(German version bellow)
Stories from an e-textile tailor
Make your tech and wear it too!
In this talk I’d like to give an introduction to the materials, tools, skills and energies involved in making electronic textiles and tailoring wearable technology, which has been my practice for the past 13 years.
I spend my days crafting electronic textiles, imagining what this technology, worn on our bodies, will allow us to sense, to communicate, to become. As an explorer of new materials, I create soft circuits and textile sensors that I document and share on How To Get What You Want and A-Kit-Of-No-Parts hoping to inspire others to join me in this material practice.
Starting points for my work vary from open-ended playful explorations of materials/tools/techniques in order to discover interesting narratives and diverse ways of doing things (such as hand-embroidering elaborate circuitry onto a funeral gown to speak about possible futures), to directed commissions looking to problem-solve and realize concrete ideas (such as developing robust hard-soft connections, insulation methods, sensor and actuator designs).
Whether I’m exploring or solving, I find myself seeking direct, hands-on encounters with the materials of electronics – materials that due to their abilities to conduct, resist, isolate, store or generate electrical current are able to make up what we think of as electronics. I’m drawn to this more interactive style of dialogue because it allows me to engage more of my bodily sensors (sensations) and actuators in real-time debate-like conversation. There is this image of future technology being fully constructed by machine and a workmanship of certainty. I’m drawn to exploring the other end of the spectrum, towards what furniture designer and design theorist David Pye’s describes as the workmanship of risk. How uncertain, how intimate, how messy, how physically and collaboratively connected can we get with the materials of electronics?
>> https://media.ccc.de/v/Camp2019-10375-make_your_tech_and_wear_it_too#t=560
„Geschichten einer e-textile Schneiderin”
Make your tech and wear it too!
Freitag 1. November
19 Uhr
Kabutze
Performance Lesung mit
Hannah Perner-Wilson, Kobakant Berlin
In diesem Vortrag möchte ich eine Einleitung geben in die Materialien, Werkzeuge, Fähigkeiten und Energien die bei der Herstellung elektronischer Textilien und geschneiderter tragbarer Technologie zum Einsatz kommen. Diese waren die letzten 13 Jahre Teil meiner künstlerischen Praxis.
Ich verbringe meinen Tag damit elektronische Textilien zu fertigen und stelle mir dabei vor was diese Technlogie, getragen auf unseren Körpern, uns ermöglichen wird zu fühlen, zu kommunizieren, zu werden.
Als eine Entdeckerin neuer Materialien erschaffe ich weiche Stromkreise und textile Sensoren, die ich online auf „How to get what you want“ und „ A-Kit-Of-No-Parts“ dokumentiere, in der Hoffnung, dass ich andere inspiriere mich bei dieser materiellen Praxis zu unterstützen.
Ausgangspunkte meiner Arbeit variieren von offenen spielerischen Erkundungen von Materialien/Werkzeugen/Techniken um interessante Narrative zu entdecken und diverse Wege zu entdecken Dinge zu tun (wie das aufwändige Handbesticken von Schaltkreisen auf ein Trauerkleid um über mögliche Zukünfte zu reden), bis zu Aufträgen mit dem Ziel Probleme zu lösen und konkrete Ideen zu realisieren ( wie z.B. das Entwickeln haltbarer Verbindungen fester und weicher Materialien, Isolierungen, Sensor- und Motordesign).
Ob ich erkunde oder Probleme löse, ich suche dabei direkte handfeste Begegnungen mit den Materialien der Elektronik. Materialien, die aufgrund ihrer Fähigkeit elektrischen Strom zu leiten, zu widerstehen, zu isolieren, zu speichern oder zu generieren, in der Lage sind das auszumachen, was wir als Elektronik verstehen. Ich fühle mich zu dieser interaktiven Art des Dialogs hingezogen, weil es mir erlaubt mehr meiner körperlichen Sensoren (Gefühle) und Motoren (Antreiber) in einem dialogartigen Echtzeit- Austausch zu benutzen.
Es gibt die Vorstellung, dass die Technologien der Zukunft komplett von Maschinen und einem „Handwerk der Gewissheit/Beständigkeit“ (workmanship of certainty) konstruiert sein werden.
Mich zieht es zu dem anderen Ende des Spektrums, zu dem, was Möbeldesigner und Designtheortiker David Pye als „Handwerk des Risikos“ (workmanship of risk) beschreibt. Wie unsicher, wie intim, wie chaotisch, wie physisch und gemeinschaftlich verbunden können wir mit dem Material der Elektronik werden?
>> https://media.ccc.de/v/Camp2019-10375-make_your_tech_and_wear_it_too#t=560
Eintritt frei!
Samstag und Sonntag könnt ihr in einem Nähworkshop mit Hannah Werkzeugtaschen nähen und sie mit einem Licht, Nadelkissen, Magneten und anderen praktischen Dingen versehen.
