Reactive Architecture,Augmented Textiles,Domotics and Soft Architecture Fabrication: On Electronic and Reactive Textiles in Domestic Contexts

The present paper interrogates the status and the role of electronic and reactive textiles in domestic contexts. After a preliminary incursion into the modern definition of home and homing, the paper addresses the changes that took place in the domestic space due to the development of digital and communication technologies. Defined as a “sensing home,” as a “communicating domestic space,” smart homes are challenging the traditional understanding of home, defined in terms of intimacy and privacy. In this context, electronic and reactive textiles are asked to overcome the low acceptance of smart homes, through their technical, sensorial, and cultural dimensions. The paper highlights some of the pros and cons in accommodating the latest technological advances in the field of textiles, analyses the way physical computing allows textiles to transform into domotics (robots for domestic environments), presents some of the latest developments on soft architecture fabrication and argues in favor of a much more critical approach to the development of sensors and actuators in textile objects.     

传统手工印染在现代纺织品产业中的价值

手工印染在工业化时代永远是纺织品的一种时尚,对于中国的时尚纺织品产业来说,深厚的传统手工印染文化底蕴与丰富且具备较高素质的劳动力资源是我们的先天优势,手工印染技艺与纺织品流行时尚的完美结合,是中国时尚纺织品设计价值最大化的一种方式.     

Digital Clothes: Active,Dynamic, and Virtual Textiles and Garments

Abstract

This article will examine the probable and possible pitfalls offered to consumers and designers by the potential of textiles and garments that are responsive, active, interactive, and aware, using technologies inherited from other craft fields such as medical sensing and information technology.

These developments present obvious, and much discussed, opportunities for the design of functional garments for applications in dangerous industries, sports, rescue, and the military. However, the effect on the already complex dynamic between garment and everyday wear has not been so well examined. Using the social effects of the uptake of other now ubiquitous technology devices such as mobile phones and the Internet as a model for social impact, this article will take a look into the possible near future to see both what is possible, but also what can go wrong with active garment fashion.

This examination of the “digital” in garment manufacture moves well beyond the current, often rather clumsy incorporation of wires, sensors, and novelty “glow in the dark” fiber optics into conventional clothes. Rather, it examines the maturing of a field in which revolutionary display technologies and bio-feedback sensing are merging with textiles to produce totally natural feeling and looking fabrics that can not only change their overall color, but can display complex patterns, as well as respond to stimuli from wearer and environment. Aspects such as the effects on personal health, social conventions, and economic costs will be considered.

The article will also consider the domain of clothing and fashion for people who inhabit “virtual” environments, interacting with other people in real time. Unlike more familiar computer games, these online environments involve extensive, long-term social interaction between participants. Unfortunately, the choice of “costume” for the visual representation of each player, currently very limited, has become a frustration for individuals, and threatens to limit the social agency and growth of these environments. The problems of designing and implementing credible and engaging fashions for virtual reality are therefore also examined.     

Advanced technical textile products

This article is situated to be successive to “Fibre materials for advanced technical textiles” in the series of “Advanced technical textiles” of Textile Progress. In the previous article, fiber materials used for advanced technical textiles are introduced. In this article, advanced technical textiles products are described according to the application fields of the fiber materials. Although this article does not cover all the end-uses, it contains major parts of advanced technical textile products, which include products for resources and environmental issues, for automobiles, for medical uses, for protective uses, for information technologies, for civil engineering and for electronics textiles.     

中国时装秀,秀的是什么?

时装周是商人的舞台还是设计师的舞台?量产服装和艺术服装的评选规则"一刀切"是否合适?对于设计的考评是否应该考虑穿着者的感受?时装周是不是只是诡异的衣服和思路的秀,而不用考虑穿着者的感受?中国时装界是否已经过早地开始论资排辈?理事和会员一同参评是否公正?这样的情况会对中国的年轻设计师产生怎样的影响?……"中国时装界迷失的不仅是设计方向,同时特有的体制也让我们迷失了和世界接轨的方向。中国的服装主管部门热衷于自娱自乐、自我迷失。而更多的新人在这个迷失的大环境中也随波逐流,迷失了自己。所以我现在对所谓的中国国际时装周都不看了,因为连巴西、丹麦的时装周看点都比中国的多。"这位不愿意透露姓名的业内人士的话也许道出了诸多人的心声,"中国的时装周就是自己跟自己玩。"     

A smart sensor for induced stress measurement in automotive textiles

Induced stresses in textiles play a major role in their mechanical properties, either during fabrication or use. The aim of this work is to present the development of a dedicated sensor, which could be directly inserted in a fabric. The study is focused on seat-cover fabrics. The developed sensor is based on polyvinylidene fluoride films, which can easily be integrated in multilayer textiles used for seat upholstery. The metrology method used is the study of phase variations of the sensor under different loads. Results have shown that these variations are linear, and differ with “complex” fabric type. A correlation study between Kawabata compression parameters and phase variations didn't show any relationship between slope values and compression properties when the surface fabrics of “complex” are compared, but a classification in “families” is possible when different foams are considered. Future studies using this technique should demonstrate if these “smart” textiles could find applications in automotive field.     

