Crafting the Composite Garment: The role of hand weaving in digital creation

There is a growing body of practice-led textile research, focused on how digital technologies can inform new design and production strategies that challenge and extend the field. To date, this research has emphasized a traditional linear transition between hand and digital production; with hand production preceding digital as a means of acquiring the material and process knowledge required to negotiate technologies and conceptualize designs. This paper focuses on current Doctoral research into the design and prototyping of 3D woven or 'composite' garments and how the re-learning, or reinterpreting, of hand weaving techniques in a digital Jacquard format relies heavily on experiential knowledge of craft weaving skills. Drawing parallels between hand weaving and computer programming, that extend beyond their shared binary (pixel-based) language, the paper discusses how the machine-mediated experience of hand weaving can prime the weaver to ‘think digitally’ and make the transition to digital production. In a process where the weaver acts simultaneously as designer, constructor and programmer, the research explores the inspiring, but often indefinable space between craft and digital technology by challenging the notion that 'the relationship between hand, eye and material’ naturally precedes the use of computing (Harris 2012: 93). This is achieved through the development of an iterative working methodology that encompasses a cycle of transitional development, where hand weaving and digital processes take place in tandem, and techniques and skills are reinterpreted to exploit the advantages and constraints of each construction method. It is argued that the approach challenges the codes and conventions of computer programming, weaving and fashion design to offer a more sustainable clothing solution

Culturally Responsive Computing for American Indian Youth: Making Activities With Electronic Textiles in the Native Studies Classroom

By providing access to hands-on activities and the physical and digital tools necessary to complete them, maker activities encourage cross-disciplinary, interest-driven learning and problem solving in schools. However, maker movement efforts to broaden participation into computer science have largely ignored Indigenous populations. In this dissertation, I examine how electronic textiles (e-textiles) materials connects to the heritage craft practices found in many Indigenous communities. By design, e-textiles materials combine low-tech craft practices like sewing with high-tech engineering and programming. Framing learning computing within these two distinct but overlapping cultural contexts provides youth will a familiar context in which to learn something new (programming), promotes positive identity development, and fosters connections across multiple dimensions of youth’s lives. At the core of this work is design-based research into the development and implementation of a three-week electronic textiles unit in gender-segregated Native Studies class with American Indian youth (12-14 years old) at a charter school located on tribal lands in the Southwest. This unit was implemented four times over the course of the school year. Findings highlight how different groups of students (American Indian girls and American Indian boys) engaged with e-textiles activities and how their perspectives on computing developed through participation in the unit. In addition, the teacher’s perspective on integrating digital technologies in the Native Studies classroom is explored within the context of contemporary Federal Indian educational policy and practice. This work makes three significant contributions to ethnography, computing education, and American Indian education. First, it proposes a new methodology through the integration of ethnography with design-based research and critical Indigenous research approaches. Second, it contributes to the emerging field of culturally responsive computing by exploring what happens when computing moves beyond the screen and into the tangible realm. Third, it furthers our understandings of the role of digital technologies in American Indian education, with a particular focus on how making activities might contribute to increased educational sovereignty for Indigenous peoples throughout the United States

Culturally Responsive Computing for American Indian Youth: Making Activities With Electronic Textiles in the Native Studies Classroom

By providing access to hands-on activities and the physical and digital tools necessary to complete them, maker activities encourage cross-disciplinary, interest-driven learning and problem solving in schools. However, maker movement efforts to broaden participation into computer science have largely ignored Indigenous populations. In this dissertation, I examine how electronic textiles (e-textiles) materials connects to the heritage craft practices found in many Indigenous communities. By design, e-textiles materials combine low-tech craft practices like sewing with high-tech engineering and programming. Framing learning computing within these two distinct but overlapping cultural contexts provides youth will a familiar context in which to learn something new (programming), promotes positive identity development, and fosters connections across multiple dimensions of youth’s lives. At the core of this work is design-based research into the development and implementation of a three-week electronic textiles unit in gender-segregated Native Studies class with American Indian youth (12-14 years old) at a charter school located on tribal lands in the Southwest. This unit was implemented four times over the course of the school year. Findings highlight how different groups of students (American Indian girls and American Indian boys) engaged with e-textiles activities and how their perspectives on computing developed through participation in the unit. In addition, the teacher’s perspective on integrating digital technologies in the Native Studies classroom is explored within the context of contemporary Federal Indian educational policy and practice. This work makes three significant contributions to ethnography, computing education, and American Indian education. First, it proposes a new methodology through the integration of ethnography with design-based research and critical Indigenous research approaches. Second, it contributes to the emerging field of culturally responsive computing by exploring what happens when computing moves beyond the screen and into the tangible realm. Third, it furthers our understandings of the role of digital technologies in American Indian education, with a particular focus on how making activities might contribute to increased educational sovereignty for Indigenous peoples throughout the United States

Reaping What They Sewed: Embroidery in Politics, Feminism, and Art

The feminization of needlework under patriarchal systems of power and oppression has reinforced both long-standing feminine stereotypes and temporal sociocultural ideals. As a tool of patriarchal oppression, needlework has been used to confine women to the domestic sphere by teaching them to stay in the home, be quiet, and follow a pattern; as an educational instrument, needlework reinforced standards of women’s behavior, aptitudes, and conduct. However, women for centuries have silently resisted and subverted these expectations and ideals through the very same means. Women have utilized needlework during times of crisis and collective trauma for centuries as both practicality and means of expression. Starting in the second-wave feminist movement, female artists fought for the recognition of needlework as high art, a category which the craft was explicitly excluded from since 1768 by The Royal Academy in the UK. From altered Sampler verses of Early Modernity to stitched responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic, crisis and confinement has resulted in the employment of textile craft to disseminate information, protest, collectivize, aid society, and record history internationally. By taking a historical approach to analyze the ways in which women have employed needlework during times of social crisis internationally, we can understand the durable, practical, and precious media as a political device and high art

Design-thinking, making, and innovating: Fresh tools for the physician\u27s toolbox

Medical school education should foster creativity by enabling students to become \u27makers\u27 who prototype and design. Healthcare professionals and students experience pain points on a daily basis, but are not given the tools, training, or opportunity to help solve them in new, potentially better ways. The student physician of the future will learn these skills through collaborative workshops and having dedicated \u27innovation time.\u27 This pre-clinical curriculum would incorporate skills centered on (1) Digital Technology and Small Electronics (DTSE), (2) Textiles and Medical Materials (TMM), and (3) Rapid Prototyping Technologies (RPT). Complemented by an on-campus makerspace, students will be able to prototype and iterate on their ideas in a fun and accessible space. Designing and making among and between patients and healthcare professionals would change the current dynamic of medical education, empowering students to solve problems in healthcare even at an early stage in their career. By doing so, they will gain empathy, problem-solving abilities, and communication skills that will extend into clinical practice. Our proposed curriculum will equip medical students with the skills, passion, and curiosity to impact the future of healthcare

Journey to My Roots

This autobiographical body of work is a visual journey that involved the investigation of my personal identity and roots as well as the exploration of my cultural history through a process that relied on photographs, stories and family traditions, such as crafting. I consider this process and practice to be my passage into a globalized society while simultaneously finding my niche in my newly adopted country of America

Biennial Symposium Program: New Directions: Examining the Past, Creating the Future, Los Angeles, California, September 10–14, 2014

Schedule with speaker and program information. 14 pages