Course Evaluation Form

“Territories of Practice” – “Textile Innovation”

This year I have taken the elective course “Territories of Practice”. I have decided for the textile innovation course with our tutor Ros Hibbert.

The course consists of four lectures.  The first week was an introduction to the world of textiles. After this lecture, I gained an initial understanding about what textile is and how textiles produded are. I have known about the major types of textiles used in the fashion industry currently. These are cotton, silk, flax, wool, luxury hair fabric, polyester and polyamide.

In the second lecture we extended our knowledge about the textiles beyond the traditional ones. Non-traditional textiles include Bast Fibres, Hemp, Leaf Fibres, Seed Hair Fibres, Peat, Alginate, Metal Fibres, Paper, Man-made Synthetic Polymers, Bio-fibres and Nano-technology. Bast fibres have been traditionally obtained from agriculture.

In the third lecture we discussed new properties and functions of today’s textiles. Technology has advanced greatly in our times and so does the textiles technology. Today’s textiles could have protective properties such as UV protection, fire and spark resistance, antistatic and electromagnetic protection etc.  They could have signalling properties such as reflective properties, chromatic and optical properties. Well-being properties are also very important especially in the area of sports clothing. Desired properties include Easy-care, Comfort and Ease, Aromatic Agents, Antibacterial Properties, Anti-allergenic Properties, Health and Cosmetic Benefits, Biomimetics.

In the last lecture we discussed about some latest developments in the realm of textiles. These are smart and interactive textiles. One example in this area is the scent dress constructed by Dr. Jenny Tillotson. It was to mimic the body’s circulation system. Interactive textiles have been used here to emit a selection of scents which depends on your mood.  Another work is the bubble mood –sensing dress designed from Philips. This dress is capable of glowing with lighting effects and blowing with bubbles in response to the wearer’s emotional state. Emotion such as stress, fear or happiness can cause the dress to change its colour.  These dresses are now experimental and are not available on the markets. But I can envision them to be used by us in our daily lives in the near future.

During this course we are required to write our own blog. The blog shall record the process of the “Textile innovation” lecture, what we learned and what we thought.  In my blog I included the notes of each lecture and recorded what I have learnt in the course and out of class. From the whole lecture, I'm mostly impressed of the interaction textile.

For my presentation I am going to talk about silk. I have researched the manufacturing of silk fabrics, the use of silk, and its new function especially in the medical area.

I found that this course quite useful. It improves my understanding of textiles, and will be very valuable for my future projects. This is because during this course I learned about a lot of new potentially useful materials and their new functions. I cannot wait to practice them in my next project.

Interactive Breathing Dress

Designer: Ms. Crease Xia - Dr

In today’s noisy, high-stress world, many of us sit, stand, sleep, speak, act, and move in ways that undermine our breathing and our physical, emotional, and spiritual health. Our breath not only brings needed oxygen to the physical body, but it can also bring, when we are conscious of it, the finer energies needed to help nourish our higher bodies - the subtle body, causal body, and so on. Whatever we may believe about our soul and spirit, our breath, and how we breathe, is intimately connected with all aspects of our being. Modern people’s lifestyles and thinking habits have made most people’s breathing shallow, resulting in disconnection with the body and failure to supply enough oxygen to the brain and body cells, which is not conducive to long-term physical and mental health. “Breathing Dress” – a design concept based on “breath” is to make the wearer concerned about his current breath, pay attention to the issue of how to breathe in order to have more energy, and then create subtle interplay with Interactive Fashion (IF) through his own breath. As IF based on “breath” can present the breathing process via visual effects, it can help to promote and perform effective breathing exercises. Another design concept is to identify the basic emotional state of a wearer through breath rate and waveform, namely positive emotion and negative emotion. The wearer can change IF status display by adjusting his breathing. Based on the study of physiological signal parameters and emotional recognition, “Breathing Dress”: based on “breath” applies techniques in the detection system for respiration to conduct overall system design so as to sense the real-time breathing process and identify the emotional state. Dress form was used in this creation. Combinations of external material shape and internal LED light color changes were used to reflect the effects of interaction, to convey technology performance and preserve the beauty of fashion itself at the same time. The inspiration of IF interactive design came from the sense of rhyme of breathing itself and rolling rhythm, aiming to establish the subtle relationship of creating dialogue between the wearer’s breathing and his body via IF. IF appearance design is inspired by shape of light and shadow in hollow patterns. Levels appeared when shadow moves and changes echoed with breathing air, creating a tranquil sense and naturally calming people down. ‘Breathing Dress’ offers choices of color lights for wearer to signal her current emotion state. For instance, when the wear was in bad mood, she could choose red color light to suggest her current emotion state to spectators without saying it. One unique feature of the “Breathing Dress” is real time monitoring. It is real-time sensing of thoracic and abdominal expansion and contraction produced when the wearer breathes with the help of thoracic and abdominal movement wave sensor through which respiration signals were obtained as input data and were entered into the electronic system of “Breathing Dress”. According to both the design concept and design inspiration, the specific setting of the corresponding output presentation was the LED display that had the same shading gradient cycle as respiratory frequency and depth. The LED came on gradually when the wearer was inhaling; the deeper the wearer inhaled, the brighter the LED. Likewise, the LED gradually went off when the wearer was exhaling; the weaker the breath, the darker the LED. The cycle was a breath. In this mode, LED changes were controlled by the breath of the wearer. Another unique feature of the “Breathing Dress” is emotional state recognition which is to give identification responses according to the respiratory wave status of wearer within a set period of time, i.e., taking records of respiration signal sensed by the thoracic and abdominal respiratory movement wave sensor in a set period of time as the input data to be entered into the electronic system of “Breathing Dress”. The specific setting of corresponding output presentation is an extraction on the basis of the models of emotional recognition classification combined with features of physiological signals. For example, when the wearer’s respiratory status showed no obvious fluctuations and was maintained at normal breathing rate and waveform in the set period of time, the emotion was identified as being in a positive state, and LED would remain in the mode 1 presentation form. On the other hand, when the respiratory status of the wearer showed obvious fluctuations in the set time period, with the respiratory rate accelerated and respiratory waveform went dramatically up and down for instance, the emotion was identified as being in a negative state, and the LED would change its presentation form from relatively regular changes into irregular flashes to reflect the disordered breathing and unstable emotional state of the wearer.