Electronic Textiles: Wearable Computers,Reactive Fashion,and Soft Computation

Abstract

Electronic textiles, also referred to as smart fabrics, are quite fashionable right now. Their close relationship with the field of computer wearables gives us many diverging research directions and possible definitions. On one end of the spectrum, there are pragmatic applications such as military research into interactive camouflage or textiles that can heal wounded soldiers. On the other end of the spectrum, work is being done by artists and designers in the area of reactive clothes: “second skins” that can adapt to the environment and to the individual. Fashion, health, and telecommunication industries are also pursuing the vision of clothing that can express aspects of people's personalities, needs, and desires or augment social dynamics through the use and display of aggregate social information.

In my current production-based research, I develop enabling technology for electronic textiles based upon my theoretical evaluation of the historical and cultural modalities of textiles as they relate to future computational forms. My work involves the use of conductive yarns and fibers for power delivery, communication, and networking, as well as new materials for display that use electronic ink, nitinol, and thermochromic pigments. The textiles are created using traditional textile manufacturing techniques: spinning conductive yarns, weaving, knitting, embroidering, sewing, and printing with inks.     

Visions of Dress: Recreating Bronze Age Clothing from the Danubian Region

Abstract

This article highlights and discusses the challenges of recreating the clothing of a wealthy Bronze Age woman from Winklarn in Austria. She was buried with jewelry and dress fittings that appear almost theatrical, such as a wide belt of bronze, extremely long pins, and a collar consisting of fourteen spiked bronze pendants. A series of different sources underpin suggestions of what her dress might have looked like: placement patterns of jewelry in Bronze Age graves from Central Europe; Bronze Age iconography; textures of Bronze Age textiles, including a group of completely preserved garments from Denmark; and tailoring principles. Each of these sources has its own rules and pitfalls. Do the remnants of clothing we find in the graves represent garments worn in daily life, or garbs for burial? To what degree do stylized human images in Bronze Age art depict the shapes and decoration of “real” clothing? How can we use complete outfits of clothing found in oak-log coffin graves in Denmark, far away from Central Europe? A series of experiments has been carried out in order to investigate how the lady of Winklarn may have been dressed. The appearance of the resulting outfits is discussed, focusing on perception, visual appearance, and the interplay between clothing, dress accessories, textures, decoration, colors, and glittering bronzes.     

Dressing Miss World with Balinese Brocades: The “Fashionalization” and “Heritagization” of Handwoven Textiles in Indonesia

Abstract

On the basis of extensive field research in a weaving village located in Eastern Bali, Indonesia, the present study aims to explore the changing meanings and practices involving handmade textiles in Indonesia, especially those of Bali, within the spectrum of the producing and consuming ends in relation to the framework of “fashionalization” (the process of appropriating traditional, non-Western dress styles or materials by fashion experts) and “heritagization” (the process in which the diverse elements constituting the cultural pluralism of Indonesia are consciously put together to create a category of common heritage).

The cloth to be discussed is called songket: a supplementary weft ikat with metal-wrapped thread, woven on a traditional handloom and constituting the special ceremonial attire of local Balinese. While deeply embedded in local cultural norms and hierarchies, its production and consumption were subject to external forces such as economic change, the formation of national as well as regional identity, and the dynamics of contemporary fashion. In the course of the development of the tourist industry, this sumptuous cloth became particularly appealing for the urban well-to-do, precisely because of its historical link with aristocratic prestige and its expensive price. By clothing themselves and their families with songket at ceremonies, they could demonstrate their economic standing in “respectable” ways and express their identity as Balinese.

The more recent expansion of the market for songket beyond Bali, due to the renewed interest of Indonesian designers in appropriating local textiles into their creations, may jeopardize historical and cultural ties between local weavers and urban consumers who shared cultural traditions in which they both understood the meaning and original purpose of the cloth being produced.     

