This thesis investigates textile-forms—textile-based artefacts designed through the integrated consideration of textile (matter) and form (artefact). Building on the concept of Multimorphism, which views textiles as a material system spanning material, social, and ecological scales, this research addresses the challenges of designing interactions deeply rooted in the textile material system.
Grounded in the Materials Experience framework, the thesis examines textile-forms' performativity—their capacity to invite action—and their multi-situatedness, or adaptability to diverse contexts. Using a mixed-methods Research-through-Design (RtD) approach, the research investigates textile-forms' performativity across three levels: design practice, interaction, and user experience. Two series of woven textile-forms, created through weaving and multi-layer weaving techniques, explore how specific textile qualities contribute to performativity and how textile-forms can be designed for everyday use. Empirical studies reveal that textile-forms with unpredictable behaviours and multiple embedded states encourage creative actions and reflective experiences. However, the studies also highlight challenges, such as user confusion caused by open-ended functionality and evolving material states.
This thesis demonstrates how designers can use textile-form thinking to leverage textiles' performativity, enabling rich interaction possibilities inherent to their textileness. It also emphasizes the gap between textile-forms' potential for richer interactions and user acceptance. In conclusion, the work advocates for multimorphic thinking, promoting holistic and ecological approaches to designing interactions with textiles that embrace their unique temporal, unpredictable, and multi-situated qualities.@en

Multimorphic textile-forms, obtained through simultaneous thinking of material and form that change in design and/or use time, have the potential to elicit diverse performances in the use of textile artefacts, thereby extending their relevance in our everyday lives. We present AnimaTo, a multimorphic textile artefact designed for performativity that reacts to water exposure via the shrinking and dissolving of its fibres. Adopting a material-driven design approach, we engaged in material tinkering with these qualities to achieve changes in the texture, size, and shape of AnimaTo. Following this exploration, we conducted a pilot study to gain insights into AnimaTo's temporal behaviour and performativity in use. In the further development of the artefact, we highlight the challenges that arise in producing high-fidelity prototypes. This work grants insights into how designers can tune material, form, and temporal qualities of textile artefacts towards multiplicity of use and prolonged user-textile relationships.@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

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

Designers of textile-based interactive systems tend to treat woven fabrics as static materials and lack deeper understandings of how the textile can be designed for responsive behaviours in artefacts. As a result, in most studies across design and HCI, textiles are employed as substrates for computational, biological, or smart materials. This narrow view limits the potential of textiles that can be programmed to express responsive behaviour through their inherent material qualities. Our paper aims at bridging this gap in the design of animated textile artefacts. We present woven textile-forms where textile structures are programmed to tune the behaviour of low-melt polyester yarn that shrinks when heat is applied, resulting in complex topological and textural woven forms that can change over time. Foregrounding woven-forms as a medium for animated textiles, our work calls for design and HCI researchers to pay attention to textileness for prolonged relationships between users and animated textile artefacts while eliminating waste from production and end of life.@en

Shape-changing textile interfaces have the potential to create unique functions, expressions, and interactions in everyday artifacts. However, the technical expertise required to fabricate and interact with these interfaces limits designers from rapidly iterating through diverse textile expressions. This pictorial presents TEX(alive), a low-cost and open-source physical-digital toolkit to facilitate the creation of temporal expressions in textile interfaces. TEX(alive) comprises pneumatic actuators that can be interactively configured across a 3d printed grid structure on the textile. Creative sessions with seven designers show that TEX(alive) supports the exploration of temporality in textile interfaces, opening up a design space for unforeseen future application scenarios and alive-like expressions in material-driven design. Finally, we suggest coupling TEX(alive) with a computational simulation tool to allow designers to predict spatial shape change when the textile interface increases in size or complexity.

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Sitting comfort is an important factor for passengers in selecting cars, airlines, etc. This paper proposes a soft robotic module that can be integrated into the seat cushion to provide better comfort experiences to passengers. Building on rapid manufacturing technologies and a data-driven approach, the module can be controlled to sense the applied force and the displacement of the top surface and actuate according to four designed modes. A total of 2 modules were prototyped and integrated into a seat cushion, and 16 subjects were invited to test the module’s effectiveness. Experiments proved the principle by showing significant differences regarding (dis)comfort. It was concluded that the proposed soft robotics module could provide passengers with better comfort experiences by adjusting the pressure distribution of the seat as well as introducing a variation of postures relevant for prolonged sitting.

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This work presents a soft robotic module that can sense and control contact forces. The module is composed of a foam spring encapsulated by a pneumatic bellow that can be inflated to increase its stiffness. Optical sensors and a light source are integrated inside the soft pneumatic module. Changes in shape of the module lead to a variation in light reflectivity, which is captured by the optical sensors. These shape measurements are combined with air pressure measurements to predict the contact force through a machine learning model. Using these predictions, a closed-loop control of the contact force was implemented. The modules can be applied to realize pressure distribution control in support devices such as seats and mattresses. The presented method is robust and low-cost, can measure both shape and contact force, and does not require (rigid) sensors to be present at the movable contact interface between the support device and the user.

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The purpose of this study is to examine the differences in pressure sensitivity for areas of the foot in a toe-off position and with the feet on the ground. This data could provide a base for adapting the softness of different areas while designing footwear. 21 healthy subjects are asked to participate in a test where a researcher applies pressure with an advanced force gauge in 20 locations on the foot until the subject starts experiencing discomfort. Rigid shells of three sizes have been designed and 3D printed based on 3D foot scans. The test is performed in two positions: standing with load on the plantar surface and toe-off loading only the forefoot. The outcome is a pressure discomfort threshold map of the foot. Interestingly, in 16 locations the sensitivity was similar in both conditions (toe-off and complete foot on the ground). Especially, stretched areas showed increased sensitivity.

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