In light of the imminent arrival of ambient
intelligence and smart textiles, the design of
computational and textile things are rapidly
converging. Substantial attention is directed
towards the new technical possibilities of these
new materials, but less effort seems to be put
into the challenging task of re-thinking the use of
textiles and computational technology as design
materials on the basis of the complex mixture of
traditions, perspectives, concepts and methods
that result from such convergence.
These challenges and opportunities inspired
the IT+Textiles design research program. Trying
to dissolve the distinction between technologies
and design materials, they have combined textile
and interaction design, textile and electrical engineering,
philosophy and the behavioural sciences
to find new approaches to issues of use and
context, of form and aesthetics, of practice and
theory. In this book, they describe the collection
of materials, examples, methods and concepts
they have developed in their investigation of this
emerging design space.
IT+Textiles is a design research program led
by the Interactive Institute and Newmad Technologies
in collaboration with academic and industrial
partners in Sweden, and is funded by VINNOVA
(the Swedish Agency for Innovation Systems).