PreprintPDF Available

Smart Experience in Fashion Design through Smart Materials Systems: Outlining a New Creative landscape Emerging Practices between Design Aesthetics

Authors:

Abstract and Figures

During the last decade, smart materials have increasingly impacted on several niches, among which that of one-off/limited edition experimental fashion. Thanks to their performativity, due to the implementation of Smart Materials Systems, they have reached indeed catwalks as well as museums and galleries. As boundaries between what-is-art and what traditionally was not supposed to be art are now turning into osmotic membranes, zooming on how smart materials are highly contributing to outline the new creative landscape can provide with interesting and compelling issues. Introducing three different areas of experimental fashion, named Multi-sensory dresses, Empathic dresses, and Bio-smart dresses and accessories, respectively covering the world of in-Lab experiments and design collaborations in relation to the application of advanced smart materials systems, the article discuss some of the implications in term of Design Thinking and Design Aesthetics.
Content may be subject to copyright.
Article 1
Smart Experience in Fashion Design through Smart 2
Materials Systems: Outlining a New Creative 3
landscape Emerging Practices between Design 4
Aesthetics 5
Marinella Ferrara 1 6
1 Dipartimento di Design, MADEC, Politecnico di Milano 1; marinella.ferrara@polimi.it 7
* Correspondence: marinella.ferrara@polimi.it; Tel.: +39-3392173102 8
9
Abstract: During the last decade, smart materials have increasingly impacted on several niches, 10
among which that of one-off/limited edition experimental fashion. Thanks to their performativity, 11
due to the implementation of Smart Materials Systems, they have reached indeed catwalks as well as 12
museums and galleries. As boundaries between what-is-art and what traditionally was not 13
supposed to be art are now turning into osmotic membranes, zooming on how smart materials are 14
highly contributing to outline the new creative landscape can provide with interesting and 15
compelling issues. Introducing three different areas of experimental fashion, named Multi-sensory 16
dresses, Empathic dresses, and Bio-smart dresses and accessories, respectively covering the world of 17
in-Lab experiments and design collaborations in relation to the application of advanced smart 18
materials systems, the article discuss some of the implications in term of Design Thinking and 19
Design Aesthetics. 20
Keywords: Smart Material Systems; Augmented Material; Creative practices; Fashion Design; 21
Smart Experience; Smart Aesthetics; Technology. 22
23
1. Introduction 24
During the last decade, new advanced media, and augmented materials (Razzeque et al. 2013; 25
Ferrara 2017 p. 176) jointly with digital technologies, have increasingly impacted on several niches, 26
among which that of one-off/limited edition experimental fashion. 27
The advanced materials we refer to in this article are mainly generally named Smart Materials, an 28
expression that today includes different types and categories of materials and material systems able to 29
mediate between analogic and digital worlds. Generally defined as “highly engineered materials that 30
respond intelligently to their environment” (Addington and Scodek 2005 p. 9), as well as sensible and 31
interactive (Cardillo and Ferrara 2008), smart materials are often embedded in conventional materials 32
and applied in system with microelectronic components, in order to obtain Smart Materials System, also 33
named ICS_Material, i.e Interactive, Connected and Smart Materials (Ferrara et al. 2018), in a design 34
vision of advanced performance objects system featured by augmented behaviors and smart user 35
experience (Bengisu and Ferrara 2018 p. 84). So material surfaces, as fabrics, can become sensitive and 36
responsiveness (with visual, kinetic, and acoustic response) to external stimuli, monitor complex 37
behavior in daily life, acquire an active and autonomous behavior with no need of human intervention 38
(Bengisu and Ferrara 2013 p. 24), and ability to transfer and receive information. New smart surfaces 39
are able to transform the artifacts from static to dynamic entities. 40
Last but not least, among the smart materials systems, we refer also to Bio-smart Materials 41
(Lucibello et al. 2018), material systems in which the artificial intelligence and intelligence in nature are 42
Preprints (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 30 October 2018 doi:10.20944/preprints201810.0699.v1
© 2018 by the author(s). Distributed under a Creative Commons CC BY license.
