Giving Body to Digital Fashion Tools

‘Super technology is going to ask for super tactility’ (Lidewii Edelkoort). Exploring this statement, this chapter reflects on the disconnection between digital fashion tools that lack sensory feedback and the critical role of designers’ embodied experience for their practice. In order to support this discussion, additional literature is brought in, which shows that in dance bodily engagement is crucial for supporting and enhancing the creative process. This is done to explore aspects of mediation and embodiment further, and to propose a research agenda for the investigation of textile experience

The future of textiles sourcing: exploring the potential for digital tools

Textile selection involves aspects of objective function and subjective experience. While technical assessments of textiles are extensively supported by standards and machinery that provide the industry with rigorous specifications, the more subjective characteristics remain heavily reliant on designers’ tacit knowledge, experience and intuition. In this paper, we present a study that investigated designers’ textile sourcing activities and if and how digital tools could provide support. The study was conducted in a textile fair with an expert audience in the mind-set of sourcing. An existing digital tool that allows textiles manipulation was introduced to familiarise participants with the digital context and enable conversations on the future of textiles sourcing. We also look at the implications of adopting digital tools for their activities including a transition to more sustainable practices. The results raise awareness of designers’ use of experiential information to support textiles sourcing, besides highlighting requirements for designing future digital tools

How do designers feel textiles?

Studying tactile experience is important and timely, considering how this channel is being harnessed both in terms of human interaction and for technological developments that rely on it to enhance experience of products and services. Research into tactile experience to date is present mostly within the social context, but there are not many studies on the understanding of tactile experience in interaction with objects. In this paper, we use textiles as a case study to investigate how we can get people to talk about this experience, and to understand what may be important to consider when designing technology to support it. We present a qualitative exploratory study using the ‘Elicitation Interview’ method to obtain a first-person verbal description of experiential processes. We conducted an initial study with 6 experienced professionals from the fashion and textiles area. The analysis revealed that there are two types of touch behaviour in experiencing textiles, active and passive, which happen through ‘Active hand’, ‘Passive body’ and ‘Active tool-hand’. They can occur in any order, and with different degrees of importance and frequency in the 3 tactile-based phases of the textile selection process — ‘Situate’, ‘Simulate’ and ‘Stimulate’ — and the interaction has different modes in each. We discuss these themes to inform the design of technology for affective touch in the textile field, but also to explore a methodology to uncover the complexity of affective touch and its various purposes

Using eTextile objects for touch based interaction for visual impairment

In this paper we explore the relationship between eTextiles and touch-based interaction with regards to visual impairment. We argue that smart fabrics and conductive materials have mostly been researched in terms of their attractive visual properties but that their tactile properties are largely underexplored. We discuss development of a number of eTextile prototype objects which we explored in conversations with blind participants. The focus is on how they use different gestures while interacting with the objects and reflect on these associations when exploring. Through these studies and conversations we propose to take forward a user-centered design approach to creating further objects which can be utilised in aiding or enhancing experiences for people who are visually impaired

Radically Relational Tools: A Design Framework to Explore Materials through Embodied Processes

In a context where fashion design and retail activities are increasingly transferring to the digital environment, mediating touch has become a matter of concern for the field. However, as literature shows, articulating our sensory experiences with materials is a challenging task. This position paper explores the experiential knowledge observed through embodied design processes. This is done by analysing our diverse approaches to introduce tools that help designers to understand people’s perceptual experience with textile materials. We build on our previous research that identified relevant embodied processes to textile selection, and reflect on how we have explored how sensing technology can augment and empower each of these processes, thereby supporting design. We conclude by discussing the learning outcomes of analysing such tools, in order to reflect on the future of our research applied to the digital realm

An Investigation of Craft Practice in the Design of Electronic Textiles (E-Textiles) for Embodied Interaction

An Investigation of Craft Practice in the Design of Electronic Textiles (E-Textiles) for Embodied Interaction This research aims to establish craft practice as an approach to investigating materials and processes that could benefit e-textile design and development. It explores how ‘value’ can arise through innovative material combinations facilitated through collaborative partnerships, dialogue and joint construction. Findings from the portfolio of practical projects suggest that the distinct material qualities that comprise e-textiles have different roles in contributing to multisensory experiences. The convergence of computation, electronics, craft and design is identified as a field of creative practice in the contextual review. The tangible nature of e-textiles facilitates embodied forms of interaction to prompt actions through materials and activate our sensory awareness. Building on the work of Dourish, the research examines embodiment, meaning creation and sense perception for comprehending the nature of experience. It discusses commentators such as McCarthy and Wright to recommend expressions of felt human life as a vehicle for enhanced relations with technology. The methodology generates knowledge through individual and collaborative creative action and adopts craft methods and processes to frame the practice portfolio. Pragmatism influences craft methods to recognise ‘thinking-through-making’ as a means of discovery that can support the ongoing negotiation between intention, action and reflection. The practice portfolio is used as a method of collecting in-depth practical evidence to generate knowledge undertaken through creative engagement. The research contributes a framework with a series of recommendations to advocate a materially led approach to practice interwoven with concerns that engage collaborative, sensorial and aesthetic interaction. Analysis of the findings promotes qualitative outcomes including personalisation, multisensory engagement, and social value, indicating that applications of the framework can support more enriching design contexts that engage technology

