Instruction:
Yuval Etzioni, Matti Harel

Interactive fabrics that change their pattern and color in response to temperature changes.

This project was inspired by a mother’s healing touch and the body’s response to the warmth of a hand. The woven fabric is the result of interactive research exploring the link between the movement of the person in space and the fabric’s ability to change its pattern in response.

From the dying of the thread to the design and weaving, every aspect of the fabric was designed to create a change in color and pattern in response to temperature changes (heat and cold). The change is triggered by human touch or by the presence of a human in the fabric’s vicinity. The changes are not visible at first glance, which leads viewers to linger on the fabric and increases their sensitivity to small changes.

Materials: cotton thread, thermochromic dye, raw pigment, conductive thread, heating thread, Arduino board, proximity sensors

Techniques: hand weaving on a computerized loom