2 of 10
interconnected to complement one to another. This is to mean that the bio-smart materials have an 43
intelligent behavior in a biological sense, or they yield the intelligence of nature integrating it with 44
artificial intelligence systems 45
As already stated in the middle eighties, advanced materials are characterized more by their 46
performance rather than their functionality (Manzini 1986), and specifically smart materials systems 47
performance is no doubt a powerful stimulus for creative practices, promising much more in relation 48
to current paradigms based on communication, interaction, sustainability and human experience 49
(Bengisu and Ferrara 2018). 50
Nowadays all these new tools, together with new technologies like 3D printing, and new design 51
approaches, like interaction, algorithmic and biomimetic design, have started to be used in creative 52
practice both as catalysts of the design process, allowing artists and designer to interact directly with 53
the technological reality, and as active agent of an extraordinary field of experimentation on expressive 54
languages, sophisticated functionality, user perceptive and emotional involvement. Thanks to their 55
performances, the application of smart materials systems has been the focus of many researches and 56
experimentations of fashion innovation, were they paves the way to the enhancement of 57
programmable and interactive dresses, accessories and shoes, contributing to their implementation 58
as wearable technologies. So they have reached indeed catwalks as well as museums and galleries. 59
The amount of art & fashion design public presentation of “experiential prototyping” (Buchenan 60
and Suri 2000) that have already captured a big audience proposing a highly experiential 61
involvement, are clear indications of the increasing interest among arts, design and fashion 62
communities toward the appropriation of augmented materials toward application on products and a 63
new emerging Design Aesthetics. In some cases these experimental prototypes are close to reaching 64
the market. 65
2. Method 66
Assuming that in the contemporary creative practices environment through performance, 67
fashion designers have adopted a role of designer-as-artist shaping a phenomenon with plenty of 68
symptoms in different creative activities niches, we will analyzes experimental one-off/limited 69
edition fashion mainly related with science-design (Duggan 2001). In this field of creative 70
investigations deeply involved in science and active research practices, the use of technological and 71
scientific advances contribute breaks the boundaries of traditional art-making, recognizing the 72
physical process as the actual work (Rush 1999 p. 48). Science-designers and Material-designer 73
emphasize the function and performances of materials and their artifacts. The material creation and 74
construction of prototype dictate the performance. This is evident in their processes, and in the 75
communication of their work that utilize videos that incorporate transformation as a means of 76
revealing the experimentation behind the work. Science-fashion-designer utilizes their fashion 77
shows as art performance extending the customer’s involvement in their creative process. 78
As boundaries between what-is-art and what traditionally was not supposed to be art are now 79
turning into osmotic membranes, zooming on how Smart Material System, are highly contributing to 80
outline the new creative landscape can provide with interesting and compelling issues. All worthy 81
to be further analyzed, not just in terms of Art Theory, but through the lens of Design Thinking and 82
Design Aesthetics. 83
In order to highlight the implementation of emerging technology and smart material system on 84
experimental fashion design, now articulated in several niches and sub-niches, we introduce three 85
different areas of to highly performing experimental dresses, with relative promising case-studies, 86
respectively covering the world-wide of in-Lab experiments and design collaborations. We will then 87
questioning the impact caused by smart materials and then smart wearing objects, and highlight some 88
of the communicational and the relational issues potentially generated, partially referring also to 89
Design Aesthetics. 90
More than ever, questioning performances and involvements discloses then as the core of a 91
contemporary creative approach, where unedited inspirational and pursued completions are 92
encouraging new implementations, generating interesting and extremely useful outcomes. Indeed, 93
Preprints (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 30 October 2018 doi:10.20944/preprints201810.0699.v1
3 of 10
with all the material potential currently available, envisioning what will be next in terms of smartness 94
and yet unedited performances and applications is what also pushes further creativity and 95
contemporary Design Thinking. 96
3. Multi-sensory dresses 97
What stated above in relation to the increasing opportunities, pursued by a new generation of 98
artists, technologists, and designers, aiming to establish profitable collaborations with digital 99
technology and science, is perfectly mirrored by what recently occurred at Royal college of Art in 100
London, while developing a highly innovative dress concept, in partnership with algorithm design, 101
sound designer and technologists. 102
WIM (Figure 1) is the project conceived by Jun Kamei, Kate McCambridge and Jacob Boast, in 103
collaboration with Duncan Carter. WIM investigates the communication of movement and was 104
designed to delivering haptic sensations across the body and built on the fields of neuroplasticity and 105
haptic researches used to promote motor learning and rehabilitation. The developed prototype is a 106
haptic dress. The design embed in the fabric lines of electric-driven artificial muscle made of polymer 107
(Electro-Active Polymer). EAPs are smart material with the peculiarity of the Materials that Move 108
(Bengisu and Ferrara 2018), as well as artificial digital technologies that delivers sensory stimulation to 109
the joints and skin of a user body communicating information about the sequence and nature of 110
movements. So WIM can receive data and instructions about the body’s implicit movement in order to 111
activate the expansion, contraction and vibration of the artificial muscles. 112
Working with dancers and performers to inform the placing and integration of this technology, 113
the result was a live choreography system performed at Victoria and Albert Museum, London, during 114
the Reveal Festival, hosted in collaboration with Boiler Room. In that result was fundamental the 115