Materialising data experience through textile thinking

In our digitally enabled lives, we are constantly entering into relationships and interacting with data. With little regard for their technical ability, consumers are obliged to accept and live with data experience. Digital literacy and information technology skills help to navigate these technologies, but little is known about the intimate practices of interacting with data from digital systems. The aim of this practice-based research is to identify how knowledge and experience of physical materials can offer novel processes and value to progress communications regarding digital use. This study draws on theory and practice from textile design and sets out to position textiles as a research discipline. Embodied methods are used to explore human relationships with textiles and materials to create physical representations which can be used to generate and share insights from people’s varied engagements with technology and data. Findings are presented which are valuable to the fields of both textile design and the field of data physicalisation. The methods employed engage the human body as a research tool using the senses to explore and create meaningful experiences with technology. Material handling, modelmaking, workshops and sensory ethnography, all captured on film, facilitate an embodied approach to explore the experience of data. Through this approach, alternative readings of everyday technology emerge. The theoretical contribution of this thesis is the paradigm of textile thinking as a research methodology. Textile thinking refers to the actions and mindset of textile designers. In this study the tacit knowledge employed by textile designers is presented as a challenge for reporting on design activity and is responded to through the use of embodied methods for engaging materials in research. Textile thinking approaches are embodied in practical experiments which invited people to express how they engage emotionally in relationships with technology and data. The field of textile design is interrogated to identify the unique characteristics of the discipline which are valuable research tools. Practical research shows that physical data representations enhanced through material choice can be used as opportunities for engagement to examine how people connect emotionally with information. The findings showed that this methodology increased the likelihood of sharing insights into the use of digital products and could be used to elicit emotional responses to technology and data experience. The types of responses included childhood memories, sensations, individual insights into the comfort of technology and engagement with information. This broader understanding shows how this approach can be used by designers, to stimulate an interest in using data and to improve engagement with the digital world through design. The outcomes offer new references and broader perspectives for textile design as a research discipline, supporting a paradigm shift to explore and accept new ways of approaching research and developing design theory

ICS Materials. Towards a re-Interpretation of material qualities through interactive, connected, and smart materials.

The domain of materials for design is changing under the influence of an increased technological advancement, miniaturization and democratization. Materials are becoming connected, augmented, computational, interactive, active, responsive, and dynamic. These are ICS Materials, an acronym that stands for Interactive, Connected and Smart. While labs around the world are experimenting with these new materials, there is the need to reflect on their potentials and impact on design. This paper is a first step in this direction: to interpret and describe the qualities of ICS materials, considering their experiential pattern, their expressive sensorial dimension, and their aesthetic of interaction. Through case studies, we analyse and classify these emerging ICS Materials and identified common characteristics, and challenges, e.g. the ability to change over time or their programmability by the designers and users. On that basis, we argue there is the need to reframe and redesign existing models to describe ICS materials, making their qualities emerge

Designing enriched aesthetic interaction for garment comfort

This thesis describes a research through design approach to identifying comfort factors within the kinaesthetic experiences of human sensory activities and perceptions. The research explores the experience of women through the way they touch, move and feel when interacting with wool garments. The research provides (1) a body of creative work, (2) a framework of ‘enriched aesthetic interaction’ and (3) the development of design principles for the comfort and related aesthetic qualities of clothing

Exploring the design of interactive smart textiles for emotion regulation

The present study aims to investigate the design of interactive textiles for emotion regulation. In this work we proposed a design which allows users to visualize their physiological data and help regulate their emotions. We used the Research through Design method to explore how physiological data could be represented in four different interactive textiles and how movement-based interaction could be designed to support users’ understanding and regulation of their emotional state. After an initial user interview evaluation with several textile prototypes, light and vibration were selected as modalities within the biofeedback-based interaction. A smart interactive shawl that reacts to changes in emotional arousal was designed to help the users know their emotion and adjust it, if necessary, with the support of electrodermal activity sensor and pressure-based sensors. The results of the second study showed that the smart shawl could help the user to visualize their emotions and reduce their stress level by interacting with it. © 2020, Springer Nature Switzerland AG