Studio subTela

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Currente Calamo (2008-2009)

With Mahesh Senagala, Ball State University, Indiana. Funded by the Hexagram Institute.

Currente Calamo is a project that involves the development of a touch pad system for direct writing (or drawing) on cloth, using human touch to trigger changing designs and texts in a flexible LED array.  This real-time system will explore both intimate and architectural-scale handwoven cloth with embedded INPUT (soft touch pads) and OUTPUT (LED array) devices.  Completed projects will be in the form of a system of interchangeable garments and suspended fabrics responsive to human interaction.

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Textiles, Translations and Transmissions (2005-2009)

Collaboration with Reza Soleymani/Concordia University with Janis Jefferies & Robert Zimmer from the Digital Studios at Goldsmiths College, London England and Yacov Sharir, University of Texas, Austin. Funded by the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada with contributions from the Quebec Government House in London.

The Narrative Cloth: Textiles, Translations and Transmissions, combines a creative approach to the textile arts with advancements in circuitry and wireless technologies.  An interdisciplinary team of artists and scientists will investigate the production of expressive, intelligent fabrics through the introduction of electronic devices.  Electronic components are incorporated during the weaving process, resulting in a textile structure that also serves as a flexible circuit board.  Miniature sensors, animated display and embedded wireless communications systems promote real-time and remoteinteractions. 

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Wearable Absence (2007-2008).

With Reza Soleymani/Concordia University, Janis Jefferies & Robert Zimmer, The Digital Studios, Goldsmiths College, London England. Funded by the Hexagram Institute with additional funds by the Art & Humanities Research Board, the Arts and Business New Partners Scheme and Quebec Government House in London.

Wearable Absence involves the creation of dynamic garments that incorporate wireless technologies and bio-sensing devices to activate a rich database of image and sound.  Reseearchs at Studio subTela and the Digital Studios in London are creating an integrated system in which clothing becomes the catalyst and the filter in a technologically mediated process of memory construction.  Communications and multimedia devices embedded in garments will be able to retrieve and present information from a large database containing traces of an “absent” person’s life.

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Twining: Collaborative Dance Project (2006 - present). Yacov Sharir University of Texas, Austin

This project explores the convergences between microelectronics, wireless communication devices, programmable data processing, notions of wearable second skin, fashion design, choreography, and visual images. The use of flexible fabrics for this research and performance practice allows us to activate smart cloth and human movement in real time.

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Excitable Sites (2005-2007). Joey Berzowska, Sha Xin Wei & Christopher Salter, Concordia University.

The Excitable Sites project developed interactive textiles that enabled and augmented dynamic performance environments: textiles that occupy and inhabit a space (or form it) rather than just decorate it. A variety of projects were developed through a series of workshops involving an iterative and collaborative design process presented by each of the collaborators.

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The Addressable Dress (2005-2006). Joey Berzowska, Concordia University.

This project developed new methods for building electronic textile display technologies, based on complex weave structures and double weaves enabled by the Jacquard loom. LED–based woven displays and flexible motherboards were improved through the use of complex weave structures and new materials investigations. Complex weave structures also allowed us to construct reconfigurable power grids, woven directly as a single cloth, using various conductive fibers and Jacquard construction techniques.

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subTela-Extreme Instability, (ongoing). Mike Hollingshead, Independent storm chaser, Nebraska.

Extraordinary images of extreme weather events photographed by Mike Hollingshead are the basis for textile images. Hollingshead's photos are manipulated through both the jacquard loom and the Mimaki printer to create unique, interactive wearables and wall hangings.