collaboration with Abnormal, a studio specialized in bringing digital craft to technology enabled 116
contemporary art. The studio collaborated with the designers to materialise the performance of WIM 117
with a new haptic-based language developed to assist with directing and choreographing 118
movement. In order to assist in the communication of WIM's functionality from the stage to the 119
audience, Abnormal developed a generative and immersive soundscape showing the interplay 120
between dancer and choreographer. The soundscape takes the form of an electronic, ambient, 121
surround-sound piece that is contorted and distorted by messages sent by a choreographer to the 122
dancer's garment. The algorithmic approach to sound design enables the soundscape to respond to 123
the performance in real time and to both adapt to input from the choreographer and actively affect 124
the dancers movement. It enables WIM to not only facilitate a real-time conversation between the 125
dancer and the choreographer, but to also complete that feedback loop by adding the soundscape as 126
an actor. 127
WIM win the Haptic design Award 2017 in Tokio. Potential applications of WIM include 128
physical rehabilitation, athletic training and sharing movement with others. 129
Recently, even the company giant Tesla has shown interest in the implementation of haptic 130
technologies in a garment. Tesla proposes a concept of a suit for engagement in virtual reality play 131
games or experiences that enhance the visual experience of VR headsets. Teslasuit apply on the fabric 132
a neuromuscular electrical stimulation system, inspired to rehabilitation and athletic training 133
techniques in physical therapy, in order to provide an electro-tactile haptic feedback distributed in 134
the whole body. This system made of 46 thermo-controlled haptic sensors located on the front and 135
back of body, stimulates the wearing nerves directly with electricity. The stimulations are very 136
similar to the body’s own native language and provide the sensory experience giving you the ability 137
to touch and feel objects inside the VR. The range of electrical stimulation can vary from a gentle 138
breeze to the simulation of the sensorial experience of an impact, not giving you the full on bud 139
experience. Motion capture sensors and a library chock full of programmed animations allow the 140
system to simulate a wide range of haptic impacts, like the subtle patter of raindrops against the 141
skin, the cold gust of wind, the warmth of a dragon’s flame, or the hit of a sword across the body. 142
Teslasuit is only one of the last stages of the wearable devices development for VR 143
phenomenology, that succeed since the early 90s. But while before these products remained in a very 144
Preprints (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 30 October 2018 doi:10.20944/preprints201810.0699.v1
4 of 10
market niche separated from the rest of the big market production, today the technological 145
miniaturization, the democratization of technology, new printing technic for microelectronics with a 146
more low cost, are promoting the cross-disciplinary experimentation. Experimental fashion, 147
health-care wearable technologies, and VR devices apply these new technologies to differentiated 148
utilities, which can go precisely from the application to dance to motor rehabilitation. 149
150
151
152
Figure 1. WIM haptic dress by J. Kamei, K. McCambridge and J. Boast. Courtesy J. Kamei 153
4. Empathic Dresses 154
Already in 2015, Behnaz Farahi working in the intersection of fashion and interaction design, 155
explored through her project Caress of the Gaze the potential of emerging technologies and interactive 156
systems and their relationship to the human body (Farahi 2015 2016). She created indeed a garment 157
as a sort of primary interface, enabling the person wearing it to experience one of the main aspects of 158
human interaction: people’s gaze. The project was essentially based on eye-gaze tracking 159
technology, where the garment itself relies on a smart system that uses a facial tracking camera 160
detecting the orientation of the gaze, a microcontroller, SMA wires connected with a 3D printed 161
mesh of PLA which give shape to the garment, and eight SMAs as the actuators (Bengisu and 162
Ferrara, 2018). This miniaturised complex materials system allows the garment to move in response 163
to the gaze of other people. 164
In 2017 the same designer released another wearable concept called Opale, a custom-made fashion 165
item, integrating soft robotics and again facial tracking technology (Figure 2). It was launched as a new 166
step forward, relying on the same technology already tested and implemented on Caress of the Gaze. 167
Inspired by animal fur, the outfit is composed of a forest of optic fibers embedded in a silicon layer, 168
whose fur bristles when under threat, or which purrs if eventually stroked (Farahi 2017). It is also 169
provided with a camera able to detect a certain range of facial expressions, and it incorporates also an 170
interactive pneumatic system responding accordingly. For example, the garment can respond to the 171
manifestation of feelings like “anger” by compulsive or agitated movements, but it can also react to 172
surprise by bristling, hence influencing social interaction. 173
Analyzing the design choices for Opale and Caress of the Gaze, we can see the interest that the 174
human and / or animal behavior plays in Behnaz Farahi as an element of inspiration, in particular the 175
involuntary skin responses such as chills or defence mechanisms. In fact, as Farahi (2016) explains, 176
the skin of living beings, humans, animals or even vegetables, is constantly in motion, expanding, 177
contracting, and changing its shape based on various internal/ external stimuli. It applies human 178
behaviours to outfits, responding to various social issues such as intimacy, privacy, gender, and 179
identity. 180
Compared to Caress of the Gaze, Opale project goes beyond the interest compared to project 1, 2 it 181
goes beyond the interest in the behavior of human skin and animal fur. Opale is inspired by the 182
facial-feedback hypothesis, which according to empirical research presides over the social 183
understanding of emotions (Caruana and Gallese, 2011). According to research in experimental 184
psychology, the incarnation of emotion through facial expression and posture affects the way in which 185
Preprints (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 30 October 2018 doi:10.20944/preprints201810.0699.v1
5 of 10
emotional information is processed (Niedenthal 2014). Although this research has been a scandal in 186
