RHYME member Birgitta Cappelen have started an collaboration with Dr. Delia Dumitrescu who is a reseacher in the field of Smart Textiles at Borås School of Textile. Borås School of Textile is the leading school and environment within Smart Textile and Textile Design in the world.
The project is to develop a new textile for sensorial and musical interaction. Textile which has a soft and sensorial stimulation qualities, in combination with transparency to transmit light and roughness to handle the rough use. In addition the textile has to have the ability to embed electronics into the textile.
We have worked from different angles, providing aesthetically and sensorial qualities by exploring combinations of yarn like cotton, wool, viscose, polyamid, polyester to high tech yarns like mono filament, pemotec and thermoformable yarns.
We have worked with different structures/patterns to embedd the technology like light, sensors, actuators and wires.
We have worked with different forms of knitting techniques from jacquard knitting to complex and simpler forms of tubular structures.
We have explored different forms of knitting machines from tubular machines to complex flat beds.
We have worked in different scales from many small samples to larger moch-ups and prototypes to be.