Fashioning environmental noise

Designers Younghui Kim and Milena Iossifova Berry collaborated on HearWear, a collection of garments that visualize environmental noise. The garments detect the noise levels in the context in which you are standing, and translates the levels into light patterns. The louder it is around you, the brighter the garments become. The designers used integrated circuitry, a microprocessor, and a number of LEDs and electroluminescent wire to achieve the behavior. Here's a diagram of how it works:

What I love about this project is that, according to the designers, they "work not only towards a better environmental awareness for most people, but also towards the unnoticeable integration of technology in your day to day fashion and lifestyle." As a result, they seamlessly integrate the technology into the garments in a way that is gorgeous and that informs the fashion aesthetics of the garment. For example, one skirt uses electroluminescent wire along the seams to create a pattern on the front of the skirt. Another uses painted shapes down the front that host the electronics, which creates the aesthetic pattern.

A match made in heaven

Fashion designer Cait Reas of 1of1 Studio and digital artist, C.E.B. Reas collaborated on a set of beautifully patterned one-of-a-kind garments. 1of1 Studio is an "independent design studio that synthesizes fashion and art into one-of-a-kind apparel, made to order in Los Angeles. Each piece results from a collaboration between a commissioned artist and fashion designer Cait Reas."

Although the garments are not interactive, the technology used to generate the textiles was. With Ben Fry, Los Angeles-based C.E.B. Reas intitiated processing.org, which is an open source programming language that is used to create algorithmic patterns, images, and interactions. Reas used this language to programmatically generate a series of gorgeous patterns that were then printed on the fabric used for each garment. The result is a beautiful collision of technology and fashion.

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Conductive woven textiles

Clemens Winkler is exploring conductive-woven cloth that he creates on a traditional textile loom. He uses conductive thread that he weaves into the pattern of the textile. This allows electronic circuitry to be integrated directly into the fabric, which results in flexible and washable electronic-ready textiles.

Since the conductive thread is thicker and a slightly different color than the base thread, Winkler explores the aesthetic of circuitry by using the difference in properties to establish a pattern. The result is a beautiful pattern that is also electronically functional.

Copper-woven antennae

Christy Matson is a designer investigating the interaction of textiles and the possibilities when electronics are woven into them. Her recent project called Plain Weave Variations explores copper that is woven directly into the fabric to act as flexible antennae. As described by Matson, "When a viewer touches the weavings, the scores generated from the patterns on the weavings will be played for the viewer through speakers mounted on the wall." Matson is turning a simple fabric into a soft sonic material by weaving the copper directly into it.

What I love about this piece is that she adopts Martin Thompson's geometry-based aesthetics into her copper weaving, resulting in an interface that is seamlessly integrated into the fabric. And even the speaker is beautiful.

Exploring Smart Textiles

CuteCircuit hosted a workshop at Interface-University of Ulster, Belfast, that explored smart textiles and soft circuits. The workshop included textile designers from Interface Research Lab and resulted in some beautiful color-changing, shapeshifting, and light pattern textiles.

Rather than simply attaching displays to clothing, imagine a line of garments with gorgeous ambient displays like this integrated into the patterns that react and change depending on input from your environment or the people around.

Additional photos via Francesca [at] CuteCircuit's photostream.

Digitally printed fashion

Mashallah Design and Linda Kostowski have created incredibly beautiful garments using an unfolding polygon method that is commonly used by industrial designers to explore dimensional forms through paper models. It's a terrific example of an innovative use of technology that directly informs the aesthetics of the garment. Here's how they describe the process:

"Three people are portrayed digitally by scanning their bodies. The output of this scan is a 3D file, which resolution is defined by the amount of polygons, similar to pixels in a bitmap. ... The 3D data is turned into 2D sewing patterns by the use of the unfolding function which is a common tool in the industrial design process to make paper models with, the single fabric pieces and the inner interface which defines the edges are cut out by the help of a lasercutter."

Source via Makezine.