psychology, it is influencing the projects of designers, who are interested in influencing human 187
emotions with their research like Behanaz Farahi. In fact, the intelligent dress Opale reproduces the 188
"mirror mechanism for emotions". If you feel a certain emotion consists in the re-reading, at the 189
cerebral level, of your body feed-back, the observation of the emotion of others, expressed in some 190
particular gesture, influences the perceived emotional experience, and personal judgment. Thus by 191
observing the expression of the emotions of others we connect directly with their meaning, reflecting 192
the emotional behavior of others with our bodily expressions. 193
194
195
196
Fig. 2 Opale, emphatic dress by B. Farahi. 197
5. Bio-smart dresses and accessories 198
Another emergent creative niche, growing thanks the emergence of bio-smart fashion and 199
design-biology integration, come full to light in 2015 with bioLogic, the research team leading by prof. 200
Hiroshi Ishi in MIT’s Tangible Media Group Lab, born from the collaboration among MIT Media 201
Lab, MIT Chemical Engineering Department, and Royal College of Art (MIT 2018).This 202
interdisciplinary team composed of designers, scientists and engineers created a completely new 203
form of performance textile embedding alive actuators and sensors, the bacteria. The 204
humidity-sensitive Bacillus Subtilis Natto was studied in its ability to the expansion and contraction 205
in environment with atmospheric moisture. This natural phenomenon observed in a bio lab, was 206
analyzed in its potentiality for functional use in dynamic fabric. Then, the team explored how 207
bacterial properties can be applied to fabric and formed into living interfaces between body and 208
environment. The animate Natto cells where assembled with a micron-resolution custom 209
bio-printing system and cell-infused on a fabric in order to create a responsive material able to 210
ventilate the skin of an athlete or a dancer, reacting to body heat and sweat. As fabric in a suit reacts 211
to perspiration, tiny vents over bodily heat zones open and close allowing for rapid cooling. 212
In fall 2015, thanks to the collaboration with New Balance, interested to creating sportswear that 213
regulates athletes’ body temperatures, thereby enhancing performance, the bioLogic suits featured in 214
a live ballet performance (Figure 3). 215
More recently, MIT Media Lab has used the same approach while developing a highly 216
innovative shoe concept in partnership with athletic sportswear company Puma. Outwear designers 217
applied indeed a brand new available technology to give shape to a next pair of performing sport 218
shoes endowed with Deep Learning Insoles, powered by Biorealize studio. Briefly describing the 219
technology itself, it seems of interest to remind that Deep Learning Insoles are silicone based 220
disposable inlays containing microbial cultures, able to monitor biochemical vitals that normally 221
change during running or workout. Since the very early stage of dissemination, also in terms of 222
marketing, just as reported by the launching campaign, the role of bacteria was made quite clear and 223
loud stating that “Microbial layer is composed of mini cavities that are filled with bacteria and media 224
that are specialized in sensing different compounds present in sweat”. Bacteria then respond to what 225
they sense with specific chemicals causing a pH and a conductivity change in the sole itself, which 226
gets recorded by a network of electrical circuits, connected to microcontrollers positioned in the 227
Preprints (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 30 October 2018 doi:10.20944/preprints201810.0699.v1
6 of 10
third layer. Invisible living organisms are about then to dramatically change the very essence of 228
workout and endurance routine and such a new step in bridging science and design is being broadly 229
communicated also to potential mass consumers. Biology has always played a big role in all the 230
various aspect of our life, but in such a specific case it is also contributing to extend the quality of 231
living organisms also to something that, instead of being “animated” by software, or being 232
programmed in advanced, contains a form of primitive life just within its own structure. 233
Looking at others experimental experiences in fashion design, like the synthetic biology by 234
Carol Collet (Biolace), the creation of fashion and objects with biological materials is becoming one 235
of the most promising research and development lines of the contemporary times, able to bring 236
manufacturing back into play and reconcile it with the principles of nature, its models of 237
sustainability and the peculiarities of different territorial contexts. Manufacturing processes and 238
products innovation will have to use less and less irreversible chemical processes, but it will be able 239
to use bacteria that will produce materials to create innovative clothing and accessories, investing on 240
the sustainable principles as well as AI intelligence in the digital revolution and manufacturing 4.0 241
framework. 242
243
244
245
Fig. 3. BioLogic, by MIT Tangible Media Group Lab. 246
6. Discussion 247
Looking at the three different areas of experimental research presented in the previous 248
paragraphs through selected cases deeply involved in active research practices, allows us to make 249
some consideration on the evolution of performance wearable objects. 250
Before exploring the impact caused by smart materials systems, which so drastically differ from 251
the conventional ones, it seems relevant to drive firstly the attention on the expansions and new 252
peculiarities of the active creative practices environment associated with experimental fashion, 253
where a strong convergence of different disciplines and approaches are taking place. The selected 254
case studies, whether they are based in art or interaction design, show the emergence of 255
interdisciplinary synergies, also with the involvement of disciplines such as neuroscience, or 256
biology, that in a not so far past are considered not to be associated with clothes, not at all. Today 257
creative research defines a complex territory of cross-disciplinary collaboration that characterizes the 258
increasingly thin line between art, fashion design, and science. Artists and designers work together 259
with technologists, biotechnologists, neuroscientists, biologists, multimedia and software 260
engineering creating a new set of high skills for experimental wearing objects new qualities 261
development with the core on a new way of relating to the human body in social contests. These 262