Exotic Quilt Patterns and Pattern Names in the 1920s and 1930s

Abstract

A strong characteristic of American popular culture in the 1920s and 1930s was its fascination with all things “oriental,” or generally exotic. It was expressed in a multitude of areas, including furniture, fashion, movies and architecture. It was also evident in quiltmaking, an extremely popular pastime of the era, in the preponderance of patchwork patterns that had an exotic theme or name. Sometimes the designs of these patterns directly reflected their exotic names; most often they did not. The reasons for the popularity of exotic pattern names are varied. Certainly, pattern designers were capitalizing on the fashion for anything oriental. But, as this paper will propose, ladies' magazine publishers and quilt column writers also were reacting to Americans' ambivalence about Asians—their fear of the “yellow peril” mixed with their admiration for Eastern design. By naming and renaming patterns and, more importantly, by mixing oriental, “colonial,” and modern imagery and verbiage, they diluted the negative connotations of the exotic and potentially made it more palatable to the tradition-centered quiltmaking world.     

Dialectics of Cultural Production: Branding Indigo-Dyed Textiles in Sakon Nakhon,Thailand

This article explores the processes of cultural production of indigo-dyed textiles and their distribution and consumption, examining how commodities “mediate” people and their practices and relations in different places and contexts. The dynamics of cultural production as presented in the life cycle of a product form part of a brand’s social life that accretes to comprise its “cultural-economic biography.” The brand is designed, negotiated, and experienced by producers, customers, and other actors throughout its social life. The brand is also perceived by audiences in terms of the cultural-economic biography of the different products under the brand umbrella. I undertook ethnographic research in Sakon Nakhon Province, Thailand, and used the “social life of things” method to highlight the commoditization processes of indigo-dyed textiles.     

Felt/Filz—Art,Crafts and Design,edited by Katharina Thomas

Abstract

Clynes and Kline's (1995 [1960]) conception of the cyborg sees a technologically augmented human designed for the adverse conditions of space travel. Despite alterations through artificial and self-organizing biochemical, physiological, and electronic modifications, the paramount piece of technology enabling human non-terrestrial flirtations was the “exogenous device” of the spacesuit.

In this instance, the incorporation of high-tech textiles and manufacturing techniques accommodates the design process to the point where the distinction between fabric, garment, and astronaut merge.

This article uses the spacesuit as an illustrative example in arguing that a particular utility value of fashion is its role as “aerial”; transmitting and receiving messages that feed into, and draw from, social and cultural archives.

This article explores the concept of to-and-fro transmission/ reception, arguing that fashion, as aerial, contributes to a highly complex meaning system, in which negotiation becomes a passive, unconscious activity.     

Textiles,Cloth, and Skins: The Problem of Terminology and Relationship

Abstract

The problem of terminology and relationship is something I first came across when researching cloth and skins in the societies of prehistoric Europe. I wanted to understand the relationship between animal skins, linen and wool textiles, netting and twined cloth, yet I found there was no adequate way of describing these as a group of related materials. I was faced with quite separate books and journals on “cloth” or “textiles” from those on “skins” or “leather.” The content of these publications were usually defined by raw materials, technology or style. Such a separation made it difficult to understand the relationship between these materials at any given time or place. From this problem, I recognized the value of classifying these related materials by their physical similarity and pattern of use. To do this I have used the term cloth-type material to refer to all flexible, thin sheets of material that can be wrapped, folded, and shaped, but excluding materials related through structure, technology or raw material that do not share these qualities. This classification is significant to consider how cloth-type materials have the potential to be used in similar ways, yet through cultural values and choices have distinct roles and values.     

流行色春夏定案特征分析与探讨

应用minitab15对美国潘东公司（Pantone）、国际流行色协会（IC）和《国际纺织品流行趋势》杂志3家权威色彩预测机构发布的春夏流行色定案进行色彩量化和分析,旨在探寻流行色定案在纯度、明度和色相上的分布特点和变化规律。研究结果显示,3家机构发布的流行色信息在明度、纯度和色相分布中存在一定的共性和变化规律,如色相的双峰分布,冷暖对比,纯度和明度上的渐变迁移,以及色彩属性上的春夏季节色彩特征等。单因素方差分析结果说明国际流行色在预测信息中起主导作用。     

Consumer perceptions of foods processed by innovative and emerging technologies: A conjoint analytic study

Conjoint analytic surveys were administered to 225 potential consumers of foods processed by innovative and emerging food technologies in order to assess the factors contributing to their interest in using such products. Respondents included 1) a consumer panel of civilian lab employees, 2) shoppers in a mall in the northeastern U.S., and 3) U.S. military troops on training exercises. Respondents rated their interest in 49 different food product concepts that varied in food type, processing or production technology, costs, benefits, risks, endorsing agencies, and product information. Results showed that the relative importance of factors did not vary greatly among the consumer groups. Perceived risks associated with the technologies were the most important factors influencing interest in use. Among the emerging technologies assessed, irradiation and genetic modification resulted in the greatest negative effect on likely use, while high pressure processing produced the most positive effect. The term “cold preservation” had positive associations for all groups, but “minimally processed” had negative associations. Implications of the data for the marketing of foods processed by innovative and emerging technologies are discussed.Industrial relevanceThe food industry is currently interested in a variety of novel production and processing technologies that may result in economical and improved quality products. However, consumer attitudes toward and conceptions of these new technologies can greatly influence their success in the marketplace. The results of this study show that “perceived risks” of the technologies are the most important determinant of interest in their use by consumers. This and other data uncovered in this study suggest that industry must be vigilant in their knowledge of consumer attitudes toward these processes in order to avoid unexpected failure of these products upon market introduction.     

