clemens winkler | digital traces

I get a lectureship at my university about my experiences with reactive materials! Here you can download the presentation pdf!

A friend of mine- she´s studying in textiles- creates a sixty centimeters length woven fabric with conductive thread (32 Ohm per foot).

Creating signs of time as traces on a surface. You don´t know what and where the signs are growing. You cause a reaction, like as contact something, but it seems to be generate in chaotic way. But on full table with other peoples- you put your glass and activate each others bottle- you see your logical meaning of translate a trace to another point. The “interactive Tablecloth” is a textile, which attempts to activate human- human interaction. The way it works looks not justified but the software in the fabric report the last interactions with it. So when you are alone you see in last time there was a great meal at this table. See what traces activate in time again and how the people before interact among each other.

The fading effect is marginal- in a way not so officious. Here a photo from near the textile

I printed the static textile patterns in different colors with mixed pigments into thermochromical paint;

In the example shown the voltage is turned on , that´s why the heated thread colored the pattern. The static pattern becomes dynamic;
The informations are shown in a material-specific way!

the first prototype; I want to control the heated thread directly , but it very long time to fade into another color.
I take the arduino lillypad to a darlington transistor to switch 9 Voltage to the fabric and it works!

.the sensors; I want to create a digital on/ off when something put on the tablecloth! I build six textile switches with conductive thread and normal thread to keep the two layers apart. The picture shows the bottom side of the second layer;

the finished sewed second layer;
a conductive thread with high resistance for creating heat-

The bottom layer contained the arduino, input drifts, energy sources and transistors;

I build a connection between the layers

abstract;
Objects and traces- cause and effect- associated each other in time. The initial point to work with traces.
I saw that the usage with products, interieurs etc. made traces on its surfaces. The traces can tell something about the usage of some things.
I want to create some of these traces. In analysis I see the reaction is a kind of communication between object- human or object- environment.

the thesis shown in realtime;

You put something on a tablecloth and you see a reaction.

communication- relation between actor and reaction

the intention;
To communicate consists an action and a reaction.
My prototype should communicate with the actors. The users communicate in a more subtle way to the tablecloth. The tablecloth answers in a its own way to connect each other at the table. Finally I want to create a “human-human interaction device”.
Dynamic patterns, which can change over time, can be used as a
tool for communication. With the helping of heat I can create these patterns in time.
A table is a place where you communicate. It is THE interaction plattform for me now;
You put the glass, pick the fork or take a lump.
So, the more colourful and large the pattern is, the longer
the meal before was.
The traces are the recordings of a mini story in the past.

Package- Technical implementation and Material:

Different fabrics in layers can be sandwiched together with heat elements in between
and a screen print with thermochromical print on the top layer.

layer 1)
The toplayer with screenprinted thermochromical pigment. It reacts to heated conductive threads in layer 2 and hot cups you put on it.

layer 2)
I sew the conductive thread. When something is on the table its heating up and creating dynamic patterns.

layer 3)
Here are six touch sensors, the arduino lillypad, the energy source (a AAA band a 9V battery) and transistors. When one of the sensors pushed down the arduino noticed the signal and I lead it to one of the outputs to powered the heating thread in second layer via darlington transistors.

I decided to work with textiles, cause its can be manipulate in the synthesis. All of technique is washable (as manufacterer promised).

With conductive yarn you can embed electronics- transfers power or uses as heating elements cause of high restistance between 200 ohm (yarn 2ply) and 34 ohm (4ply yarn) per foot.
For technical detail click Conductive_text_10.pdf or order it from sparkfun.com .
This yarn made of acrilic fibres with due 15% nickel-copper alloy after galvanic treatment.

To control the input output of my interactive clothes I uses a arduino lilypad- also from sparkfun.com
It has a 5 Volt in- and output. powered by a “AAA-battery”.I downloaded and burned the bootloader for the ATmega168 from arduino.cc.

to program and work with the lillypad I build this USB interface connected with 5v power supplie.,.GND TX and RX

My presentation becomes early in time now I have a room and a date for presentation
so I design Flyers to get a room full of people;)

The intention is to pick up the flyer. If you hold it a few times you see the typo “Hände waschen nicht vergessen”, which means “Wash your hands, please”. - a message to my interactive presentation / exibithion!

in practice;

I create a rapport based on fact of digital wireframes I printed before.

I am searching some kinds of input for my dye sensitiv skin.

..with a blow dryer. It is a kind of visualisation air conditioning- direction, temperature and power are located.

You can show some hiding textures or informations. I printed a plain thermochromic mixed green and the structures with standard ink- here the result.

I also arranged the carbon fibres under the textil- some dynamic forms…

The macro shoot shows the material specific way of displaying something.

Some structures create on the textile when you press it!

The next sample is covered with Polyurethan to restist water;

Visualisizing water drops again;

I interact with water, but no frequencies applied.

Create your own pattern with two or three cups of hot water;

The thermochromic ink mixed with binder. I ordered the 400g ink from CTI London for studies. (60 pounds)
It fades from black to colorless at 30-35 ° (body temperature)

I mixed the thermochromic ink with some standard pigments to faded from color grey in pure dye.

With the screen I made some test cells.

With the power of a 9V Batterie the ink faded very fast (faster as I touch with my fingers)

I made some stripes to test the effect of colors

I want to control the dye with human interaction and computational input via arduino and carbon fibres in a material nearest way;

In my semester I wanted to screenprinting some textiles.
Here are some pictures about my working process in manufacture of textile design with different kind of pigments

after each print I cleaned up my screen

As sample I used my modelling works of 3d works- the hands from ergonomic studies.
Virtual structures print onto textiles. The digital wireframes becomes a bit more real;

wireframes printed white on dark textile become more digital

Printing layers green pigment and white foam pigment.

printed filigree structures on canvas

I made this textile to preserve my notebook keyboard.

onlast week I saw some paint on the footpath and..
..I walked around it- very impressive!