Double-click to edit...
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.
The High Water Pants were designed as a tool to speculatively explore the intersections of everyday cyclists and climate change and were the main design object from my master of design thesis. They are a ‘time-bending’ garment for cyclists to wear that enable future projections about sea-level rise to be experienced in the present moment, in situ, as cyclists ride and explore Seattle’s unique geography and topography.
This sound performance titled Racquetball Score,which explores gender non-binary-ness through soundscapes strategically sourced through a game of racquetball using live feedback and embedded piezo mics.
An introductory workshop on the world of e-textiles and soft-circuits at S1 Synth Library in Portland.
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.
On June 6th 2019, Isabel Nelson and several other students from the DXARTS 490 E-textiles and Wearables for Art and Design course, as well as other emerging designers from the University of Washington got together to produce Hypnotica, a wearable tech fashion show at the project space Hyena Culture in downtown Seattle, at the historic Pioneer Square district. The event was entirely self-organized and combined fashion, light art, sound and performance art and was presented through an exciting runway show that showcased the work of Taylor Hammes, Aashna Dev, Aarohi Bhaway, Atari Women, Esther Lin, Helen Mirabella, Grace Barar, Stevie Koepp, Kennedy Buriani, Rebby Montalvo, and of the main organizer Isabel Nelson.
On June 2019, in the fourth edition of DXARTS 490A: E-textiles & Wearable studio class, students presented their final project prototypes through a pop-up exhibition at the DXARTS Fablab in Ballard.
The camouflage suit attempts to deliver a new narrative idea about the identities of Atayal female indigenous weavers and the period of Japanese colonization (1895-1945).
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.
A symposium organized by Sareeta Amrute, Audrey Desjardins, Afroditi Psarra, Daniela Rosner and Phillip Thurtle with keynote talks, round tables, workshops and performances by Morehshin Allahyari, Trinh Mai, Sarah Zewde, Nais Dave, Kalani Young, Azzurra Cox, Gabriel Dattatreyan, Nia Easley, Giulia Tomasello, Juno Parrenas, Doenja Oogies, Nisi Shawl and Constanza Piña.
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.
a small investigation into the reassembly of everyday nature
A new technique for making embroidery move.
The Stretch Synth is a scarf-sized fabric tube knit on a knitting machine. Stretch Synth is a synthesizer that plays music as you stretch, bend and scrunch a woven tube of fabric. Stretch Synth is both a synthesis of my newly acquired e-textile and physical computing skill sets as well as a preliminary foray into interfaces that ask what meaning can be made in the intersection of technology, form and movement.
Fly High is an interactive experience that combines a video game and performance art. Participants play the game by wearing a dress that is the controller. The dress controls the main character, Baby Mt. Rainier and sends it high into the universe. Chanee is inspired daily by the beauty and visual complexity of Mt. Rainier. The weather seems to change its color and that’s where the Baby Mt. Rainier’s colorful design originated.
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.
Daniela Rosner from Human-Centered Design and Engineering (HCDE) visited the DXARTS 490A - E-textiles and Wearables summer 2018 class to present her new book Critical Fabulations and to instruct a hands-on workshop on how to create rope-core memories by exploring the complexity of crafting electronic circuitry.
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.