research want in some cases stimulate a critical discourse on fashion. Experimental fashion 263
prototyping diffusion by the web, exhibitions and performances, takes the role of a way of exploring, 264
between the users and the objects, the system in which they exist, the reality as technology 265
possibility. 266
The cross-disciplinarily research activities promise innovation that shifts focus beyond the 267
traditional use of dresses to embrace uncertainty, interpretation, and new meaning posing a critical 268
view on how the techno-scientific development is shared and accepted by the public. The complex 269
performance of smart materials systems is a source of reflection and questioning on the contents and 270
meaning of the new available media for the project. 271
Preprints (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 30 October 2018 doi:10.20944/preprints201810.0699.v1
7 of 10
If in the past was well-established that «clothes are semiotic devices, machines for 272
communication» (Umberto Eco 1986 p. 195) and their functions as essential social tool acts as an 273
interface between our bodies and society (Barnard 2014), today explorations into smartness trough 274
smart materials systems and wearable technology impact socially and culturally with implications in 275
term of experience, identity and audience. 276
Referring to the Gilles Deleuze’s (1988) concept of "theater of materials" as a space of senses, 277
and space for relationships, the plus that smart material systems offer is the augmented performance 278
experience in the relationship with the wearing body, as well as between people wearing and other 279
interaction. Their performativity is at stake when we interact with objects and surfaces, and when 280
we can control their behavior. The complexity of the forms of interaction makes the electronic 281
material a source of reflection and questions not only the elements that make up the medium of 282
electronic and reactive material, but also their content and meaning (Heinzel 2014). Design, 283
operating as a bridge between different disciplines and technology, as well as the physical and 284
digital dimension of reality, is shaping hybrid objects, dynamic, autonomous almost alive with 285
proactive and interactive behavior. Designers are now expanding their roles from shaping existing 286
reality, to creating and growing a new ones (Ferrara 2017). 287
What then in terms of perception? What more concerning the impact generated by wearing a 288
haptic and almost-living dress? 289
We usually interact with objects of everyday use according to meanings and shared knowledge, 290
through which we almost automatically identify functionalities, performances and even the degree 291
of trustfulness (Russo 2018). So far, products and wearable accessories have not been designed to 292
respond and actively interact with body stimuli, as the main performance associated to their direct 293
function has been that of adorning and eventually ensuring comfort and protection. 294
The experimental fashion, like those of haptic, emphatic and bio-smart dresses, opens up new 295
possibilities since they embed smartness as well as aspects of organic systems like motion, 296
responsiveness, proactive behavior, and connectivity to such an extent as to be possibly defined as 297
almost-living objects. In the case of haptic dress the technology expands the human sensory 298
experience with versatile extra-sensory transducers that give us a multi-sensory user experience. The 299
design develops and moves our visually emphasized design culture towards an increasingly 300
multi-sensory design environment. In fact, the study on synesthesia has clarified that human sensory 301
perceptions are not an objective reproduction of reality, but instead an inference that the brain draws 302
from the signals it receives. This discover is going to change drastically our interaction with the 303
reality and with the objects in term of envisioning how Next Design Scenario may look like. 304
Shifting our discourse on the Communicational and Aesthetics side, we can question then some 305
issues related to such a new or even next generation of highly technical wearable concepts 306
reminding that, according to current society setting, a dress is not requested to externalize more than 307
what is already codified. It can only provide eventually only some subliminal messages. In addition, 308
a dress is not allowed to be a sharing tool up to such an intimate and private level, likely to release 309
details to unsuitably affect the other subjects involved in the communication process. It is not 310
entrusted to deliver so clearly information about the emotional state of a subject (Russo, 2018). On 311
this purpose it is relevant to remind that despite any stereotype or assumption, technology indeed 312
participates in the human condition and just like human-human communication, technology and 313
humans act and react (Cho and Park 2013), and such a point is likely to exponentially grow further if 314
considering the increasing ability of programmed smart objects to react autonomously. 315
Communicational issues and dynamics get even more complicated if the almost-living object is 316
actually a dress, a sort of second skin marking a highly dangerous territory, that of intimacy, and 317
that standing beyond the socially and culturally visible allowed. And of course we mainly refer to 318
feelings and emotions, not just to portions of naked flesh. 319
7. Conclusions 320
It’s the time to start questioning the big changes taking place in terms of diffuse smart 321
materiality, and thinking in terms of almost-living objects, requiring then a different categorization, 322
Preprints (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 30 October 2018 doi:10.20944/preprints201810.0699.v1
8 of 10
as they appear as also manifesting themselves as a new source of interaction and behavioral 323
reference for the user. Several articles have already opened up, for instance, a discourse on the 324
impact of A.I. and Robotics, since the very early stages of their implementation, aiming to build up a 325
sort of baseline to further research (Dirican 2015). Smart materials and their increasing applications 326
deserve the same kind of attention. 327
The implementation of smart material has indeed created a new and unedited category of 328
reactive objects, able to read our facial expression mimic once exclusive prerogative of human beings 329
and animals, and to mimic our felling, or increase our sensory experience toward components of 330
reality not perceptible by the human sensory system. In terms of perception, displacement and, of 331
