Understanding material, body and context relations: the practice of soft wearables design
Foregrounding and cycling through these considerations allows designers to create new kinds of objects situated on an axis between garments and products. Rather than fitting clearly into existing, recognisable domains, such wearables define their own domain, allowing designers to break with the limitations and pre-conceived notions attached to disciplines such as fashion, textile design, HCI and electronic product design. New functionalities require new forms, interactions and materials, as well as new approaches. It is from the emerging relations between: context, form, function, material and interaction-powered by the moving body-that a rich, experiential soft wearable design may emerge.
Design Researchers engaged with this problematic use different approaches. Some use the body and movement as a material. Wilde, Schiphorst & Klooster, for example, meld performing arts and interaction design techniques in their research [13]. Höök and colleagues at Mobile Life, SICS and KTH use Mindfulness and Somaesthetics [21] to develop theories and practices around core mechanics and experiential artefacts [22]; Kozel and Hansen develop improvisational methods using dance and phenomenology to design for intimacy [23, 24]; Andersen with Schiphorst [25], and Corness, also with Schiphorst [26] use performance-based methods and performer technique to bring focus to the knowing body. Stjernholm [27] looks at relations between the processes of creating, performing, and perceiving aesthetic embodied practices with digital media. Kirsh [28] explores the question of physical thinking, using the body as an instrument of cognition, and Ross [29] uses aesthetic experience as a mechanism for design.
Other researchers focus on developing movement skills. Hummels, Overbeeke and Klooster [30], for example, have long championed the need for the designer as movement expert, foregrounding the expressive power of gesture. Djajadiningrat, Matthews and Stienstra [31] stress the importance of skilled action when designing interaction, bringing focus to the experience of use. Yet others focus on designing representations of movement, evaluating the user experience, mapping interactions, or exploring sensing technologies [32]. Uğur [33], for example, designed garments that can communicate the emotions of the wearer as dynamic tangible interfaces and extensions of the human body; and Jeon [34], has created dynamic tactile experiences that invite people to interact for their own comfort.
Following, we describe, analyze and reflect on material, body and context relations in soft wearable design through three projects developed during the Close to the Body project, a 2013 collaboration between ESDI,Footnote 1 IAACFootnote 2 and TU/e.Footnote 3 In Close to the Body, four multidisciplinary groups of design students spanning architecture, fashion and interaction design worked together to develop three iterations of designs using identical brief, process, facilities and skills. Ideation, material exploration, and prototyping was different in each case. We highlight three designs: Open Up, Sound Embracers and Trailblazer. To facilitate reflection on how collocated interactions might further enrich situated and performative meaning-making with soft wearables, we focus on the role of material explorations, the body and context in each design process. Using three iterations of each wearable to represent 3 moments in unfolding time, we reflect on the changes that occur in the relations between material, body and context as different foci are foregrounded.
Material explorations
Open Up (Figs. 4, 5 and 6) is a symbiotic outfit that measures displacement, and through material feedback, gives its wearer a new sense of the environment. The work is inspired by animal behaviours. In particular, the methods animals use to attract each other. The goal of Open Up’s first iteration (Fig. 4) was to support relaxation in the mountains (for example through an enhanced experience of yoga). The prototype consisted of a basic natural woollen felt t-shirt-like enclosure that served as a support for a hand-actuated mechanism opening and closing wind catching nets. Moving the arms expanded these wind-catching nets, creating an extended (physical) feeling of the air. Physically connecting the hands and the net additionally made the wearer feel the weight of the wind on their shoulders.
In the second iteration of Open Up (Fig. 5) the context of application shifted from relaxation in the mountains to the everyday activity of walking. Instead of feeling the air, the wearer could feel their ‘personal’ space being transgressed by people around them as they walked. Proximity sensors were used to sense approaching people. When a certain threshold was breached, the garment changed shape. An automated mechanism attached to the supporting structure would move two metal rods up and down, opening and closing the nets. The supporting structure on the body played a similar role in version 1 and 2, thus becoming the ‘red thread’ of the design. In the final iteration (Fig. 6) Open Up was conceived as a cocktail dress that changes shape when people approach. The aim of this version is to ensure the wearer is being noticed. The supporting structure was made using black synthetic felt, with special cuttings to make it more fashionable. The “surprise” opening-up effects are achieved using the same proximity sensors and moving rods from iteration 2 but in this case the reaction is programed to be faster and more energetic.
The design process for Open Up relied heavily on material explorations of mechanisms that can trigger movement: wind-catching nets, rods, and their attachment to the body through a garment. The principle design action throughout was material explorations, undertaken on a table, then transferred to the body. As each new idea emerged, the context of application and the role of the body shifted. Open Up began as a relaxation aid that allows the wearer to feel at one with the environment. When the context changed to walking in a city, the wearable’s use transformed into visualizing the distance between the wearer and others. Finally, visualizing distance was used to create a dramatic entrance effect in parties when approaching the crowd.
Framing the design process by means of material explorations allows a designer to continuously try out new ideas, and thus expand the design space, or broad context of use (e.g., relaxation, protection, cocktail dress). However, it doesn’t support decision-making or depth. There is always a new context, a new application, a new idea that can alter the design. Moreover, the concepts remain in an early stage, a first answer to a challenge (e.g., what if it could…). In this approach, reasoning is driven by how ideas fit with materials at hand, making it imagined but not lived. This process is not uncommon in DIY communities where statements like wouldn’t it be cool to… exemplify a continuous search for the ‘next cool thing’. Material explorations for the sake of material explorations may thus avoid engaging in deep ways with personal meaning and societal value.
