felted terrain:
interactive knitted landscape
Felted Terrain attempts to subvert the notion of knitted/felted textile that is associated with primitive handcraft through its integration of soft electronics, computation design, and fabrication method.
Inspired by the rolling, mossy landscape of Iceland, Felted Terrain translates the shapes of natural terrain through the generation of three-dimensional, interactive textile. At a scale of the interior, knitted/felted textile no longer becomes the familiar material of the body. Partly furniture, a surface, and also a sensory outlet, Felted Terrain allows users to experience the familiar textile in an unexpected way.
Exhibition support has been provided by the Department of Architecture and a Director’s Grant from the Council for the Arts at MIT.
Learn more about the project in this paper published in DeSForM 2017 Conference Proceedings
circle packing pattern
A script was used to generate this circle packing pattern. The size of the circle corresponds to the pitch of the musical notes.
knitting pattern
The generated pattern is overlaid on a grid to translate the graphic circles into a knitting pattern. The red circles indicate where the conductive thread will be added to create capacitive sensor tips.
circuit diagram
The curved lines indicate circuitry that links all of the conductive tips (gray shaded area) with the Lilypad micro-controller. Soft circuits are stitched onto the felted textile using conductive thread.
from sheep to wool
(image by daniela covarrubias)
wool up close (why it felts)
If you look closely, wool fibers have scales like a reptile. These scales are the main reason in giving traditional wool its abrasive texture. When washed, these scales interlock and become tighter and tighter causing shrinkage, aka. felting.
Touch and Listen
First prototype of the interactive textile. Play a chromatic scale by following the size of the bumps.