course, language association and dynamics, such a shift in perception discloses as a challenging 332
frontier to be analyzed further. Indeed, all the references linked to the sphere of what is visceral, 333
behavioral, reflective (Norman 2004) has so far been listed on the user rather than on the object side. 334
At least a slight shift in perspectives is now needed, as a society in which humans and robots will 335
have to coexist, it is no longer an episode of fiction, but mere reality and it is then necessary to 336
investigate all the aspects that regulate their relationship, in order to ensure an ethical dimension 337
and an effective benefit for people (Germak et al. 2015). Objects themselves do take a big part in 338
world transformation (Floch 1995), and so, now more than ever, the fact of becoming deeply aware 339
of how such a new generation of “things” is progressively redesigning the space we live in and 340
consequentially the language we speak and the gesture we daily use, appears as a main issue to deal 341
with. Several unedited aspects emerge while starting to analyze intelligent systems and human 342
interaction. Quite an interesting point, arising as a relevant one, is certainly that of the dimensional 343
scale of the almost-living objects or the robots human beings have to interact with. Dimension 344
indeed discloses as a main parameter in terms of empathy, affection, emotional 345
reaction/involvement, trustfulness or rejection (Cardoso 2012; Beyaert-Geslin 2015), but what 346
appears also extremely determinant specifically in relation to consistency, it is consequentially the 347
specific function assigned. 348
Art and design are increasingly taking a center stage in the philosophy of technology (Vial 2018) 349
and the analysis of all the influence produced by innovation and technological know-how on our 350
moral and societal values, especially concerning Smart Experience (Ferrara and Russo, 2018) and 351
Smart Aesthetics (Russo and Ferrara, 2017) is still a field requiring further investigations. 352
353
Funding: This research received no external funding 354
Acknowledgments: Thank to Anna Cecilia Russo for suggestions and an interesting confrontation on the 355
experimental fashion. 356
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest. 357
References 358
Addington, Michele and Schodek, Daniel. 2005. Smart Materials and New Technologies. For architecture and design 359
professions. Oxford: Architectural Press-Elsevier. ISBN 0750662255. 360
361
Barnard, Malcolm. 2014. Fashion Theory: An Introduction. London, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9780415496216 362
363
Beyaert-Geslin, Anne. 2015. Présence et médiaton robotique. Paper presented at AFS 2015. 364
https://www.academia.edu/27441918/Pr%C3%A9sence_et_m%C3%A9diation_robotique_congr%C3%A8s_AFS365
_2015. 366
367
Bengisu Murat and Ferrara Marinella. 2015. Kinetic Materials Experience. In Design and Semantics of Form and 368
Movement pp.138-145. Paper presented at DeSForM 2015 Aesthetics of interaction: Dynamic, Multisensory Wise, 369
Milan, 13-17 October 2015. ISBN 9788864930312 370
371
Preprints (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 30 October 2018 doi:10.20944/preprints201810.0699.v1
9 of 10
Buchenau, Marion and Suri, Jane Fulton. 2000. Experience Prototyping. In DIS ’00. Paper presented at 3rd 372
conference on Designing interactive systems: processes, practices, methods, and techniques pp. 424–433. New 373
York: ACM. ISBN 1581132190. DOI 10.1145/347642.347802. 374
375
Cardillo, Marco and Ferrara, Marinella, 2008. Materiali intelligenti, sensibili, interattivi. Milan: Lupetti editori di 376
comunicazione. ISBN 9788883912467. 377
378
Cardoso, Stephanie. 2012. Amicalité des robots de compagnie. Une poïétique par le design. Interfaces numériques, 379
1:1. 380
381
Caruana, Fausto and Gallese Vittorio 2011. Sentire, esprimere, comprendere le emozioni: una nuova prospettiva 382
neuroscientifica. Sistemi intelligenti, 2: 223-234. 383
384
Cho, HyunKyoung and Park, Chang-Soo. 2013. Aesthetics of ‘We’ Human-and-Technology. In Arts and 385
Technology vol. 116. Berlin-Heidelberg: Springer. Paper presented at ArtsIT 2013. Milan, 21-23 March. Lecture 386
Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, 387
388
Deleuze, Gilles. 1988. Le pli. Leibniz et le Baroque. Paris: Les Editions de Minuit. ISBN 2707311820. 389
390
Dirican Cüneyt. 2015. The Impacts of Robotics, Artificial Intelligence On Business and Economics. In Procedia 391
Social and Behavioral Science, 195:564-573. Elsevier. 392
393
Duggan, Ginger Gregg. 2001. The Greatest Show on Earth: A Look at Contemporary Fashion Shows and Their 394
Relationship to Performance Art' in Fashion Theory 5:3 pp. 243-270. Routledge. ISBN 978-1859734995. DOI 395
10.2752/136270401778960883 396
397
Eco, Umberto. 1986. Travels in hyperreality. New York: Mariner Books. ISBN 9780330296670 398
399
Farahi, Behnaz. 2017. Opale. http://behnazfarahi.com/opale/. Accessed October 26, 2018. 400
401
Farahi, Behnaz. 2016. Caress of the gaze. http://behnazfarahi.com/caress-of-the-gaze. Accessed October 26, 2018. 402
403
Farahi, Behnaz. B. 2016. Caress of the gaze: A gaze actuated 3D printed body architecture. In ACADIA 2016: 404
POSTHUMAN FRONTIERS: Data, designers, and cognitive machines, pp. 352–361. Paper presented at 36th 405
Annual Conference of the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture. Ann Arbor, October 27–29 406
2016. 407
408
Ferrara, Marinella. 2017. Shifting to Design-driven Material Innovation. In Ideas and the Matter. Edited by 409
Ferrara, Marinella and Ceppi, Giulio. Trento: ListLab, pp. 173-185. ISBN 9788899854553. 410
411
Ferrara, Marinella, Bengisu Murat. 2013. Materials that Change Color. Smart Materials, Intelligent Design. Cham: 412
Springer. ISBN 9783319002897 413
414
Ferrara, Marinella, Bengisu Murat. 2018. Materials that Move. Smart Materials, Intelligent Design. Cham: Springer 415
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76889-2 416
417
Ferrara, Marinella, Rognoli, Valentina, Arquilla, Venanzio and Parisi, Stefano. 2018. ICS Materiality. In 418
Intelligent Human Systems Integration. Proceeding of the 1st International Conference on Intelligent Human 419
Systems Integration. Cham: Springer. Paper presented at IHSI 2018: Integrating People and Intelligent Systems, 420
Dubai, January 7-9 2018. ISBN 9783319738871. 421
422
Ferrara Marinella, Russo Anna Cecilia 2018. Next Smart Design: Inclusion, Emotions, Interaction in the Concept 423
of Baby Soothing, Caring and Monitoring Smart Solutions. In Intelligent Human Systems Integration. Proceeding 424
Preprints (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 30 October 2018 doi:10.20944/preprints201810.0699.v1
10 of 10
