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Satisfying a conversation with materials for dynamic fabrics

Schön describes the way a designer engages with their materials as a “conversation”. In clothing design this typically involves tangible and situated actions such as draping, ripping, and cutting—actions that evoke responses from the fabric at hand. Dynamic fabrics—surface- changing fabrics that combine digital and physical states— are still novel fashion-design materials. When working with the digital, intangible qualities of these fabrics, how does a dialogue unfold for designers accustomed to working physically with fabrics? In this paper we examine the design process of Phem, a collection of garments that use dynamic fabrics that function similarly to augmented reality. We reflect upon the improvisations required to satisfy a productive dialogue with the digital forms of these materials. We conclude with a discussion that proposes revisiting Schön’s notion of a conversation in the context of digital forms, and use Ingold’s perspectives on making to inform this inquiry.

Diagonal tensile tests on historical brick masonry wallets strengthened with fabric reinforced cementitious mortar

Masonry structures comprise a significant portion of the historical building stock all over the world. Previousstudies have clearly pointed out that unreinforced masonry buildings are vulnerable against extreme loadingconditions, such as seismic actions. Therefore, strengthening is inevitable in most cases for historical masonry towithstand severe loads. In this paper, the efficiency of fabric reinforced cementitious matrix is investigatedexperimentally by using diagonal tension tests. Fourteen wallets with a nominal size of 750x750x235 mm wereproduced with using solid clay bricks and a low-strength mortar. The bricks were collected from the structuralwalls of an early-20th century building under restoration. The low-strength mortar represents the historicalmortar commonly used in similar historical brick masonry buildings located in Istanbul, Turkey. By testing thespecimens under monotonic diagonal compression loads, the effects of different types of plasters on the walletsurface, varying types of fibers used in textile reinforcement and anchors used for the connection between FRCMand substrate are investigated. Although the wallet samples have inherent shortcomings in representing overallcomponent response accurately, still the qualitative findings are enlightening the effectiveness of the FRCMsystem by increasing shear strength, stiffness (shear modulus) and dissipated energy of the masonry wallets. Thestrengthened specimens were failed due to shear sliding along a bed joint and/or by a stair-shaped separationwhile the refence specimens were failed due to the splitting of the specimen into two parts in the stair-steppedshape and a slipping through a bed joint.

Alternative Presents for Dynamic Fabric

In this paper we investigate how a combination of "speculative" design methods can be used to generate theoretical understandings for dynamic, colour-changing fabrics for garments. Specifically, we combine a first-person, autobiographical, research through design (RtD) approach that draws strategies from speculative design. We call this approach alternative presents, inspired by the work of James Auger, and explore it as a way to generate theoretical propositions for dynamic fabric that emphasize the lived experience over technological innovation. The contributions of this framing are twofold. Firstly, we offer a theoretical contribution to the literature on dynamic fabric. Secondly, we make a methodological contribution for how autobiographical design and RtD can be oriented speculatively to generate intermediate knowledge, with particular emphasis on social-technical aspects.

White Paper - IEEE Industry Connections (IEEE-IC): The Measurement of Fabric Properties for Virtual Simulation - A Critical Review

This investigation is undertaken based on the indicated improvements for fabric simulations, defined during the panel discussion “Driving the Uniformity of Material Measurements for Accurate Virtual Simulation” at the Product Innovation Apparel Conference (PI Apparel) in Berlin 2017, by experts from industry and academia. According to the expert panel, there is no coherency between methods used to measure the fabric properties and the simulated results of the same fabric among the different software packages. In praxis, fashion brands use different 3D software packages and need to measure a fabric with different methods to obtain the same fabric properties. In addition to the time investment, the simulated results for the same fabric vary significantly between the different software packages. The experts indicated the lack of standardization in material measurements, the lack of correlation between the data of the different measurement systems, and the lack of correlation between the simulated results of the different software packages for the same material. The contributions of the panel were followed up during the next edition of PI Apparel in the United States and resulted in the 3D Retail Coalition (RC) innovation committee to work on the indicated areas to improve the efficiency of material measurements. Moreover, this topic was further discussed during the PI Apparel Conference at Lago Maggiore in 2019 within the panel discussion "How Can We Collectively Achieve the Standardisation of Fabric Measurements for Digital Materials?"This paper investigates, on the one hand, the suitability of the current available measurement technologies for retrieving fabric parameters for precise virtual fabric and garment simulations. The focus is on the main properties required by the software packages—bending, shear, tensile and friction—aiming to identify and specify the most suitable methods to retrieve mechanical fabric properties and to start a standardization process for fabric measurements for virtual simulations.Seven fabric measurement methods and their output data are reviewed, namely the Kawabata Evaluation System (KES), the Fabric Assurance by Simple Testing (FAST), the Fabric Touch Tester (FTT), the CLO Fabric Kit 2.0, the Fabric Analyser by Browzwear (FAB), the Optitex Mark 10, and the cantilever principle. A set of fabrics with different mechanical behavior and physical drape has been tested with the FAB method. Other measurement methods have been discussed with expert users. In addition, fabrics have been tested with ZwickRoell’s (ZwickRoell) measuring systems applying various standard measurement methods, developed for similar materials. This publication will give for each property an overview of the different measurement methods, as well as recommendations based on their accuracy. Further, a SWOT analysis is provided. The outcome of this research can be used to pave the foundation for further work on the standardization of the fabric measurement.

The Future of Fabrics

Defining fabric drape

This research aims to obtain more insight in the perception of fabric drape and how fabric drape can be cat-egorized With the current 3D virtual technologies to simulate garments the fashion and clothing industry can speed up work processes, improve accuracy and reduce material consumption in fit, design and sales. Although the interest in 3D technology is increasing, the implementation on a large scale emerges only slowly. At the threshold between physical and virtual fitting the fashion industry faces new challenges and demands re-quiring responses out of rule. The measurement of fabric drape started in the first half of the previous cen-tury, after the introduction of 3D garment simulation fabric drape gained interest from more researchers to obtain information for the virtual drape. Intensive research has been undertaken to define ‘fabric hand’, however, research is limited for the definition of fabric drape. Better understanding of how fabrics drape and how they can be selected based on their drape might contribute to the understanding of the virtually as-sessed material and accelerate the selection process of virtually, as well as digitally presented fabrics. For this research the drape coefficient of 13 fabrics, selected based on their drape, was measured with the Cusick drape tester. Images and videos of the fabrics draped on pedestals were presented to an expert tex-tile panel who were asked to define the fabric drape. From these definitions categories, as well as identifying key-words, were derived. During a group session the expert panel evaluated the drape categories and identi-fying key-words. In the next phase an expert user panel, familiar with the assessment of fabrics in a virtual environment, assessed the appropriateness of the categories and identifying key-words which were present-ed along with the fabric drape images and videos. Moreover, both panels judged the stiffness and amount of drape, next to that they indicated similar draping fabrics. The relation between the subjective assessment of drape and the drape coefficient was investigated. The agreement of the user panel with the drape categories defined and evaluated by the textile panel was high. Further, the agreement of the majority of the user panel with the identifying key-words was above 78%. A strong relation was found between the measured drape coefficient and the subjectively assessed stiffness and amount of drape. Additionally, the analysis of the fabrics combined by the panels based on drape simi-larity, as well as the analysis of the drape coefficients, confirms with previous research, that significantly dif-ferent fabrics can have a similar drape. Fabrics can be divided in drape categories based on the way they drape, and the identifying key-words are useful to distinguish between significantly different fabrics with similar fabric drape. Moreover, the cate-gories are related to the drape coefficient.