Shape Changing Leather

[shapechange-blog]

Skype meeting with Mie

Today we had a Skype session with Mie, where we talked about the direction of our thesis. We are currently in the process of selecting a specific context in which we will apply the knowledge we gained through experimenting with leather and shape changing interfaces.

We decided to examine the area of elderly people as a broad context for now and look for interesting subjects within the area. As an additional source of information about the area we will look into papers concerning the subject.

Furthermore we will do a brainstorm focused around three topics, namely shape changing interfaces, leather qualities and IDEOs Meaning Economy theme.

[shapechange-blog]

Inspiration from IDEO

Today we searched for inspiration regarding a specific context for our research on shape change and leather. We stumbled upon madeinthefuture.co where IDEO in collaboration with MIT Media Lab have projected what the future of tomorrow might look like. They describe the following five themes: 

Meaning Economy

Outer Skills

Making Exchanges

Raw Systems

New Matter

The first theme of Meaning Economy appeals to us due to the hype around the theme of Quantify yourself. Instead Meaning Economy focuses on using technology to understand your feelings and how you feel in general. We will think about how to use this trend in the future of our thesis and mention it on our skype meeting tomorrow with Mie Nørgaard. 

[shapechange-blog]

The making of a film studio...

Today we made a film studio for capturing stop motion videos of the leather experiments in motion. We made the film studio inspired by the following tutorial. We have started capturing stop motion video of the leather experiments movement over time. They will be posted later when the stop motion videos have been captured. Some final pictures of the film studio can be seen below:

The inside of the film studio in progress:

Studio ready for filming

The final setup:

[shapechange-blog]

Summary of 2. Workshop

As mentioned, we participated in a co-organized workshop together with students from different educations based in the Katrinebjerg area. Below is a summary of the two experiments which produced the major part of the findings from the workshop. 

[shapechange-blog]

Sketchnotes of Shape-change papers

Simultaneously with the workshop activities (preparation, documentation, practicalities) we have been reading three papers on shape-changing interfaces. Below is a summary of each of the three papers with the relevant aspects in relation to our thesis. At the moment we are considering to find a defined format for making a summary of future papers we read. In addition, we will make an individual page on this blog with an overview of the relevant articles for our thesis. 

Shape-Changing Interfaces by Coelho & Zigelbaum (click on image for larger version)

Shape-Changing Interfaces: A review of the Design Space and Open Research Questions by Rasmussen et al. (click on image for larger version)

Exploring the Design Space of Shape-Changing Objects: Imagined Physics by Nørgaard et al. (click on image for larger version)

[shapechange-blog]

Workshop @ Katrinebjerg - Aarhus University

Last Wednesday (2nd of April) we participated in a co-organized workshop together with students from different educations based in the Katrinebjerg area. During the workshop people worked with: 

- What happens when we affect leather with fire, water or electricity?  - What properties does a single piece of leather have when cut into a specific shape? - Shrinking wire in combination with leather. - The cultural connotation related to leather as a material - The qualities of leather? - Leather used in a textural interface

Below is a video showing the work during the workshop, focusing on experimenting with the movement of one entire piece of leather.

[shapechange-blog]

Last week catchup & preperation for second workshop

We have spend the last week looking into relevant literature and reading Shape Changing Interfaces papers.

Tomorrow we are participating in a second workshop on leather and IT with 8-10 other students + Mie Nørgaard and Lone Koefoed. We spend today specifying our design brief for discussion with Mie and made preparation for the workshop.

The picture shows our findings during the first workshop at ITU.

[shapechange-blog]

Workshop @ IT University of Copenhagen

We are currently sitting in the train on our way home from the workshop at the IT University of Copenhagen (ITU). In total we was 5 students, Miguel Bruns and a couple of PhD Students from ITU. The day started with Miguel giving a talk on interaction design illustrated with pictures of various prototypes. Hereafter we initialised the leather/IT workshop by explaining our current status, experiences, prototypes and the individual goals of the workshop.

During the workshop people worked with: - Leather patterns - Movement of leather - Interaction with leather - Servo motors combined with knitted leather strings.

The workshop produced several low-fi prototypes and we recorded the workshop with a GoPro camera, where the edited video can be seen above.

