1.MACRAME DATA MOVEMENT
MACRAME DATA MOVEMENT
Nitinol is an alloy of nickel and titanium that has the ability to memorise shapes. When providing an electrical impulse, heat is generated through the conductive threads, activating the alloy to recover its memorised shape — this is the method used to trigger movements in handicraft.
The experiment used a tailor-made music software run on FLORA: a programmable electronic system. Macramé, hand-weaving, and Bobbin lace were the three techniques used to weave the Nitinol wire with other materials in the construction of the handicraft. My hypotheses consisted of inserting the Nitinol wire into the macramé’s structure in order to analyse changes in its behaviour.
Weaving the Nitinol wire together with the cotton and wool yarns, resulted in a very stiff weave. The same outcome was produced when using the lacing technique and macramé. When making the macramé, I observed that the Nitinol wire can function as the main part of its structure. Macramé turned out to be the best technique because the Nitinol wire was perfectly inserted, behaving as part of the textile.
FLORA is a fully-featured wearable electronics platform manufactured by Adafruit. It is a small (4.5 cm in diameter, weighing 4.4 grams), round, sewable, Arduino-compatible micro-controller designed to empower wearable projects. FLORA has 14 sewing tap pads for attachment and electrical connections, analogue and digital data buses are interleaved with power and ground pads for easy module and sensor attachments.
MACRAMETurned out to be the best technique because the Nitinol wire was perfectly inserted, behaving as part of the textile.
Mounting cords that are traditionally used for macramé will be replaced by silk fabric bands because of their lightness compared with cotton yarns. By using a lighter material, the Nitinol wire is able to move in a more free-flowing manner. This is a new interpretation of a traditional macramé made of silk fabric bands. Each fabric band is hand-knotted into the delicate wire vein structure that is a hybrid of Nitinol wire and hand-dyed silk. It is then 3D-layered into a texturised surface that will move with a curious sense of fluidity to the electric impulse.