table above to find the threshold for shape-shifting.

Test with the values in the chart above.

So…

The kiln was constructed.
The samples were put inside and the kiln was heated to 45o° C (at which point they started to glow).

All samples worked when tested in boiling water.
All samples worked according to the values in the chart above when a pulsing current was sent through them.

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.

Translation of digital images into textile material:

When working at the textile lab at Audax/Textilemuseum/Tilburg one can seldom escape the digital media. The computer is essential in most of the production methods, whether it is embroidery, knit, laser cutting or weave. The general working method at the textile lab is that a designer/artist comes with a (visual) idea or computer file and in cooperation with the technician they develop the textile item. Whatever way one works, either directly digitally with images or analog as for eksample in pencil drawing it is necessary to translate this into information the computer programs the actual textile machines can understand. Every technique has its own programs, but one can generally use either Photoshop or illustrator as a starting point for any of them. This means one is not dependant on understanding the programs completely when working with them. Though with limited time it is an advantage to have good knowledge of its limitations and possibilities.

Yarns and thread plays a role with most industrial textile production and the collection they have is astonishing. Everything for the common cottons to the more recent bamboo yarns, horsehair, dog/sheep wool blends, swarovski crystals, linens, silk, metals, elastics, viscose, organic, crepe. One can find just about anything perfectly systemized in easy to access draws. If one finds something of interest they even have a designated person who can help with ordering what you need (make sure to plan six weeks in advance).

Knitting at the textile lab is passing my grannies complicated floral patterns with a horse’s head. The Stoll machine can knit double-layered fabric into shape (f. example seamless clothing). This isn’t new; still it’s open for any serious designer/artist to gain access to for small-scale production, which in itself is quite special. This goes for the textile lab in general. With knit one can work with image and import them into the program or design the pattern directly, drawing stitch by stitch. The choice between front or back stitches, several colored or textured yarns can create materials with such variation its hard to believe they where knitted on the same needles.

Grafixscan can either be used to engrave a material by lazering the surface, in that way burning away fibers or colour. Or one can cut directly through it. To engrave one can work with any JPEG file, but to laze cut one has to use Illustrator files. The laser beam is 0.4mm wide and one can make a 50cm x 50 cm piece in one go. With a bit of precision and planning one can easily use repeat patterns or other larger works.

Inkjet textile printing is pretty straightforward. It’s not much different from working with paper printers when coming to the preparation of files. (Remember to use Lab Colour mode, and 254dpi). Instead of ink it uses dyes that are steamed after printing, and after a quick rinse in some soapy hot water the textile is ready for use. I found that the colors were well translated and the width of 130cm means that one can work with fairly large scales. The lab has a choice between a silk or cotton satin that already has been prepared with necessary chemicals the dyes need to fixate under the steaming process.

Embroidery often means a lot of time spent on the embroidery program hand drawing every shape (luckily not every stitch) of ones pattern. If one does not take care in letting the machine know the most efficient embroidering sequence one can easily end up with a pattern where layers are not in the right order. This is the technique that requires the most know how on the actual program. It is possible to translate files through illustrator, but this limits the amazing amounts of choices of stitch and layering that this machine can offer.

Weave is the method with the longest history in Tilburg. The museum has a beautiful collection of old damask looms that are still in everyday production. The lab however has a Dornier digital jacquard and an Easy leno. The first offers unlimited pattering in the length of the cotton or linen warp (36 threads pr/cm, 169cm width, 6114 threads in all). The easy leno consists of two polyester warps that shift positions every other weft, enclosing the weft between the two warps. This gives a strong material even with a loose structure. It can at the moment only patters stripes, but the word is that an even more advanced machine is in development.

for more info on the textile lab:

www.textielmuseum.nl

After this nice electronic textiles workshop, we have been participating to Jon Pettersen courses about digital weaving for two weeks. It was an intense and week of hard work to understand how the technics can manage to create your thought through the fabric. Learning the process of bindings in one or many layers has been rather complicated but also really helpfull for our furure creations. From an idea to photoshop and programming we could have build files and understand how a weaved fabric really works. Sometimes till midnight, i ve spent time with the digital loom. It was a long process to get the right effect and the feeling of what i wanted to achieve. And these slow hours were needed to understand the meaning of weaving.

After one week and a half trying, we get the chance to see how it looks like on an industial loom in Innvik. That was a great trip where we could see how beautifull is the landscape and the quietness of Norway. We arrived with the bus after six hours in a such a small and peaceful place called Innvik. Nobody around to disturb the silence of the sea. We stayed one night there and spend most of the time in the factory, trying to get a piece of fabric for each of us.

The fabric i designed is made out of the drawings i’m used to make as an expression of concept or an atmosphere i want to catch. The theme for our ETT program is Home and the others. Then i drew the ideas i had about it and how i saw it as a common and shared scene of life.

Concept:

The blanket wich keep warm when we are cold, the light coming througt the textile of a lamp, the morning wich wake up throught the curtains… We all think it is really special. The daily life wich is rather personal, is shared in a common thought. The home landscapeness is seen by the eyes of others. The sleeping room, corners, doors and closets are parts of these archetypes we all share with our own identity. The house we build, the one we rebuild when we had lost it, the one we never stops to build… Home, more than a landscape show your heart and these feelings are whared in mental pieces. These lines and feelings that we can all understand. The night lamp is standing over the little table next to the bed, a table clothe is covering the dinner table, the car is parked next to the house, the walls limit the space, the sofa next to the living room… We belong to these lines, surfaces and codes even if we also try to break it.

How can i create this common event of daily life ? How a fabric or an object can create these mental thoughts ?

So i drew the contour of these common lines. And i wanted to use the drawing as a stitch on a matress fabric where the lines become memories of house landscapeness. After many try outs, and the help of Yon and Kari we could have get this matress feeling with 3 times fillings between two layers. And the result in Innik was close to my wishes.

It was a great experience to strat from the beginning of the conception of a fabric and then to see it ending in a factory where the mistake is not allowed anymore…I did learn a lot through the bindings and get closer to the fabric by the technics. I guess now i can use it as a tool and try to bring it further into my work…

émilie pallard (from the Design Academy Eindhoven, at the KHIB for the ETT program)

Last week there was Helsinki Design Week . It was held for the 8^th time. The heart of the week is the Cable Factory, were most of the events are held. Like different shows, exhibitions, design marked, lectures and seminars. We started the week going to the Daniel Palillo’s Gardens Of O.D.P. show at the Cable Factory Saturday evening. Even though his design didn’t reach me it was interesting to see what’s going on in the fashion world, and he is suppose to be very popular in Helsinki right now. 

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