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

The Plastic Bakery: A Case of Material Driven Design

A growing number of scholars argue that understanding how people experience materials in products, i.e. Materials Experience, is essential indesigning meaningful material applications. Material Driven Design (MDD) has been developed as the method to understand these experiential traitsof materials and embed them in the design process. However, the MDD method is yet to find its way as a mainstream design practice acrossdiverse projects. This paper presents one of these projects, in which a designer followed the MDD method to design (1) a service system forcollection and recycling of plastic wastes, and (2) a product that brings forward the unique qualities of recycled plastics and make people cherishre-cycled plastics as personal Do-It-Yourself souvenirs

Mathematical Design for Knotted Textiles

This chapter examines the relationship between mathematics and textile knot practice, i.e., how mathematics may be adopted to characterize knotted textiles and to generate new knot designs. Two key mathematical concepts discussed are knot theory and tiling theory. First, knot theory and its connected mathematical concept, braid theory, are used to examine the mathematical properties of knotted textile structures and explore possibilities of facilitating the conceptualization, design, and production of knotted textiles. Through the application of knot diagrams, several novel two-tone knotted patterns and a new material structure can be created. Second, mathematical tiling methods, in particular the Wang tiling and the Rhombille tiling, are applied to further explore the design possibilities of new textile knot structures. Based on tiling notations generated, several two- and three-dimensional structures are created. The relationship between textile knot practice and mathematics illuminates an objective and detailed way of designing knotted textiles and communicating their creative processes. Mathematical diagrams and notations not only reveal the nature of craft knots but also stimulate new ideas, which may not have occurred otherwise

Modelling Experiential Knowledge Ethically: an artefact-based approach to visually documenting a participatory design process with young people

This article contributes to the growing debate within art and design education research about the role, legitimacy and accountability of artefacts in the creation and generation of knowledge. I present an artefact-based approach to visually documenting and disseminating my doctoral practice-based fieldwork that protected the anonymity of the participants whilst supporting my exploration of the situational, interactional, and tacit dimensions of participation. Constructing a 3-dimensional scaled model of the fieldwork setting and using narratives from my field notes, I undertook a cyclical reflective process where I reconstructed critical moments that took place. This was used as both a tool for communicating my participatory design educational practice and for evaluating my findings with the participants. By sharing this sense-making process, I offer an ethical means of visually documenting fieldwork when working in sensitive contexts and with vulnerable participants, setting out the dual role this design artefact played as both a producer and carrier of experiential knowledge