Textile Voices: Multisensory Engagement with E-textiles and Co-design
I worked with Arts Well CIC to identify two groups in Cornwall; Helston and Penryn to pilot a project to engage community groups in multisensory engagement and co-design with e-textiles. Arts Well will share their expertise and experience in championing the role of arts and creativity to promote health and wellbeing and contribute to the ongoing development of Textile Voices. Jayne Howard from Arts Well describes, “growing evidence that participation in creative activities transforms lives – improving physical, mental, social and emotional health”.
Each group were chosen for their stitching skill and receptiveness to investigating innovative, new technologies. They were mixed groups, ranging in age from 47 to 82 . The group members were seeking activities that would enable them to meet new people, occupy them regularly and positively enrich their health and wellbeing. Workshops were organised over a 6-week period and relied on two facilitators to facilitate the session, instruct on felt making and stitching and motivate story-telling activities that were audio recorded. Facilitators helped create a relaxed atmosphere and encouraged people to form bonds, build trust and feel comfortable in the group environment. Relationship building and engagement methods encouraged people to open up and more readily communicate ideas, thoughts and feelings. Material engagement with textile techniques helped group participants to build confidence, get involved in shaping design outcomes, build stronger group cohesion and integrate, “their values in the design process” (Mörtberg & van der Velden, 2015, p.3).
E-textile objects as design probes
This project set out to discover opportunities for participants to increase their creativity and imagination through a supported, collaborative approach to making. E-textile techniques were used to apply a material approach to accessing technology, reduce technological intimidation and explore possibilities for developing personal, multi-sensory outcomes.
The Textile Voices project involved community groups directly in creative activities and encouraged members to devise personally motivated, design intentions for a collective outcome. I applied participatory methods to facilitate group participants to co-define, co-produce and evaluate the work to increase their personal and emotional connection to it.
Wet felt making activities
During participatory workshops, groups conceived a collective sonic, textile prototype produced with wet felted wool rovings. The project reflected on the role of collaboration during the process of prototype production, as well as the facilitation and support from a team of design researchers, artists and technologists.
The group offered a diverse collection of reminiscences and personal accounts taken from their lives or describing the creative process, the project and feelings around it. Participants spoke about events, people and places that related to their personal lives and described the local Cornish environment and its influence on their creative work. The landscape and geography of their home was apparent in many of the panels produced.
Personalised felt panels telling stories with a wide variety of materials including conductive fabric
Digital tools that encourage and support creativity have been adopted in the participatory, design community to foster personalisation of technological features and applications. The Touchcraft project involved cross-sector collaboration with people from the engineering, software, design and health sectors to establish a social enterprise called Touch Craft, which aimed to improve people’s lives by exploring the production and application of e-textiles. The team facilitated creative activity and social cohesion for people living in isolated regions suffering from loneliness and long-term health conditions through access to workshops and e-textile craft production.
Listening to each story that were triggered by touching conductive fabric ‘buttons’
Mörtberg, C. & van der Velden, M., 2015. Participatory Design and Design for Values. In Handbook of Ethics, Values, and Technological Design. Springer, Dordrecht. pp.41-66.
