Swatch-bits: Prototyping e-Textiles with modular swatches

Abstract

The creation of e-Textile swatches is a common practice for documenting material experiments, sharing techniques with other practitioners, and for concept ideation. The Creative Interactions Lab has developed a system that turns e-Textile swatches into easily connectable "bits" so that swatches can move between being an ideation tool into a prototyping tool(kit). The benefit of this approach is that experimental swatches and ideas for their use can be easily tested in context. In this studio, participants will be invited to bring their own swatches and/or prototypes, will learn how to create modular e-Textile swatch-bits, and then we will spend the afternoon making prototypes and will engage in hands-on activities with the modular swatches. The goal of the studio will be to share e-Textile prototyping techniques, and to discuss the potential for modular swatches to be incorporated into e-Textile prototyping processes.