Embroidered Inflatables: Exploring Sample Making in Research through Design

Abstract

This paper reflects on the experience of sample making to develop interactive materials. Sample making is a way to explore possibilities related to different materials techniques. In recent years design research has put an increasing emphasis on making as a mode of exploration, which in turn has made such exploration an increasingly popular and effective design research approach. However, sample making is a messy and complex process that is hard to document and communicate. To mitigate this, design researchers typically report their journeys from the perspective of their success, retroactively editing out or reducing the accounts of experiments that did not directly contribute to their goal. Although it is a useful way to of contextualizing a design process, it can contribute to a loss of richness and complexity of the work done along the way. Samples can be seen as instantiations of socio-techno systems of production, which means that they can be Bruna Goveia da Rocha is a PhD candidate at the Future Everyday group of the department of Industrial Design (TU/e). Her research is focused on the design process of soft things. She is particularly interested in exploring the combination of digital craftsmanship and emerging technologies, such as inflatables. b.goveia.

Feeling Air: Exploring Aesthetic and Material Qualities of Architectural Inflatables

“…Interaction possibilities with inflatables include punching [27], theatrical data display [40], squeezing a mouse [25], exploring affective qualities of simple movements [37], petting inflatable rabbits [14], bodily compression [15], simulating objects in VR [38], force feedback on the arms in VR [19], or a shoulder "tap" to indicate left or right when giving directions [36]. Fabrication techniques include embroidery with silicone bladders [34], silicone bladders [28], stitching on stretchy fabric to control shape change [39], replay direct manipulation [30], firm 3D printed inflatables [20], rapid prototyping [18], and other shape-changing interfaces [24]. These works are often airtight and at relatively smaller scale.…”

E-textile Learning Scaffolds: Supports for Novices Learning E-textile Concepts and Techniques

“…Previous work has used swatches and samples to ideate a wide variety of textiles including touch-sensing textiles [221], colour-changing textiles [52], shape changing textiles [203,88,291], knitted controllers [180], non-wearable textiles [196], and textile physical affordances [195]. Swatchbooks are useful for co-design because they allow users, who are unlikely to have experience with e-textiles, to explore their potentials and come up with wearable concepts [83,305].…”

“…Within e-textile research the focus has been on the second, sampler swatches, with e-textile examples used as demonstrations for cross-disciplinary collaboration and ideation [50,83,255,305], for sharing techniques and materials among experienced practitioners [106,231,293], or for experiments and documentation of design process [87]. Previous work has used swatches and samplers to ideate a wide variety of textiles including touch-sensing textiles [221], colour-changing textiles [52], shape changing textiles [203,88,291], knitted controllers [180], non-wearable textiles [196],…”