Week 2: Materiality

Resources

Assignment due Feb 6

General

  • Bring all supplies to next class. ***Please remember to bring your soldering iron as well!
  • Complete the Student Survey if you have not already.

Part 1: Review the following tutorials

Hand Sewing: Watch this video from 0:00 to 7:18. If you can already sew a back stitch, this is optional.

Soldering: Watch the whole video. If you have already soldered components to a perf board, this is optional.

Part 2: Material Swatchbook

NOTE: Submit your documentation to this Google Form before class on 2/6/25

Design and create a personal swatch sheet, cards, or zine. It should contain physical samples of at least 6 of the materials provided in class. Each material should have at least four material and electrical properties listed.

Document your project on a personal blog, in a Google doc, or another easily readable format that you can submit via the Google form. It must include the elements below:

  • 2-3 images of your swatch documentation in your preferred format (i.e. sheet, cards, zine, etc.)
  • A few sentences providing rationale on the format and properties you documented.

Context

Swatchbook from VTechTextiles
Natural dye from Victoria Mangianello
Conductive textiles sheet from Kobakant
Yarn swatchbook from Victoria Mangianello

Archiving physical samples of your materials and processes is a practice in itself, one key to this hybrid practice. The data we collect on a material tells a story: Why are you collecting it? What type of information is it? How do you think about what you or another person might need to know about it? Swatching is the process of taking a small sample of fabric/thread and documenting its properties to reference for future use. These might include fiber type, ply, production process (woven, felted, knit, etc), finishing, etc. Data sheets provide technical specifications for an electronic component. These might include resistance, input voltage, pinouts, etc.

Resources

Past Student Work