Material explorations on the body
The second work we discuss here, Sound Embracers, is a kind of instrument that links body movement to sound generation (Figs. 7, 8 and 9). This ‘garment-instrument’ consists of a knitted collar (similar to a large scarf) with integrated knitted stretch sensors and small speakers. When used in live performance, the collar can be connected to an amplifier or external speakers (like a guitar) to better enable amplification. The starting point for the design of Sound Embracers was to empower an explorative behaviour by triggering curiosity. While sitting down, constraining arm movements with a knitted net helped focusing the attention of the designer on his/her fingers. This first person experiment with felt-experience allowed for a detailed exploration of the environment using the fingertips (see Fig. 7). The wearer’s sense of touch was enhanced by foregrounding texture, temperature and humidity rather than sight.
In the second iteration (Fig. 8), the experience of the net embracing the body became so distracting that any notion of context disappeared completely. The focus moved from playing with the fingers, to exploring the space that formed between the arms. Stretch sensors were added to the knitted net to sense deformation of the collar and transform it into sound. The intention was to create an object that would allow for the combination of dance and music performance. In the third iteration (Fig. 9), the dialogue between the net and the arms was developed further, allowing the performer to twist and turn the net. However, due to the difficulties of creating a functioning music instrument (latency, accuracy and robustness issues) the knitted collar moved to the background. The role of the wearable shifted. It became a support instrument to create soundscapes and allow other instruments to take a leading role in terms of music making. This shift gave bodily expression a central role in the music performance.
The design process behind Sound Embracers revolved around the relation between the material properties and the body performance. The stretch qualities of the yarns, the structure (openness) of the knit and the weight of the ‘instrument’ were in constant dialogue with the body in terms of positioning, comfort, and expressiveness. As the piece evolved, Sound Embracers moved from a light open knitted structure that enabled the fingers to move and open up the knit; to a closed, stretchy structure that supports twisting and stretching the knit without loosening it in order to create sounds.
Framing the design process by means of material explorations on the body brings awareness to the personal intricacies that are necessary to move from designing an object to be used, to an object to be worn. The body necessarily becomes part of the emerging design, and in the case of Sound Embracers, part of the ‘instrument’s’ look, structure, and functionality. The continuous dialogue between the body and the object allowed a continuous reshaping of the material properties embedded in textile structure, and the body movement that these capabilities elicit. The result is a performance where no single entity has meaning without the other. They cannot be treated as independent.
Mastering interaction between the body and material risks reducing the importance of where interactions take place. Interaction with design may be meaningful for the wearer, but without context, the design cannot be situated. It is not a coincidence that Sound Embracers ended up as a music instrument. Music performance closely relates the player with the instrument. It creates an intimate bond between them. Mastering this relation becomes a quest, detached from when and where it is practiced. The distracting power of the body is a red flag when designing wearables. Movements such as Quantified Self [35] and research into Somaesthetics [21] offer a glimpse of the kinds of self-reflexive and self-absorbed experience that are possible when the body becomes the primary context for design.
Material explorations on the body in context
The initial goal of Trailblazer (Figs. 10, 11 and 12) was to support balance when running up and down a mountain. The garment was constructed of a single piece of insulation felt made of natural wool, laser cut using an industrial machine. It functioned by connecting the wearer’s arms together across the upper part of the back (Fig. 10) in a similar way to the upper part of a jacket. The intention was to create a sturdy but playful shape that would fit the body and the action of running. In the second iteration the context of Trailblazer evolved to a generalise notion of running: in the city, the mountains, along a beach… For this version, the designers introduced vibration sensors to not only support, but also guide the balance of the body and the movement of the arms (Fig. 11). The placement of sensors was carefully undertaken by analysing the movement of the body while running. For this iteration, synthetic felt was used instead of natural felt because it emitted less odours when laser-cut and the finish was better as synthetic felt doesn’t burn during laser cutting, whereas natural felt does. In the final iteration (Fig. 12) it was discovered that cues to guide balance may be experienced as cues to guide direction-taking, similar to when a cyclist leans into the handlebar of their bicycle when they turn. This discovery prompted the designers to evolve the context into navigating unfamiliar locations without the need for a map. This new use transformed the design into a service where Trailblazer was one part of a larger system. A shop and a web based interface for selecting running routes were also developed in connection to the garment.
For some designers, framing the design process through: Material explorations on the body in context may be experienced as constraining and difficult, particularly when the designer lacks knowledge of the context they are designing for. In the case of Trailblazer, most members of the design team were avid runners. Their personal experience allowed them to “remember” or “replay” the experience of running rather than imagining or discovering it for the first time. Yet even with contextual knowledge, there are many things to consider when designing for specific contexts (e.g., size of the body, comfort, friction, other garments used in complement, the weather, the chosen terrain, performance and strength of body, as well as materials, possible distractions, length of the run, etc.), and the view of the novice can bring much insight [36]. Requirements that arise from ‘being there’ may seem overwhelming at first. Especially when the direction of a project is not defined. However, once initial frictions are resolved and the designers are able to accept not knowing where they are heading, experiencing material on a moving body in context creates a source of inspiration that is situated, embodied and relational. The decision making process becomes tacit, one just “feels” if the material, shape, or even the direction the project is going is the right one.
When a person is situated in context, they sense the environment through their body, interact with garments through their body and fulfil goals using their clothed, accessorised and thus augmented body in an intuitive manner. A designer’s augmented body filters data, picking up what is relevant to the designer’s goals, including what might impede these goals. By using their own bodies in context in this way, designers are able to achieve the necessary intimacy and personal meaning-making required in worn objects. Being in context also maintains focus on social value. A critique to this hyper-localised approach might wonder if the resulting garment could be used in a context other than the one it was designed for. Exploration of such questions can enable a designer to focus their design decisions to arrive at appropriate outcomes.