http://www.sparkawards.com/galleries/index.cfm?entry=3636

Smart and Interactive Textiles

Conductivity, Power Sources, Monitoring and Health, Communication and Interaction, Fashion, Soft Interfaces, The Interactive Future

This chapter examines the exciting developments in Interactive Textiles, and contains sections on Power Sources, Soft Interfaces, Fashion, Communication and Monitoring.


Interactive Textiles

scent dress

Dr. Jenny Tillotson constructed this scent dress to mimic the body’s circulation system. An interactive fabric emits a selection of scents depending on your mood to create a personal “smell bubble.” Probably not the most stealth of outfits. 


The Bubble mood-sensing dress

 

Just the idea of slipping into such a tasteful bubble dress from Philips called SKIN, will rejuvenate you (of course, only if you're at home and then plan to adventure into it). It’s a mood reading dress, which glows with lighting effects and blows with bubbles in response to the user's emotional state. The emotion sensors here lay embedded into the inner layer of the dress. The outer layer then, changes color in response to your mood. It works by monitoring physical changes associated with different emotions. Emotions like stress, arousal or anxiety will cause the dress to change its color and pattern according to the intensity of the emotion.

New Properties and Functions

Through fibre engineering and highly advanced finishing treatments, natural and synthetic materials can be produced with sophisticated functions, combining aesthetics with high performance. Protective Properties considers fabric and fibre qualities that protect the wearer against damage from the external environment. Signalling Textiles is a new section looking at developments in fibre-optics, reflective textiles, phosphorescence and colour change. Well Being Factors considers the wide range of ‘caring’ and therapeutic effects which textiles can offer, including the newer areas of cosmetic and medical benefits.


Protective Properties
Ultraviolet Protection, Fire and Spark Resistance, Impact Resistance, Weatherproof Treatments, Moisture Management, Thermal Regulation, Buoyancy and Inflatable Textiles, Antistatic and Electromagnetic Protection.

Signalling Textiles
Reflective Textiles, Phosphorescence, Fibre-optics, Chromatic Properties
 
Well-being Factors
Easy-care, Comfort and Ease, Aromatic Agents, Antibacterial Properties, Anti-allergenic Properties, Health and Cosmetic Benefits, Biomimetics 

Man-made Synthetic Polymers, Bio-fibres, Nano-technology

Man-made Synthetic Polymers

Scientists have used biosynthetic muscle fibers to observe the changes that polymers exhibit when subjected to mechanical stress.

scientists, as a result of extensive research, were able to replicate naturally occurring animal and plant fibers by creating fibers from synthetic chemicals. In the literature, it is often noted that there are three kinds of man-made fibers: those made by “transformation of natural polymers” (also called regenerated cellulosics), those made from synthetic polymers and those made from inorganic materials (These include the fibers made of glass, metal, ceramics and carbon.) But by far the largest group of man made synthetic fibers being produced today are made from synthetic polymers, so we’ll concentrate on those in this post.