>> http://wsp.plusea.at/dinapouch-workshop/
[symbolic artefact: sock puppets]
0000 | COLLABORATION
with humans
with materials
with places
[artefact: book, paper]
0000 | THEORY / BOOKS
Critical Fabulations
Sitching Worlds
[actual object: Seasonal Sensors]
2019 |
to show: glove, fingers……
flickr set
sketches
Absurd Musical Interfaces
[symbolic object: ETextile Trash]
2019 | ETextile Waste
Closing the Loop?
Sustainability
Repair
Longevity
Nutrition Facts
[actual object: poly leggings]
2019 | Polymerization for a Publication | by The Counter Chemists
tie-poly process video >>
CCC camp talk >> https://ftp.fau.de/cdn.media.ccc.de/events/camp2019/h264-hd/camp19-10375-eng-deu-Make_Your_Tech_and_Wear_It_Too_hd.mp4
website >>
collaboration (with materials, with people, with institutions, with systems)
[actual object: candle]
2019 | Capturing Process
HTGWYW
KoNP
Flickr Sets, YouTube, GitHub
documentation as storytelling
Field Recordings
Dear KOBA letters
Rule #8
Getting Lost and Unlearning Certainty
stop-motion animation >>
4 Things:
i’m following you
my stories are yours as well
struggle to transition between abstract and tangible
getting lost and the value of community in any making process
[symbolic objet: rock]
2018 | Crocheteering – a tale of fishy innovation
video: underwater crochet
story
An Underwater Studio Practice
sketches
DiNaCon >> https://www.dinacon.org/
[actual object: Lulu swatch]
2018 | Lulu | by KOBAKANT and Maurin Donneaud
video
proposal post
[photo: KOBA shop]
2018 | KOBA | by KOBAKANT
[symbolic object: some nature, pot of water]
2017 | Human Nature | by KOBAKANT
project page >> https://www.kobakant.at/?p=1107
video: performance at PIFcamp
illustrations
story
flickr set >>
PIFcamp >> http://pif.camp/
[actual object: apron-jacket]
2017 | Our Wearable Manifesto(s)
demo
website
pattern
[symbolic object: audio breakout]
2017 | In the woods…. | by KOBAKANT and Montessori place
project page >> https://www.kobakant.at/?p=1068
video >>
flickr set >>
[actual object: PCB LED necklace]
2016 | Blurred Boundaries
materials & aesthetics – what appeals to whome?
necklace
ohmhook
videos
[actual object: ohmHook without crochet hook or just crochet hook]
2016 | ohmHook
early prototype(s)
website
making of, flickr set >>
[actual object: manoeuvrable fur]
2016 | Anatomy of a Pin
illustration
manoeuvrable fur
dangerous fur
pin sensors
pin silicone motion
The Headless Pin (xrays)
[symbolic object: popcorn]
2015 | A Wearable Studio Practice
MADA (open popcorn and pass around)
video (poem)
DAYpack
PIFpack
[actual object: one swatch page]
2013,14,15,16,17 | E-Textile Swatch Exchange
ETextile Summercamp (photo album)
video: swatchbook demo
[ETextile Summercamp photo album]
2011 – ongoing ETextile Summercamp | Mika Satomi
website
video 2013
[actual object: woven fabric]
2012 | Involving The Machines | by KOBAKANT
ITM Collection
PDF
[symbolic object: textile speaker]
2012 | The Crying Dress | by KOBAKANT
“Where we want electronic textile crafts to go”
background story: Exquisite Electronics Era
video
flickr set
demo: textile speaker
[actual object: glove]
2012 | Gloves Project | Mimu gloves
website, video
DIY gloves
[symbolic object: parts taken apart]
2011 | A Kit-of-No-Parts
master thesis
website
taking parts apart
[zine]
2009- ongoing | Teaching
Workshops >> http://www.howtogetwhatyouwant.at/?cat=303
Shakerag
KOBA Tailor School
NYU
Textile Sensor
Custom Interfaces
ETextile Technique – Swatchbook
PIFcamp
Courses:
fff (Kunst Uni Linz)
Fashionable Technologies (Kunst Uni Linz)
Materials of Electronics (CIID)
workshops as invitation to participate
[actual object: textile sensor]
2009- ongoing | How To Get What You Want | by KOBAKANT
website >> http://www.howtogetwhatyouwant.at/
open source, access to knowledge & inspiration
[symbolic object: collar circuit prototype]
2008 – 2012 | The Perfect Human Performance | by KOBAKANT
webpage >> https://www.kobakant.at/?p=29
playlist >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d78QtgSxf2Y&list=PL58F56D06F75D8782
[symbolic object: game controller, massage oil]
2006 | Massage me | by KOBAKANT
video >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZSxrIDiDFc
website >> http://www.kobakant.at/massage-me/
Flickr sets:
making-of >> https://www.flickr.com/photos/plusea/albums/72157613258598841
at ARS >> https://www.flickr.com/photos/plusea/albums/72157613258712841
all >> https://www.flickr.com/search/?text=massage%20me&user_id=64586501%40N00&album_search=1&view_all=1
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