of the 1st International Conference on Intelligent Human Systems Integration. Cham: Springer. Paper presented 425
at IHSI 2018: Integrating People and Intelligent Systems, Dubai, January 7-9 2018. ISBN 9783319738871. 426
427
Floch, Jean-Marie. 1995. Identités visuelles. Paris: PUF. ISBN 9782130468455. 428
429
Germak, Claudio; Lupetti, Maria Luce; Giuliano, Luca. 2015. Ethics of Robotic Aesthetics. In Conference Design 430
and semantics of form and movement, pp. 165-172. DeSForM 2015. Aesthetics of interaction: Dynamic, 431
Multisensory, Wise. Milan, 13-17 October 2015. ISBN 9788864930312 432
433
Kamei, Jun. 2017. WIM. http://www.junkamei.com/work/#/wim-1/. Accessed October 26, 2018. 434
435
Hansen, Marc. 2000. Embodying Technesis. Technology beyond Writing, Ann Arbor: MichiganUniversity Press. 436
ISBN 0472066625. 437
438
Heinzel, Tincuta 2014. Haptic and sound correlation in textile. In Proceedings of Ambience, Scientific Conference for 439
Smart Textiles. Paper presented at Ambience`14&10i3m, Tampere, 7-9 Sept 2014. ISBN 978-952-15-3269-6 440
441
Lucibello, Sabrina, Ferrara, Marinella., Langella, Carla, Cecchini, Cecilia, Carullo Rossana. 2018. Bio-smart 442
Materials: The Binomial of the Future. In 1st International Conference on Intelligent Human Systems 443
Integration. IHSI 2018: Integrating People and Intelligent Systems, Dubai, January 7-9 2018. Cham: Springer. 444
445
MIT. 2018 Puma: Biodesign Can Bacteria in Clothing really make an Athlete faster? 446
https://design.mit.edu/projects/puma-biodesign. Accessed October 26, 2018. 447
448
MIT Media Lab, Tangible Media Group. 2015 BioLogic. https://tangible.media.mit.edu/project/biologic/. 449
Accessed October 26, 2018. 450
451
Niedenthal, Paula Wood, Adrienne and Rychlowska Magdalena. 2014. Embodied emotion concepts. In The 452
Routledge Handbook of Embodied Cognition. Edited by Lawrence Shapiro Chapter: 23, pp.240-249 Routledge ISBN 453
978-0-415-62361-2 454
455
Norman, Donald. 2010. Why design education must change. In: Core 77. 456
https://www.core77.com/posts/17993/Why-Design-Education-Must-Change. Accessed October 26, 2018. 457
458
Razzeque, M. A., Dobson, S., et al., Delaney, K. 2013. Augmented materials: spatially embodied 459
sensor networks. In International Journal of Communication Networks and Distributed Systems, 11(4): 453—477. 460
461
Rush, Michael. 1999. New Media in Late 20th-Century Art. New York: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 9780500203781. 462
463
Russo Anna Cecilia, Ferrara Marinella, 2017. Smart Solutions, “Smart Aesthetics”? The Design Journal, 20: sup1 464
S342-S353. DOI 10.1080/14606925.2017.1352872. 465
466
Russo, Anna Cecilia. 2018. The Emotional Side of Smartness: Intelligent Materials and Everyday Aesthetics. In 467
Intelligent Human Systems Integration. Proceeding of the 1st International Conference on Intelligent Human 468
Systems Integration. Cham: Springer. Paper presented at IHSI 2018: Integrating People and Intelligent Systems, 469
Dubai, January 7-9 2018. ISBN 9783319738871. 470
471
Vial, Stefane. (2018). Towards a Philosophy of Design. In Advancements in the Philosophy of Design. Edited by 472
Vermaas, Pieter and Vial, Stefane. Dordrecht: Springer. ISBN 9783319733012. 473
474
Preprints (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 30 October 2018 doi:10.20944/preprints201810.0699.v1
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.
Book
Full-text available
This book presents a design-driven investigation into smart materials developed by chemists, physicists, materials and chemical engineers, and applied by designers to consumer products, buildings, interfaces, or textiles. Introducing a class of smart materials (referred to as stimuli-responsive, morphing or kinetic materials) that move and change their shape in response to stimuli, the book presents their characteristics, advantages, potentials, as well as the difficulties involved in their application. The book also presents a large number of case studies on products, projects, concepts, and experiments employing smart materials, thus mapping out new design territories for these innovative materials. The case studies involve different fields of design, including product, interior, fashion, and communication design. Reflecting the growing demand for sustainable and human-centered design agendas, the book explores and reveals the role and influence of these new materials and technologies on design and human experience, and discusses how they can be used to redefine our objects and spaces so as to promote more resilient environments. The book offers an intriguing and valuable resource for design professionals, engineers, scientists and students alike. Softcover 54,99 € | £49.99 | 69.9958,84(D)60,49(A)CHF[1]60,50eBook44,02£39.9969.99 58,84 € (D) | 60,49 € (A) | CHF [1] 60,50 eBook 44,02 € | £39.99 | 54.99 44,02 € (D) | 44,02 € (A) | CHF [2] 48,00 Available from your library or springer.com/shop MyCopy [3]
Chapter
Full-text available
This is a chapter of the book IDEAS and the Matter, edited by Marinella Ferrara and Giulio Ceppi, that aims to present the founding research undertaken by the Politecnico di Milano’s Material Design Culture Research Centre (Madec). Founded in 2014, Madec obtained the Design Department’s support during its first year by being granted the Fondo di Ateneo per la Ricerca di Base (FARB 2013) for “Fundamental/Foundational/ Exploratory Researches that are strategically assessed for scientific growth in a research department”. In this book chapter, Marinella Ferrara focuses on the contemporary changing approach to material innovation and product materiality and the evolution of research methods in the framework of "Open Innovation research" that stimulate ways of creating positive change in production.
Chapter
Full-text available
This paper aims to trace back the didactic experience applied while developing the concepts of IOT baby/parents-custom solutions, during a Final Design Lab at the Design School of Politecnico di Milano. Three projects, respectively dealing with baby tubs, monitoring systems and electro smog shielding, will be analyzed in relation to the applied methodologies, the emotional involvement and the questioning generated. If Smart Technologies get increasingly central in our lives, how far can we go even in a context, such as that of baby soothing, caring, and monitoring solutions? How are IOT environments likely to impact on parental life? The outcomes will be of help to observe how design students responded once challenged with the inclusion of smart solutions to baby design products, and to detect the importance of implementing Intelligent Systems while encouraging the flow of emotions, in a new framework of Everyday Aesthetics.
