The DXARTS SoftLab is a studio and an online platform whose mission is to examine the role of workmanship in artistic research, to redefine the use of crafting in the post-digital era, and to explore the body as an interface of control and resistance. It is part of the Department of Digital Arts and Experimental Media (DXARTS) at the University of Washington in Seattle.
All tagged e-textiles
Virtual artist talk at VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University) Arts Department of Kinetic Imaging
Fifth meeting of the Wearable Narratives DRG focused on sharing student ideas and prototypes
Online event curated and moderated by Abby Aresty and Rachel Gibson at SEAMUS 2021 (Society for Electroacoustic Music in the United States), with the participation of Patricia Cadavid, Jess Rowland, Sam Topley, Asha Tamirisa and Afroditi Psarra
Fourth meeting of the Wearable Narratives DRG focused on discussing ideas about individual projects and looking at reference projects for inspiration and for building a work methodology
Third meeting of the Wearable Narratives DRG focused on handmade sensors and understanding how the different properties of the e-textile materials that be used to create variable resistance
Virtual artist talk by Ricardo O’Nascimento on his studio practice and his research on wearable haptics in the context of DXARTS 472 Mechatronic Art, Design and Fabrication II
First online meeting of the Wearable Narratives directed research group at DXARTS, comprised by Esteban Yosef Agosin (DXARTS), Grace Barar (HCDE/DXARTS), Rylie Sweem (HCDE/DXARTS), Xintong Xu (Art IVA/ DXARTS),
Zoe Grace Kaputa (Computer Science), and Sadaf Sadri (Art Photomedia), and led by Afroditi Psarra.
Artist talk at Fabricademy 2020-21 on current e-textiles research, cyberfeminist experiments, and the idea of embodiment through hacking technical artifacts.
Our Networks is a conference about the past, present, and future of building our own network infrastructures. This year’s topic was Growing Our Networks in Uncertain Times↔Places and the conference took place online during September 8–12, 2020
An e-textile that explores how technology, sound, and movement can reimagine the body’s relationship to space and ‘A’rchitecture.
A prototype that challenges the role of toxic masculinity through media archaeology and performance.
Aftermath of the ISWC (International Symposium of Wearable Computers) and the Textile Intersections Conference, that took place in London, UK, on Sept 11-13 and Sept 12-14, 2019 accordingly.
RBG sensor, electromyographic sensor, motor, and leds embed within my future skin for activation and protection. Entering upon a new spaces, the RBG sensor reads the aura of the room and sends that information through my new veins and communicated through lights. Sound is trigged from the electromyorphic information that my right arm indicates while taking in the colors.
Listening Space is an artistic research that was born during the eTextile Spring Break camp event that took place in upstate New York at the beginning of April 2019. Following their previous explorations of ecologies of transmissions and wanting to experiment with Software-Defined Radio, Afroditi Psarra and Audrey Briot setup a DIY satellite tracking station and aimed at intercepting the NOAA weather satellite audiovisual transmissions. During the course of three days, they observed five satellite passes, intercepted successfully three transmissions and decoded the audio signals into images which they later knitted in order to create a textile archive of the transmissions. The project recently won the Bergstrom Art & Science Award at the University of Washington and will be developed further in the course of the next academic year 2019/20.
Continuing her research into textile antennas and fractal geometry as a means to detect radio-frequency (RF) transmissions, in Embodied RF Ecologies, Afroditi Psarra aims speculate about the body as an agent of power in a post-capitalist world, and to re-interpret transmission technologies through handmade crafting techniques.
On Wednesday, April 3rd 2019 we had the amazing opportunity to host at the DXARTS 490: E-textiles & Wearables for Art & Design, the Italian interaction designer Giulia Tomasello talking about her work in the field of biohacking, harvesting and women’ s health, as well as the Chilean artist and performer Constanza Piña, presenting her work with wearables and sound through a DIY electronics and traditional crafting perspective.
This wearable synth was inspired by the complexity of human emotions in conjunction with the comfort of human touch. Housed in a weighted sweater, the user experiences a subtle pressure on their shoulders, while the instrument is being played. Mimicking the feeling of being hugged, the user can squeeze the arms of the sweater, actuating the pressure sensors, intern synthesizing tones.
An interactive representation of a migraine aura. There's a soft pressure sensor built into one side of the cap, so that when you touch that side of the head, the lights blink faster and the origami tessellations move. I tried to capture the surreal psychedelic quality of a typical "fortification spectrum" visual aura.
An on-going collaboration between DXARTS professor Afroditi Psarra and choreographer Stephanie Liapis on e-textiles and dance improvisation taking place at Velocity Dance Center in Seattle.
