UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — An opening reception for “Patterning with Heat and Water: Knitted Responsive Tension Structures,” an exhibition showcasing the responsive textile work of Felecia Davis, associate professor of architecture in the Penn State Stuckeman School’s Department of Architecture, and Delia Dumitrescu, director of the Smart Textiles Lab at the Swedish School of Textiles, will be held from 5-8 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 4, at the Woskob Family Gallery.
The reception will feature an artist talk by Davis starting at 6:30 p.m., followed by music composed by School of Music graduate student Gabriel L. Newvine. The exhibition is on display at the gallery through December.
Responsive textiles are materials that transform in response to environmental cues through sensors, microcontrollers or the inherent properties of the materials themselves. In the field of architecture, these textiles are changing how humans communicate, socialize and utilize space. For example, they can be employed to create both temporary and permanent forms of shelter.
At the Computational Textiles Lab (SOFTLAB), Davis’ experimental lab at Penn State’s Stuckeman Center for Design Computing, she explores how responsive textiles change traditional structural and representational forms.
Dumitrescu, working at the Smart Textiles Lab within the University of Borås in Sweden, focuses on artistic expressivity in textile design that expand our understanding of textiles as materials with dynamic, multi-scale functionalities. Their joint project investigates the “how” and “what” of textiles in terms of their potential applications and transformations.
Their research showcases two main methods for altering patterns in tensioned textile tubes. The first method involves human tactile interaction and uses a microcontroller to regulate electrical current, which in turn modifies the textile's pattern. The second employs water-soluble yarns that dissolve to change the fabric’s appearance as possible response to environmental stimuli.
The first fabric developed in this project employs microcontrollers (represented by white textile tubes). This initial design features a pixelated structure with yarn that melts at high temperatures, creating openings that alter the fabric’s pattern when current is applied. These openings enable the designers to "write" on the fabric, capturing foreground and background elements through the material’s qualities. The second fabric features yarns that contract or form solid lines when current is applied, thus creating new patterns and transforming the material’s spatial properties.
A second fabric typology, demonstrated through colorful textile tubes, utilizes water to trigger transformations. As a work in progress, the water can be sprayed on or painted on with a brush. The exterior of both tubes is made of paper yarn knitted with a disappearing yarn that is light yellow in appearance. When activated with water, the yellow yarn dissolves and reveals the tube of color underneath. The tubes intend to demonstrate how temporal and ephemeral structures can be created. Water-responsive architectural materials can dissolve in the outside environment when not needed. Subsequently, as interior partitions they can be re-designed and altered by their users.
Felecia Davis
Davis’ work in computational and new work in bioresponsive textiles questions how we live while she reimagines how we might use textiles in our daily lives and in architecture. Davis is the director of SOFTLAB at Penn State where she is interested in developing computational methods and designs in relation to bodies in locations that simultaneously engage specific social, cultural and political constructions. Her collaborative lab is dedicated to developing soft computational materials and textiles alongside industry and community partners to establish a culture of hands-on making and thinking through computational and responsive biomaterials as a sensitive, holistic approaches to living within uncertain circumstances.
Davis has exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and the 18th Venice Architecture Biennale, among other places. In 2022, Davis was presented with the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award for Digital Design, the Association of Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture Innovative Research Award of Excellence, and the New York Architectural League’s Emerging Voices Portfolio Competition Award.
Delia Dumitrescu
Central to Dumitrescu’s research is the topic of material and textile design, focusing on new materials expanding from computational textiles to biodesign and biofabrication. Through the notion of textile design thinking, her research expands the textile methodology; it includes systematic work with: color, materials, texture, structure, pattern and function to explore and propose new design futures for sustainable living from material to spatial design. As director of studies for the International School ArcintexETN, she has been part of the management team of a cross-disciplinary project that has received funding from the Marie Sklodowska-Curie HO2020 Actions; the project was developed by research in design in the field of smart textiles for adaptive and responsive environments for sustainable living.