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Shape memory alloys and polymers respond to changes in temperature, light or other environmental stimuli by changing their shape. This paper shows new kinetic experiences with objects and surfaces that apply memory shape materials, describing some case histories based on design experimentations that open up new frontiers in design. The present article investigates how the shape memory effect can add useful features to everyday objects, create unusual user experiences, and how this new potential has been tapped by designers so far. The authors present considerations on design methods, describing the convergence of product design, interaction design and experience design in the new scenario of smart materials. They discuss models from literature to understand and describe the emotional aspects of interaction design with shape-changing materials. Such models could be useful reference points for designers of interactive products that offer kinetic experiences.
Book
The terms materials that move and kinetic materials signify a group of smart ma-terials with the ability to change shape, typically in a short time. The best-known and most widely studied group of materials that fall into this category are shape memory materials, more specifically shape memory alloys. However, shape memory materials are not the only materials that can change shape or return to a specified shape. The aim of this book is to show the incredible variety of materials with the capability to change shape or to move in space as a response to an ex-ternal stimulus such as heat or electricity. Furthermore, the book reviews applica-tions and projects that are facilitated by kinetic materials in order to demonstrate possibilities, alternative materials, working approaches, and design approaches. A cornucopia of projects realized for research, art, or industrial use meticulously se-lected from the fields of architecture, art, design, or interdisciplinary domains show many interesting details about the successful implementation of kinetic ma-terials and the innovative possibilities they bring along.
Chapter
Every object discloses its true essence through the material it is made of, engaging with the user specific interactions that imply several aesthetics outcomes. But what if the everyday world turned into a smart hub of intelligent materials, endowed with unedited properties, designing a sort of next scenario? Smartness in general amplifies the palette of senses, challenging human perception also in terms of temporal dimension and personal space. Based on Everyday Aesthetics premises, this paper aims to outline this new emotional involvement with intelligent materials, investigating further the potential of what we can refer to as a new artificial, impacting on “body/mind comfort” issues. Exploring the prelude of a next material and design scenario will provide with a wide mapping of the sensory inputs humans are likely to go through while experiencing a new level of engagement with objects of common use.
Conference Paper
Technology presents that identity of we humans is performed by the collaborative action of the human and technology. The new identity provoked by technology can be called as 'We' human-and-technology. In the concept of 'We' human-and-technology, technology reconciles politics and the aesthetic. Technology based contemporary art articulates that politics and the aesthetic meet in creative tension between art and technology. Technology's investigation of relation of politics and the aesthetic in contemporary art claims that art is politics. This claim comes from two ideas. First is the performative: the pairing of politics and the aesthetic is performed in collaborative action of 'We' human-and-technology. Second is the intervention: the contesting collaboration of politics and the aesthetic emancipates the sense, and reframes the distribution of the sensible. The way of technology posing the relation of politics and the aesthetic in contemporary art opens a new way of knowing linking art, technology and humanity: the understanding of 'We' human-and-technology in the collaborative action based interdependent perspective. © Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering 2013.
Article
Fashion is both big business and big news. From models' eating disorders and sweated labour to the glamour of a new season's trends, statements and arguments about fashion and the fashion industry can be found in every newspaper, consumer website and fashion blog. Books which define, analyse and explain the nature, production and consumption of fashion in terms of one theory or another abound. But what are the theories that run through all of these analyses, and how can they help us to understand fashion and clothing? Fashion Theory: an introduction explains some of the most influential and important theories on fashion: it brings to light the presuppositions involved in the things we think and say about fashion every day and shows how they depend on those theories. This clear, accessible introduction contextualises and critiques the ways in which a wide range of disciplines have used different theoretical approaches to explain - and sometimes to explain away - the astonishing variety, complexity and beauty of fashion. Through engaging examples and case studies, this book explores: •fashion and clothing in history •fashion and clothing as communication •fashion as identity •fashion, clothing and the body •production and consumption •fashion, globalization and colonialism •fashion, fetish and the erotic. This book will be an invaluable resource for students of cultural studies, sociology, gender studies, fashion design, textiles or the advertising, marketing and manufacturing of clothes.
Article
Perception in the real world is inherently multisensory, often involving visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, gustatory, and, on occasion, nociceptive (i.e., painful) stimulation. In fact, the vast majority of life's most enjoyable experiences involve the stimulation of several senses simultaneously. Outside of the entertainment industry, however, the majority of virtual reality (VR) applications thus far have involved the stimulation of only one, or at most two, senses, typically vision, audition, and, on occasion, touch/haptics. That said, the research that has been conducted to date has convincingly shown that increasing the number of senses stimulated in a VR simulator can dramatically enhance a user's 'sense of presence', their enjoyment, and even their memory for the encounter/experience. What is more, given that the technology has been improving rapidly, and the costs associated with VR systems are continuing to come down, it seems increasingly likely that truly multisensory VR should be with us soon (albeit 50 years after Heilig, 1962, originally introduced Sensorama). However, it is important to note that there are both theoretical and practical limitations to the stimulation of certain senses in VR. In this chapter, after having defined the concept of 'neurally-inspired VR', we highlight some of the most exciting potential applications associated with engaging more of a user's senses while in a simulated environment. We then review the key technical challenges associated with stimulating multiple senses in a VR setting. We focus on the particular problems associated with the stimulation of the senses of touch, smell, and taste. We also highlight the problems associated with the limited bandwidth of human sensory perception and the psychological costs associated with users having to divide their attention between multiple sensory modalities simultaneously. Finally, we discuss how the findings provided by the extant research in the cognitive neurosciences might help to overcome, at least in part, some of the cognitive and technological limitations affecting the development of multisensory VR systems.