Your final project assignment has 3 pieces: the project itself, a short presentation about the project, and a post documenting the project. More information is below.

Presentations
Prepare a short (10 minute) formal presentation to present to the class. It should include:

* A short survey of previous work in the area.
* A demonstration of the project in action (the core of your presentation)
* A short discussion of your construction process including challenges and learning experiences.
* A short discussion of what you would do to improve the project if you were to keep working on it.

Documentation
Create a post that documents your project and add it to the Final Project category. Your page should include a description of your project, a pdf copy of your presentation slides, work-in-progress photos, photos of your final piece, and a video of your final piece. Documentation is due by the end of the day on Monday May 21.

Post an update on your progress toward your final project. The post should include:

• A paragraph or two describing your current project plan.
• Photos, sketches, and videos documenting your progress to date.
• A list of what remains to be done.
• A timeline describing your work plan for the rest of the semester.

Add your post to the Final Project Update category.

You have three weeks to complete this assignment and you have two different options:

Option 1: Embroidery
Write a program, or modify an existing program, to create a two dimensional pattern and use the embroidery machine to apply your pattern to a textile OR design and embroider an interactive circuit (using conductive thread) that incorporates the LilyPad.

Option 2: 3D Printed Textile
Design and 3d print a textile structure. You can either print the textile on a machine at MIT (if you have access to one), or order a print from a service like Shapeways

Create a post that documents your project and add it to the the Embroidery/3d print category. Your page should include:

• a paragraph or two describing your project
• pictures of your work in progress
• at least one picture of your completed project
• If relevant: the code that generated your design
• If relevant: a video of your interactive project
• If relevant: a rendering of your 3d textile model

Bring your project to class on the 1st for demos!

Additional resources
Embroidery Machine Sign-Up Sheet
HLT’s Embroidery tutorial
Page with a tutorial on textile modeling in grasshopper
“The Primary Structures of Fabrics” book
Download a trial version of Illustrator here
Processing
Sample Code from the Laser Cut Lace Assignment (under Lecture Notes)

For inspiration
Laura Splan’s Embroidered Viruses
Embroidered Surgical Implants by Ellis Developments Ltd.
Open Source Embroidery Exhibition(s)
Examples of 3d printed fabrics on Shapeways
Freedom of Creation
Continuum Fashion

For this assignment you will create two knit pieces, one by following an existing pattern and one by developing your own pattern.

Part 1. Create a knit swatch from the following pattern:
Cast on 20 needles. Knit 10 rows. Carriage should be on right side. Make sure carriage is in the proper mode (Russel levers should be in position I). Bring needle closest to carriage into hold position. Knit one row (carriage should be on left side). Bring needle closest to carriage into hold position. Knit one row (carriage should be on right side). Continue bringing one needle into hold position on the carriage side until you have 2 needles in knit position in the center of your pattern. Carriage should be on right side.

Begin taking needles out of hold position. Push the needle closest to the knitting on the opposite side of the carriage (the left side) into B (knit) position. Knit one row (carriage should be on right side). Push the needle closest to the knitting on the opposite side of the carriage (the right side) into B (knit) position. Knit one row (carriage should be on left side). Continue bringing one needle out of hold position opposite the carriage side until all needles are back in knit position. Knit 10 rows. Cast off.

Part 2. Create and document your own pattern
Create a knit swatch that is at least 6″ x 6″ large that has a noteworthy topography, topology, or color pattern. Write out the pattern for your swatch. If it is an image based pattern, include the image it was based on in your documentation.

Create a post that documents your projects and add it to the Knitting category. Your page should include pictures of both of your finished pieces, the pattern for the Part 2 assignment, and a paragraph about your experience–including an explanation of why your Part 2 pattern is interesting or novel.

Bring your projects to class on April 10 for demonstrations.

Resources
The HLT knitting machine tutorial: a basic walk through for our machines. Use with the books.
dianaknits youtube channel: wonderful tutorials from beginner to advanced
knitting machine sign up sheet

Additional reading
Spencer, D.J. Knitting Technology: A Comprehensive Handbook and Practical Guide, CRC, 2001.
Wulfhorst, B., Gries, T., and Veit, D. Textile Technology. Hanser Gardner Publications, 2006.
History of knitting article on knitty

For your final project, you’ll explore a specific set of materials, techniques, or applications in depth. You are very welcome (in fact encouraged) to work in groups. The project could take many different forms, including but not limited to:

• A finished garment or other structure with unique functionality, design, or material composition.
• A finished textile with unique functionality or material composition.
• A prototype for a new tool that could help others work with textiles and technology.
• A series of documented material or technique explorations.

