Speckles

While doing my initial research I started thinking about what is it that I WANT TO DO?
Something funny, something serious,make.a.statement, thought.provoking, simple.goodlooking.powerful? WHAT?
Over the last week I've had two ideas.They are my first and now is just the begining of my ideation process,so i feel it important to get them out of my head and put them into words.
Here goes:
Yawn
This idea came from a pretty simple observation that happened while i was talking to a friend of mine on Skype about a week ago.It was pretty late at night, actually the wee hours of the morning. We both had our cameras on; and soon half way into the conversation i yawned. A few seconds later, given the delay caused by slow internet connections, he yawned too. This continued for a few minutes after which we started discussing the phenomenon of yawning and how it acts as a visual trigger.We then talked about how they work in public spaces like trains, buses, coffee shops etc.
we pushed it further by saying -what if a screen was erected in a public place, like a street, and every few seconds the passerbys saw an image of a person yawning on the screen, causing them,in turn, to yawn!
This got me thinking about how one could use the same visual trigger and bring it into one's personal space(like bedroom).What if one could have an image of a yawn, that would appear around bed time, or say for insomniacs, the image is programmed to appear every fifteen minutes,causing a physical response in the viewer and implying that its time to sleep?



Reminders
The second idea came from me setting an alarm on my phone to remind me of a mail i had to send off.This got me thinking about the different things people do to recall different tasks they had to do- such as tying strings around their fingers, circling dates on calenders, writing postits, journal entries etc.
Given that one of focus areas of my project is to establish a relationship with between people and spaces, I thought of how one could translate the same response to a visual/physical stimuli,the basic principle that reminders work with, into one's work/private spaces.
What if these spaces had artifacts that had visual cues that appeared and they worked on the the same premise.So for example- pattern that appeared for birthdays or a colour spot for important meetings and other such visual cues that stimulated the memory and established an association with the imagery and an event?

Light,Paper,Scissors-websites visited and books read.

Here is a list of the various websites that i have looked at that host and archive work already done in this domain, along with brief descriptions of some of the work.

Along with the website, here are a few articles and books ive read so far-
Understanding Media by Marshall Mcluhan
Dynamic textile Patterns:designing with smart textiles-a thesis paper by Linda Worbin
Nuno books :-Kira Kira
Boro Boro
Zawa Zawa
Shimi Jimi
Suke Suke
Fuwa Fuwa


WEBSITES
Philips Lumalight - http://vodpod.com/watch/254044-light-emitting-fabric-insane

Personal note - when i came across the Lumalive, it reminded me of this idea i had during the summer that sparked my interest and desire to work with dynamic surfaces.
I wanted to put L.E.D's into cushion and program them to change patterns.The Lumalive is a more sophisticated technology and it allows one to work with text,graphics and animations in full colours while creating movement on the surfaces that it is applied to.


Surfaces(fabric) -

http://www.priyamani.com/expression.html
Personal Note- Priya Mani is a textile designer who works primarily surfaces, in both linear and three dimensional forms.I found some of the techniques used interesting as they played with the quality of light and shadows, that in turn animated the space in which the textile is applied as well as made produced patterns on the surface of the fabric.



Personal note - what i found interesting about the following works of Yuko Takada, Nuno and Seiko Kinoshita was the use of fabric in three dimensional spaces, in the form of large installations.The size of the fabric used, the manner it was used in and the way they worked with the space they were displayed at broke certain notions i had about working with sizes, fabric and spaces itself.

Soft Sculptures in space - http://www.yukotakada.com/



artist - Yuka Takada

Nuno
Installation- Love Stories


Installation - Installation97

Each space is an image of perfume bottles and enclosed by very light and tranparent NUNO fabrics; the coloured polyester organdy gently sways in the air.


http://www.seikokinoshita.com/?page_id=5
Artist -Seiko Kinoshita, textile artist
Shaping Space



Suspended




Blue Bird





Smart textiles- dynamic patterns
http://www.diffus.dk/smart_textiles/intro.htm


Interactive Textile Art - http://www.tomokohayashi.com/home.html

artist - Tomoko Hayashi's work explores the use of tactile and digital media to enhance the intimacy and human connection facilitated by contemporary communication technologies.
Personal note- So far, all my ideas of integrating digital media with fabric seemed very far fetched for I was'nt sure as to how or where one could apply a combination of the two.
This artist's work helped me visualise how such pieces could work - not only technically but also a conceptual level.I found, in her work, simple ideas that worked under the over arching theme of human intimacy,that embodied the subject and stemmed from basic human habits and feelings.


artist-Joanna Berzowska
http://www.digitalthreads.ca/en/clothing/
http://www.digitalthreads.ca/en/Clothing/artwork.cfm

About the art work
This narrative piece uses interactive illustrations to explore the potential of textile as a dynamic surface, not only in terms of how it drapes and moves on the body or how it becomes used and marked by time, but also in terms of future technological developments.
Technologies such as color-change inks and shape-memory alloys can be integrated into textiles to make them move and change in electronically controlled ways. Joanna is fascinated by the design possibilities and the huge potential for subtle yet complex use of color and shape to communicate with the world through those soft, dynamic surfaces.
source - the website

Non verbal Communication
http://designmind.frogdesign.com/articles/numbers/writing-without-words.html
artist-Stefanie Posavec



"Writing Without Words: Visualizing 'On The Road' as a literary organism"
is a project that uses various graphic approaches to analyze the structure and themes of On The Road by Jack Kerouac.
Here, the artist has studied and broken down the structure of the story into numerical data that is further translated into graphics created by hand in a computer graphic program instead of using an information visualisation program.

http://designmind.frogdesign.com/articles/identity/communication-apparel.html
artist-Alis Cambol
Technologically enhanced apparel that is augmenting non-verbal communication between strangers

"Communication Apparel is an exploration of the language of clothes, with an emphasis on social dynamics. By incorporating the non-verbal communication habits of animals into clothing, the artist proposed to enhance this capacity for expressivity. Using responsive technology, she was able to create a new visual language in human apparel, calling upon the dynamism of animal behaviors in response to danger, aggression, pleasure, and other feelings. The project acts as a catalyst to encourage greater awareness of the ways we communicate with strangers through our external appearances. It serves as a social probe to awaken curiosity towards our spiritual relation to what we choose to wear."-source- the website

http://www.tii.se/reform/projects/itextile/pillow.html
Interactive Pillows
Stemming from the need for more subtle forms of communication to complement existing IT devices, this project explores interactive pillows as a means of enhancing long-distance communications. Through natural interaction with a pillow in one location, dynamic textile patterns are activated in a pillow located elsewhere. Expanding the vocabulary for remote communications through tangible and aesthetic interaction, the pillows offer a new repertoire of expressive possibilities that consider emotional, social, and aesthetic values.
source- the website

Technology
http://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardLilyPad

The LilyPad Arduino is a microcontroller board designed for wearables and e-textiles. It can be sewn to fabric and similarly mounted power supplies, sensors and actuators with conductive thread. The board is based on the ATmega168V (the low-power version of the ATmega168) (datasheet). The LilyPad Arduino was designed and developed by Leah Buechley and SparkFun Electronics. - source the website

Time line

So far, this is the intended timeline that i have set for myself.Hopefully I WILL SUCCESSFULLY follow it,till the completion of this project.:) wish me luck..