Softbuilt: Computational Textiles and Augmenting Space Through Emotion by Felecia A. Davis Bachelor of Science in Engineering, Tufts University (1983) Master of Architecture, Princeton University (1993) Submitted to the Department of Architecture In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the field of Architecture: Design and Computation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology September 2017 © 2017 Felecia A. Davis All rights reserved The author hereby grants to M.I.T. permission to reproduce and distribute publicly paper and electronic copies of this thesis document in whole or in part in any medium now known or hereafter created. Signature of Author Felecia Davis 11 August 2017 Department of Architecture Certified by Terry Knight Professor of Design and Computation Department of Architecture Thesis Supervisor Accepted by Sheila Kennedy Professor of Architecture Chair, Department Committee on Graduate Students 1 2 DISSERTATION COMMITTEE Dr. Terry Knight, Chair Professor of Design and Computation Massachusetts Institute of Technology Dr. Edith K. Ackermann Honorary Professor of Developmental Psychology University of Aix-Marseille 1, France Visiting Scientist Design and Computation Massachusetts Institute of Technology Dr. Leah Buechley Designer, Engineer, Educator Former Director High/ Low Tech Lab Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab 3 4 Softbuilt: Computational Textiles and Augmenting Space Through Emotion By Felecia A. Davis Submitted to the Department of Architecture August 11 2017 in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Architecture: In Design and Computation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ABSTRACT When we inhabit, wear, and make textiles we are in conversation with our pre-historical and historical past and in a sense already connected to what is to come by the structure of fabric that operates as a mode of understanding the world. Textiles bind us together as a species in every culture on the planet, though we humans may use and make this material in different ways. In architecture, textiles made of animal skins or plant fibres were probably used to make the first shelters, as both protective clothing and enclosing space. As a liminal space between the body and environment these textiles became places of exchange and communication of information between people and their communities through shelter and clothing. This communication is an expression of personality and mood which makes an impression on those who would look upon the shelter or clothing. This communication is directly related to the expression of the material. The hypothesis of this dissertation is that textiles communicate emotion through material expression via vision and touch. Furthermore, computation augments what designers can communicate about emotion to people by the evocative power of transforming textile expressions. I present four experiments in this dissertation that ecplore the emotional and expressive attributes of computational textiles_ textiles that respond to their environment via programming and sensors. Two experiments begin to define computational textiles through the acts of making the textiles. Two experiments with architectural textile panels begin to look at emotions communicated to people through vision and touch using computational textiles. Softbuilt refers to things and places made using methods that connect computational material expression, space and emotion. The contributions of the dissertation are the framework, Softbuilt, for understanding what computational textiles are, methods of fabrication for computational textiles, and an understanding of emotions communicated to people from computational textile expression. Thesis Supervisor: Terry Knight Title: Professor of Design and Computation 5 Acknowledgments I dedicate this dissertation to my mother Florence Davis and father Herman Davis who encouraged me to take this project on. My mother, who passed away during this process, also started a PhD at this time in her life. It was she who inspired me to pursue and complete my PhD. Mom you were right, it has been worth it. I am looking forward to contributing fully to a global community. This journey would not have been possible without the support of family, friends and colleagues who have smoothed the way. Lee Washesky, husband, and Audrey Davis my sister, thank you for your steady love, compassion and understanding while taking on this endeavor. Stan Sclaroff thank you for your friendship, and solid advice. I would like to thank my advisors who really helped me stay the course all these years. Thank you Terry for your calm, logical questions and faith in this project and granting me freedom to explore. Leah thank you for igniting my curiosity about e-textiles and creating hands on opportunities. Edith, you will be so missed but thank you for your incredible insights and for leaving robust threads of thought to follow and develop in the future. Larry Sass thank you a thousand times for your guidance and support. You are an incredible teacher and mentor. Sheila Kennedy, thank you for your early input to this work. To Renee Caso, thank you for your numerous reminders of imminent deadlines. Catastrophe avoided! For sharing their love and learning about textiles, I would like to thank Delia Dumitrescu for reaching out from the Swedish School of Textiles and introducing me to all the amazing things happening in Borås Sweden. Christian Rodby and Tommy Martinsson master knitters in the Knitting Lab in Borås thank you for your humor and sharing your mastery of knitting craft and technology. Thank you to Lars Hallnäs and Agneta Andersson for supporting a visitor from afar into your school. I would like to acknowledge Mika Satomi and Hannah Perner-Wilson of Kobakant for instigating work in computational textiles. They taught me not to back down from textile complexity but to break it down into smaller parts, until it made sense. Thank you Mary Czerwinski and Asta Roseway at Microsoft Research who galvanized me with their work on human affect in computing and making opportunities for these explorations to be developed through materiality. Also, a shout out to M.I.T. Textile Club co-founders, Eddie Obropta, Dena Molnar and Brad Hochschul thanks for sharing your enthusiasm for learning and sharing with others your knowledge about textiles. To friends and classmates in the Design and Computation Group, thank you for your generosity shown through stimulating works, reading group meetings, forum meetings, dissertation discussions, exhibitions and performances, tutorials and workshops. Your contributions in so many ways have greatly formed my thinking about computation and design. 6 To all my new friends and my students at Pennsylvania State University, School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture especially Mehrdad Hadigi, and José Duarte,in the Stuckeman Center for Design Computing, thank you for your support in the completion of this dissertation. 7 Table of Contents Acknowledgments ..........................................................................................................................6 List of Figures ...............................................................................................................................11 List of Tables ................................................................................................................................17 1. Thesis Softbuilt .................................................................................................................19 2. Overview ...........................................................................................................................25 Part I Understanding .............................................................................................................29 3. Material: What are Computational Textiles? ...............................................................30 3.1 Materials Classified by Processes Used ..............................................................32 3.2 Materials Classified as Molecular Geometric Structures ....................................34 3.3 Materials Classified by Behaviour.......................................................................34 3.4 Materials Classified as Constructional Systems ..................................................36 3.5 Materials Classified as Multi-layered Systems....................................................37 3.6 Materials that Use Computation ..........................................................................38 3.7 Computers as Materials .......................................................................................38 3.8 Technological Materials ......................................................................................39 3.9 Computational Composites ..................................................................................40 3.10 Becoming Materials .............................................................................................41 3.11 Time, Kinds of Time, and Time as Material .......................................................41 3.12 Working Definition of a Computational Textile .................................................43 4. Space: A Theory and Concepts About Textiles Used in Building Envelopes and Clothing .....................................................................................................................47 4.1 A Theory of the Wall