Material Artifacts

What does it mean to design, produce and use clothing sustainably in the age of the digital economy?

Material Artifact is a research stream that explores the implications of new technologies and new modes of enterprise based on open/shared platforms for communication and making. Here prototypes for new clothing forms and novel mechanisms for constructing clothing are being developed.

The prototypes are helping us to consider the merits and potential of novel materials, innovative patterning techniques and aesthetic developments as well as additive manufacturing processes and digitally mediated fabrication techniques. *3D printing and the **Tajima Laying Machine, are being harnessed on an ongoing basis at Emily Carr University in Vancouver and Hexagram in Montreal respectively.

* Such as: Fused Deposition Modeling, Selective Laser Sintering and Open Source 3DP.

** Laying machines have been developed to embed soft circuits boards into textiles. They facilitate the manufacture of complex electronic textiles integrated with conductive, sensing, and color-change fiber and have the potential to play a significant role in moving wearable sort technology into mass production.