sewing

a workshop at ACM TEI 2018 - Designing eTextiles for the Body: Shape, Volume & Motion

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Call for Participation

Our clothing is not flat, but rather conforms and adapts to our bodies. In this hands-on workshop, participants will experiment and create 3D eTextile garments, while discussing the rich history, current state and possible future directions of wearables.

Through garment construction and rapid prototyping, we will explore how to integrate eTextiles into volumetric, tailored garments that better conform to the shape of the human body, and better respond to its movements. We will show examples of connectors and sensors, and discuss the affordances and limitations of various textiles.

A short masterclass will introduce a range of techniques for garment design and construction, ensuring the workshop is suitable for all skill levels. We will include a brief history of wearables and eTextiles, and an overview of recent innovations within HCI and fashion. We encourage people to bring existing projects and ideas, as well as their own materials and preferred microcontrollers.

See the full call: https://3dtextiles.github.io

On TEI website: https://tei.acm.org/2018/cp-studios/#S2


Call for Position Statements

The studio is open for anyone to join, but we have a limited number of possible participants. We encourage everyone interested in participating to briefly outline their experience with textiles, their research interests and how this workshop will connect to their own research. This will help us to tailor the workshop to the participants and ensure diversity in participant backgrounds.

Please send us an e-mail at 3dtextiles@googlegroups.com

 

eTextiles summer camp and wearable prototyping accessories

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eTextiles summer camp is a week-long gathering of expert practitioners in the fields of eTextiles and soft circuitry, founded by Hannah Perner-Wilson and Mika Satomi of Kobakant. It is an wonderful place to share ideas, collaborate and prototype at Moulins de Palliard arts centre in rural france. There was an public exhibition of our pieces, workshops to teach techniques, focus groups to explore ideas in more depth, presentations to share and discuss findings and lots of home cooked food and local wine. A perfect summer holiday and a hotbed of future collaborations and inspiration.

I worked in the 'Make your Tech and Wear it' focus group and explored the aesthetic language of wearables and how this can/will affect our response to tech on the body. The image below is a pair of leather prototyping cuffs made using only textiles and soft circuitry (and - full disclosure - four sewing pins). The right cuff has an eTextile breadboard, power source and thermochromic coating to warn the wearer if a component is drawing too much power. The left cuff is a continuity tester with interchangeable output slots, a pouch to hold small components, and pin cushion. This is a working sketch for an idea to make a rapid prototyping kit which will be presented as a fashionable accessory. It also asks the question: would someone want wear it without knowing of it's inherent purpose and could this pique their interest in making/wearing tech?

The idea was inspired by Irene Posch and Hannah Perner-Wilson's 'Tools for Practitioners' project, developing the aesthetic aspect to pose questions. The final prototype will incorporate all the ideas from the pair of cuffs into one refined functional object and I will make a small run for people to wear and test. I would be fascinated for someone to want this accessory without knowing (or maybe even caring) of its purpose.

If you would like to follow the prototyping accessory project, purchase one of the test run or make your own, the patterns, techniques, circuit diagrams and materials will be compiled and posted on Hannah and Irene's tool website toolswewant.at