This blog was originally posted on the Textile Museum of Canada’s tumblr.
Although Wide Open Wednesdays will be on hiatus during July and August, the TMC will continue to explore traditional and digital “maker” processes through a new initiative supported with funding provided by the Ontario Trillium Foundation and Hive Toronto. We’ll be working with youth from SKETCH, the AGO’s FREE After Three program, and the Toronto Public Library’s Word Out: Teen Summer Reading Program to develop and test a series of shareable open source learning modules that encourage creative/critical explorations of the future of what we wear and our interactions with our environment through an interdisciplinary, hands-on approach to investigative design and knowledge-building.
On Wednesday, May 28, we invited our partners to the TMC for a learning session and workshop to launch the project. This was an opportunity to receive feedback from project partners and their youth regarding the five workshop themes and activities that have been developed so far, as well as connect to and learn from local innovators exploring one of these themes in their practice.
Our engagement with local innovators in the field of wearable electronics began with a presentation by Erin Lewis, an emerging Canadian artist working in the field of New Media and Wearable Technology. She works in OCAD’s Social Body Lab, alongside Kate Hartmann and co-organizes a wearable computing meetup in Toronto. Erin’s presentation provided an overview of what wearable technology is, and some of the shortcomings facing this technology, as well as its potential for future design. Besides work on conceptual projects, such as the Earthquake Skirt (2011) which explores what it means to wear trauma every day, Erin’s research explores ways to embed new materials such as fibre optics, resistance wire and memory alloy within a fabric during the weaving and machine knitting process.
We then moved into our interactive gallery to learn how to assemble soft circuits with Eric Boyd, president of HackLab.TO, a community space with a diverse membership, including artists, computer programmers, web designers, and hardware hackers. Eric shared some of his own experiments with soft circuitry. The group then experimented with LED lights, conductive thread and Lily Twinkle, a microprocessor that’s pre-programmed to cause lights to twinkle in a predetermined manner.
This workshop allowed TMC staff to anticipate factors that might prevent a soft circuit from lighting up, and these strategies proved useful when we facilitated our first workshop as part of the AGO’s FREE After Three program on June 12. Participants made headbands and armbands, using LED lights to reflect their current mood. Arts for Children and Youth were also in attendance, contributing materials and ideas for embellishing participant’s projects.
TMC staff will be travelling around Toronto to facilitate further Fashion Futures workshops throughout the summer. Join us for one of the following workshops:
FANTASY TO FABRICATION
Watch our 3D printer in action while you design your own original, printable 3D model that is functional both in digital and real space.
Thursday, June 19 from 3:30-5:30 in the Weston Family Learning Centre at the Art Gallery of Ontario
Saturday, August 2 from 2:00-4:00 at Fairview Public Library (35 Fairview Mall Drive, Toronto, ON)
SMART IS BEAUTIFUL
Show the world how you’re feeling by creating an armband or headband to reflect your mood. Learn how to create a soft circuit using conductive thread and LED lights.
Monday, August 18 from 1:00-4:00 at Malvern Public Library (30 Sewells Road, Toronto, ON)
EXPRESS YOUR SELF
Create a logo to represent your own personal brand by identifying patterns and symbols that define the most distinguishing features of your identity. Print your design, and add it to clothing, exchange it with friends, or use it to tag public spaces.
Wednesday, August 20 from 4:00-6:00 at Eatonville Public Library (430 Burnhamthorpe Road, Toronto, ON)