Sample making and documentation are well established practices in digital craftsmanship. However, we rarely discuss how we return to these collections to look for starting points and new understandings. In this provocation, we propose diffraction as a way to describe how we revisit and reconsider samples in different times and contexts. In doing so, we can imagine what other knowledge might be present in them and interpret what else they might do. We use the example of the development of a filtering textile, based on a set of woven samples developed for other purposes and projects. Through this, we show how a relatively simple strategy can support us to investigate material samples and collections through a kind of makers’ science, in which both inspiration and proof may lie in the material samples themselves.@en

Material-Driven Design (MDD) proposes that we value the behaviours, performance properties, and aesthetics that emerge from a material’s inherent properties – an approach that provides a much-needed perspective for the textile and fashion industry as it develops new sustainable and circular systems. This research expands this material-led approach to include design-production processes framed within holistic notions of sustainability. In contrast to a conventional top-down design research process, material-processual-driven design approaches may enable us to break from the trap of developing and evaluating the outcomes of new design systems through the lens of our existing (usually unsustainable) approaches. This paper reflects on the tensions experienced by the authors in navigating concerns of technological feasibility, aesthetic outcomes, and the sustainable goals framing two sets of woven textile-form design experiments. Textile-forms are design-production processes that emerge from the simultaneous production of textile and form via the interlacement of matter/fibre/yarn and are designed to facilitate localised, on-demand production of textile-based objects. We will present the experiments, which were developed over six months, reflecting on the technical and evaluation processes that contributed to their development and the challenges that arose. This paper provides grounded examples of design researchers navigating this challenging space and the outcomes that emerge and aims to contribute to a greater understanding of circular techno-aesthetics that may support the industry as it develops the new systems it needs.@en

In this paper, we explore how textile-form thinking, i.e., the simultaneous design and construction of the textile and form, can be leveraged as a strategy to embrace and unlock the performative potential of woven interactive textiles to building towards more intuitive interactions with woven interactive textiles in our everyday. First, we designed and wove five textile-form interfaces, working as contact switches and sensors, with sensing capabilities and diverse performative qualities. Then, we investigated the action possibilities of the interfaces in an exploratory study. Grounded on the study's outcomes, we identified three design themes relative to the performativity of our woven textile-form interfaces. Finally, we derived practical design tactics that designers can apply to design for the performativity of woven textile-form interfaces.@en

A woven textile-form is a form that is constructed simultaneously as the textile is woven. Interfaces designed with this approach hold undisclosed potential for rich interactions. However, the design of woven textile-form interfaces requires specialised tacit knowledge, which is limited even in craft and practice spaces; and it is therefore inaccessible to HCI designers. To bridge this gap, we present the material-driven journey of a multidisciplinary team to design a woven textile-form interface using various techniques such as paper models and diagrams to design for multi-layer weaving. Replacing traditional yarns with conductive yarn, we achieved woven textile-forms with electronic sensing capabilities. By outlining our process, the pictorial highlights the challenges and opportunities of textile-form thinking for HCI designers. Additionally, its printed version serves as a ‘paper prototyping tool’ for designers to gain hands-on experience developing textile-form interfaces.@en