Bio-fibres

Stemergy bio-fiber is focused on producing and supplying renewable bio-fibres - derived from annual stem fiber plants such as flax and hemp – to the expanding global bio-fiber marketplace.The demand for renewable bio-fibers is quickly accelerating as they become the material of choice for a broad range of applications. In the era of rising fossil fuel and energy prices, using annual plants such as hemp and flax that convert solar energy and green house gases to produce useful renewable bio-fiber materials for manufacturing makes good economic and environmental sense.

Nano-technology

Nanotechnology (sometimes shortened to "nanotech") is the manipulation of matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally, nanotechnology works with materials, devices, and other structures with at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometres. Quantum mechanical effects are important at this quantum-realm scale.

 

 

Peat, Alginate, Metal Fibres

Peat

 

Peat is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetable matter and result in a soft brown mass with carbon content of 50%. Peat forms in wetlands called peatlands. Peat deposits are the first stage in formation of coal deposits. Under pressure, water in the peat is forced out. Upon drying, peat can be used as a fuel, and is traditionally used for cooking and domestic heating in many countries including Ireland and Scotland, where stacks of drying peat dug from the bogs can still be seen in some rura areas. 

Peat is also dug into soil to increase the latter's capacity to retain moisture and add nutrients. Peat fires are used to dry malted barley for use in Scotch whisky distillation. This gives Scotch its distinctive smoky flavor, often referred to as "peatiness" by Scotch afficianados. Moreover peat is used to purify air and remove odours. Bacteria incorporated into the peat, breakdown the odours and gases. By using peat it is possible to adjust the pH and nutrients to a suitable level for different bacteria.

http://www.gzespace.com/gzenew/index.php?pg=peat&lang=en 

 

Alginate 

An alginate dressing is a natural wound dressing derived from different types of algae and seaweeds. These type of dressings are best used on wounds that have a large amount of exudate. They may be use on full-thickness burns, surgical wounds, split-thickness graft donor sites, Mohs surgery defects, refractory decubiti, and chronic ulcers. They can also be applied onto dry wounds after normal saline is first applied to the site of application.

Metal Fibres

The most common uses for metallic fibers is upholstery fabric and textiles such as lamé and brocade. Many people also use metallic fibers in weaving and needlepoint. Increasingly common today are metaillic fibers in clothing, anything from party and evening wear to club clothing, cold weather and survival clothing, and everyday wear. Metallic yarns are woven, braided, and knit into many fashionable fabrics and trims. For additional variety, metallic yarns are twisted with other fibers such as wool, nylon, cotton, and synthetic blends to produce yarns which add novelty effects to the end cloth or trim.[8] Stainless steel and other metal fibers are used in communication lines such as phone lines and cable television lines. Stainless steel fibers are also used in carpets. They are dispersed throughout the carpet with other fibers so they are not detected. The presence of the fibers helps to conduct electricity so that the static shock is reduced. These types of carpets are often used in computer-use areas where the chance of producing static is much greater. Other uses include tire cord, missile nose cones, work clothing such as protective suits, space suits, and cut resistant gloves for butchers and other people working near bladed or dangerous machinery.

Non-traditional Fibre Sources

Non-traditional Fibre Sources：Bast Fibres, Hemp, Leaf Fibres, Seed Hair Fibres, Peat, Alginate, Metal Fibres, Paper, Man-made Synthetic Polymers, Bio-fibres and Nano-technology.

Bast fibres

 Most of the technically important bast fibres are obtained from herbs cultivated in agriculture, as for instance flax, hemp, or ramie, but also bast fibres from wild plants.

Often bast fibres have higher tensile strength than other kinds, and are used in high-quality textiles (sometimes in blends with cotton or synthetic fibres), ropes, yarn, paper, composite materials and burlap. 

Hemp

Hemp fiber was widely used throughout history. Items ranging from rope, to fabrics, to industrial materials were made from hemp fiber. Hemp was often used to make sail, and the word canvas derives from cannabis.Today, a modest hemp fabric industry exists, and hemp fibers can be used in clothing. Pure hemp has a texture similar to linen.

^{Leaf Fibres}

 

 

^{The second section covers developments in fibres such as hemp, nettle and the very directional bio fibres. New processing technology can allow the previously unusable to be manufactured into a commercial fibre, and the specific features of unusual fibres can be used to satisfy the more particular demands of niche markets.}