Performing Skin, SG (2011)

A workshop collaboration by CITA, Shenkar College of Engineering and Design and Emdal Colorknit.

The Performing Skin workshop was part of the Smart Geometry Conference “Informing Digital Design with Real World Data” hosted by CITA in spring 2011. The workshop explored the combining of intelligent textiles with parametric modelling. Based on the bespoke interfaces developed in previous research as the Listener Project and the Architecturally Knitted Surfaces workshops, The Performing Skin workshop investigated the design of bespoke sensors and their implementation. The aim was to create circular feedback loops between the design and sensing.

Participants were asked to develop their own performative surfaces in which the fabric acts as a sensor to its environment. By designing knitted-in conductive fibres controlled by micro controllers we were able to create live interfaces by which the environment around the surface could be read. The guiding question for the workshop was how this collected sense data could be interfaced with and used for material specification.

Thanks
Silverell and Filix Technical Yarns