Textile Semantics: Considering a Communication-based Reading of Textiles

Abstract

This paper explores several areas of existing theory and research to consider a communication-based reading of textiles. The theoretical framework for this paper is based in semiotics as defined by Barthes, Saussure et al., and seeks to exploit methodologies based in semiotics and communication theory to analyze the construction of meaning through textiles, acknowledging textiles as “cultural signifiers,” and suggesting communication as a paradigm in which textiles can be critically located and discussed. To understand the communication potential of textiles in terms of shared interpretations of object and context, the paper also incorporates research examples from product semantics and material culture studies. The term “textile semantics” in this paper is therefore used to describe the examination of the communicative qualities in textiles which inform the generation and exchange of meaning between the textile practitioner and the viewer. The communication functions of historical textiles such as toile de jouy and tapestry are discussed, and the influence of textile content on the reading of contemporary textile examples is also considered.     

Text(ile)s: How to Fabric(ate) Yourself a Body without Organs

Abstract

From momentary metaphorical allusions to “unraveling,” or “stitching,” to more elaborately built philosophical models that directly employ the likenesses of folded and/or patchworked cloth, the regular repetition of fabric(ated) references—punctuated by the physical refrain of turning, cloth-like pages—in the works of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari cleverly makes the relationships between “our bodies,” which are largely understood through clothed pleats, and the matter-content-expression of “their books” exceedingly palpable.

This article aims to unpack this aspect of Deleuze and Guattari's projects and to explore the implications it has not only for our immediate experiences of “the book” and/or “the textile,” but also for the traditional plays between man, beast, and technology that have been historically related through the technology of cloth and which have served to, in part, justify the human's neatly ordered dominance in the world.

As a means of embarking on this project, the article considers Deleuze and Guattari's works alongside a cast of other figures preoccupied with various fabrics, namely the matador, various (textile) artists including Eran Schaerf, and even one's own self and wardrobe, and recasts all of these figures' texts and textiles as “text(ile)s.”     

数字化服装的发展趋势

研究了数字化服装发展的趋势——三维测量和电脑试衣的应用，服装CAD的智能化和参数化，CAPP、CAM与整个模块的集成化，信息管理的网络化；并从企业方面、人员方面、CAD开发商等三方面指出数字化服装发展所面临的困难。     

Plains Indian Costume in Catlin's Indian Gallery. The Renwick Gallery,Smithsonian American Art Museum,Washington DC

Abstract

“Ritual | Repetition” is one of eight essays that explore correlations between architecture and textiles, those surfaces that both enclose and enclothe us, and foregrounds the significance of the surface in our understanding and experience of place. Arising from a series of photographs of Melbourne’s mid-twentiethcentury façades, Urban Fabric: Greige, in which the latent image of Harris Tweed was exposed, readings of correspondences between surfaces are drawn from a photograph of a curtain wall façade and a swatch of Harris Tweed juxtaposed. It is not these images themselves that are so much transcribed, but rather those that have emerged in their wake. In Ritual | Repetition the body’s shaping of the world through semblance and play is considered, in light of the rhythms of work and labor. The significance of ritual, as demonstrated in the waulking of the cloth, in its perpetuation of an ever-changing tradition, is contrasted with the deadening nature of labor, evidenced in the production of the curtain wall. The effects of these two differing modes of production are reflected in the nature of crafted artifact or artwork, and the commodity. While technological reproducibility was seen to disengage the artwork from the domain of ritual, through translation and transmission, it is suggested, it also enables its return, through the playful reengagement of the thinking hand and the marks that it makes, giving rise to meaningful impressions.     

技术防治品的高效能生产加工

引语 新能源、新材料、环保产业在全球范围内的蓬勃发展,信息技术、生物技术等高新科技和传统纺织工业日益紧密的结合,以及可再生原料、清洁生产和循环利用技术等的开发应用,为纺织工业开创新的消费领域和新的市场提供了机遇.国家与一些省市都把纺织工业列为重大战略性发展产业,给予重点扶持.