The final project proposals will consist of short (10 minute) formal presentations that you will present in class and short online descriptions. Your presentation should include:

• A concise description of your project.
• A preliminary survey of previous work in the area.
• If you are planning a project whose outcome is a specific artifact (ie: a garment), preliminary sketches of the artifact.
• A time line/plan of work.

Create a post on the site for your proposal and add it to the Final Project Proposal Category. Your page should contain a short description and a downloadable version of your presentation.

Write a program, or modify an existing program, to create a two dimensional pattern and use a laser cutter to turn it into a sheet of lace. You are also welcome to then incorporate the lace into a larger design.

Create a post that documents your project and add it to the the Laser Cut Lace category. Your page should include:

• a paragraph or two describing your project, including a description of how your code works
• pictures of your work in progress
• at least one picture of your completed project
• the code that generated your project (text if you used a text based language, a screen shot otherwise)

Bring your project to class on the 20th for demos!

Additional resources
HLT’s Laser Cutter tutorial
Download a trial version of Illustrator here
Processing
More about Voronoi diagrams
More about LSystems
Sample Code (under Lecture Notes)

For inspiration
Eunsuk Hur
Nervous System
Tord Boontje
Form and Code Book
The algorithmic beauty of plants book
Elitis
Diana Eng

Make a piece of flexible nonwoven fabric at least 6″x6″ (~15cm x 15cm) with some noteworthy characteristic. (An unusual blend of materials, interesting structural characteristics, embedded circuitry, special electrical properties, …?) We’ll focus on casting silicone and latex rubber in class.

Jenny Leary, from FerroFabric, who gave a guest lecture to our class last year, designed a lovely series of latex-based “magnetic” fabrics that might serve as inspiration:

Here’s an example cast silicone project by James Leng from the 2010 iteration of this class. You can find documentation on this project and others here.

And here is an embedded circuitry experiment (electronics and latex) by former High-Low Tech graduate student Hannah Perner-Wilson:

Create a post that documents your project. Make sure to add your post to the the Nonwoven category. Your page should include:

• a paragraph or two describing your project
• pictures of your work in progress
• at least one picture of your completed project
• a short video of your completed project if it is interactive or dynamic

Bring your project to class on the 13th for demos!

For this assignment you will create a shape-changing textile, controlled by an Arduino. Design a textile construction that changes shape using flexinol (nitinol) wire. Here is a diagram showing the electrical configuration for one curling nitinol flap (nitinol drawn in purple):

Here is a table of the properties of flexinol wire of different diameters, with the .006″ diameter circled:

As you design and build your project, measure and calculate the following properties:

• Measure the resistance of at least one of the nitinol actuators in your design.
• Use Ohm’s Law to calculate how much current will run through this actuator. Note: this should not exceed 410mA for the .006″ wire! On the other hand, you’ll probably need at least 350mA to get a good response from the wire.
• IMPORTANT NOTE: plan to use either the computer (which supplies 5V) or the battery (which supplies 3.7V) to power your project. You can’t move back and forth between the two without potentially damaging the wire. As long as the switch on your LilyPad is in the ON position when it is plugged into your computer you are using battery power.
• Use your calculations to determine how much resistance you need. Add or eliminate resistance as needed.
• Measure the current running through your finished actuator.

Create a post (on this site) that documents your project and measurements. Make sure to add your post to the the Shape Changing Textile category. Your page should include:

• a few sentences describing your project
• pictures of your work in progress
• at least one picture of your completed project
• a short video of your completed project
• a table of the electrical measurements and calculations you made

Bring your project to class on the 6th for demos!

Additional resources
Basic technical information on flexinol wire
Datasheet for flexinol wire (in depth technical info)
A tutorial Jie wrote for working with nitinol & paper
Jie’s videos
Videos from XS labs
Marcelo Coelho’s shutters