[shapechange-blog]

Visit to Læderiet and purchase of leather

Today we went to Læderiet, which is a store in Aarhus that specialises in leather goods. We got a basic introduction to the craftsmanship of leather by a woman with 23 years of experience working with leather. First of all she helped us out with the basic tools seen in the picture below:

Secondly she introduced us to different kinds of leather and skin. We purchased a lot of different types ranging in thickness, treatments, tans, colours etc. Furthermore we bought some large pieces of leather for the workshop at ITU - seen in the picture below:

When we got back we made two different collections of samples based on the purchased goods - one leather collection and one skin collection. The process of making and the final collections can be seen in the pictures below:  

[shapechange-blog]

Research on the basics of leather craftmanship

Today we did research on the basics of leather craftsmanship. We read the book called Lacing and Stitching for leathercraft by Tandy Leather Company. Furthermore, we stumbled upon the following video explaining the basics of leather craftsmanship.

Edit: Unfortunately the author has disabled the ability to watch it on other websites than youtube - here is the direct link to youtube: http://youtu.be/Y0EL7K2NhYs

[shapechange-blog]

Book research and acquisition of leather

Today we did a book research to determine the books we need to acquire in order to learn about the basics of working with leather. We found a 95 year old company called The Tandy Leather Factory, which has a digital library with a lot of resources on leather. So far we decided to buy the following books: 

Lacing and Stitching for leathercraft by Tandy Leather Company

The art of hand sewing leather by Stohlman

Leatherwork Manual by Stohlman

Leather Working Handbook by Valerie Michael

At a bulky waste we stumbled upon a chair with leather cushions. We unstitched the old sewing in order to get pieces of leather we can use for our workshop on thursday. We recorded the unstitching with a GoPro camera - A video can be seen below:

Other minor practicalities we did today:

We wrote an email to the tailor of Piet Breinholm regarding a visit to his workshop.

Found a shop in Aarhus called læderiet that sells leather and tools for working with leather. We are visiting them on Wednesday to buy tools and materials for the workshop on Thursday.

[shapechange-blog]

Workshop at ITU confirmed and scholarships

We got the workshop at the IT University confirmed, so we are going to Copenhagen on the 20th of March. We are currently mailing with the other students about the practicalities of the workshop. 

In addition we have looked into relevant scholarships we can apply for to get funding for materials, components and travelling expenses.

[shapechange-blog]

Piet Breinholm and his tailor

We are counting on the opportunity to go to the leather workshop at IT University in Copenhagen. Due to our presence in Copenhagen we contacted Piet Breinholm who are selling leather bags in the city. We wanted to visit his shop and hear more about the actual making of the leather bags. He introduced us to his tailor who makes all his leather bags. His tailor is based in Vejle Denmark, and we will contact him regarding a visit to his workshop. 

[shapechange-blog]

Leather workshop on ITU

Yesterday Mie Nørgaard referred us to a workshop on the 20th of March at the IT University in Copenhagen. The workshop is curated by four students and focused on leather and IT. We contacted them to find out if it was possible to join the workshop.

[shapechange-blog]

Brainstorm session with Mie Nørgaard & Miguel Bruns

This morning we had a 2 hour brainstorm session with Mie Nørgaard and Miguel Bruns. The main take-aways from the session was how we could structure our process. The main points are summarized below.

Research & Inspiration

We need to research and find inspiration on how leather behaves and acts, when it is treated in different ways. Also we need to look into techniques used when working with the material e.g. stitching and filing. Our plan is to use videos and books as inspiration, as well as visiting leather experts and shops. This also connects to the experimentation described in the experiments section.  

Design Brief

We need to focus our design brief further in terms of scale, purpose and direction. Miguel suggested that we got more specific about our focus and didn't keep our scope as wide as we had until know. He suggested that we chose a specific scale from the start to work with.

Experiments

In connection to the research and inspiration, we decided that it would be a good idea to start to get our hands dirty, meaning that we need to start experimenting with leather. We need to start understanding leathers properties and the techniques involved with working with the material and this understanding and experimentation will make ideas emerge of use-cases for leather in shape change.

We came out of the brainstorm session with a much clearer sense of direction and which steps to take next.

[shapechange-blog]

Preparation for brainstorming session

On Tuesday the 11th of March we have a brainstorming session with our supervisor Mie Nørgaard and Miguel Bruns from the Industrial Design department at Technische Universiteit Eindhoven. The aim of the brainstorming session is to explore the possibilities of working with leather in combination with a shape changing interface.

Today we prepared inspiration and materials for the workshop. We researched different leather products and ways of assembling, stitching leather. In addition we prepared materials. like straws, strings, carton etc. that could be used to build small objects in order to communicate ideas.  

[shapechange-blog]

Here is a video from an experiment David did at his stay at Technische Universiteit Eindhoven. We are inspired by the aesthetic qualities of the membrane going outwards (aggressive) and inwards (defensive).