I recently saw (and touched and heard) Tactile Orchestra at Cooper Hewitt’s “The Senses: Design Beyond Vision” exhibition. The installation is a soft, furry wall that– when stroked– plays part of an orchestra. Depending on the exact movement and location of your touch, different parts of the orchestra play; the more people stroking the wall, the more sounds that are played.

I loved the childlike simplicity of the interface and the fact that it allowed multiple, simultaneous interactions: both humans-to-wall and humans-to-humans. I felt like a kindergartener, surrounded by other kindergarteners, with my arms stretched out experimenting, playing, and exploring.

I’m very intrigued by this interactive mural project because it preserved how graphically satisfying it is and then added interactivity based on that graphic design. In the project they applied soft conductive materials — conductive paint and copper tape. Then they connected different parts of the mural to an electronic board which would tell the projector to project different motion graphics onto the mural.

I am very drawn to the piece Contours by Alicja and Fabio. Installation art that uses technology but is not specifically screen based is what made me interested in attending DT in the first place! The ability of technology to be incorporated into the physical environment is, for lack of a more erudite word, MAGICAL. Technology can make something as intimidating as installation art into a much more friendly experience because the viewer is able to physically interact with the piece rather than remaining passive. Installations that are interactive have the potential to be a gateway to a greater appreciation of art for people who are ordinarily intimidated by it.

Below is a video of Contours in action. Enjoy.

This project is part of a textile design students at MOME – Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design performed by EjTech. It consists of different systems compound by sensors that play music/sound. The uniqueness of this project relies on its materiality, all natural materials, fibers, leaves, and some other elements that make this technological project break the barrier between nature and technology. I find it both poetic and visually compelling.

There is a wide variety of hand-crafted sensors made of textile in addition to different natural materials coming from different plants and vegetables.  Of course, I couldn’t try it and feel it, but it seems to me that it has to be really smooth and satisfying. I love every bit of this project! I’d like to try to work with natural materials combined with other synthetics that makes the interaction viable, efficient and reliable. It’s highly experimental, but I’m willing to explore new ways to play with senses and haptics.

Artists and designers have been proposing the ideas to grow textiles as the ways to think about environmental, sustainable, ethical issues surrounding the textile production.
We propose to think about these issues including how e-textiles and smart textiles plays a role towards sustainable living, creating possible futures for second skins, sensors and adaptive/responsive structures. EjTech.

This is a project called FrabricKeyboard from MIT media lab. The fabric keyboard consists of multi-layer textile sensors machine-sewn in a keyboard pattern, and it detects different stimuli such as touch, pressure, stretch, proximity, and electric field. What I found interesting is that users can not only touch the interface to interact but also use non-contact gestures to play music. This project reminds me of another musical invention—Hand Roll Piano. With small size and low power consumption, Hand Roll Piano becomes a great portable musical instrument. Compare to Hand Roll Piano, FrabricKeyboard has made improvement in interaction design and music style that can be played.

Video:https://vimeo.com/213298236

1. Get logged onto course website. Please change your username to your name.
2. Find a project that excites you and that uses the materials we looked at in class. You can use one from today’s class or find something new.
3. Create a post that includes, images, video, or other documentation. Write a brief paragraph explaining what it is about this project that intrigues you.
4. Purchase materials listed in TOOLS today or tomorrow.