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ART 9 (1+2) pp. 23.1–23.25 Intellect Limited 2022
Artifact: Journal of Design Practice
Volume 9 Numbers 1 & 2
www.intellectbooks.com 23.1
© 2022 The Author Published by Intellect Ltd. Article. English language.
Open Access under the CC BY-NC-ND licence. https://doi.org/10.1386/art_00023_1
Received 14 February 2022; Accepted 21 September 2022
ERINLEWIS
University of Borås
Between yarns and electrons:
A method for designing
electromagnetic expressions
in woven smart textiles
ABSTRACT
The design of woven smart textiles presents a discrepancy of scale where the
designer works at the level of structural textile design while facets of the mate-
rial express at scales beyond one’s senses. Without appropriate methods to address
these unknown (or hidden) material dimensions, certain expressional domains of
the textile are closed off from textile design possibilities. The aim of the research has
been to narrow the gap that presents when one designs simultaneously at the scale
of textile structure and electron flow in yarns. It does this by detailing a method
for sensing, visualizing, and discussing expressions of electromagnetism in woven
smart textiles. Based on experimental research, a method of textile surface scan-
ning is proposed to produce a visualization of the textile’s electromagnetic field.
The woven textile samples observed through this method reveal an unknown
textural quality that exists within the electron flow – an electromagnetic texture,
which emerges at the intersection of woven design and electromagnetic domain
variables. The research further contributes to the definition of specific design vari-
ables such as: field strength and diffusion expanding the practice of woven smart
textile design to the electromagnetic domain.
KEYWORDS
textile design
textile thinking
design methods
visualization methods
electromagnetism
weaving
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INTRODUCTION
The practice of smart textile design can be understood as the design of textiles
that are composed of computational, electronic and emerging materials
(Berzowska 2004, 2005; Berzowska and Coelho 2005; Beauchly and Eisenberg
2008; Kettley 2016) such as piezoelectric yarns and coatings (Ryu et al. 2022;
Honnet et al. 2020), electrochromic inks (Eom 2022) and phase-change mate-
rials (Iqbal et al. 2019). These textiles are able to sense and convey environ-
mental changes, as well as transmit and receive power and data to and from
external electronic and computational devices. As a research field it dates back
some twenty years, and through this time it has matured and diverged along
new trajectories (Schneegass and Amft 2017; Tao 2015; Berglin et al. 2005;
Gopalsamy et al. 1999). Research into smart textiles now spans many disci-
plines including material science, various practices of engineering (electrical,
computational, wireless technologies), human–computer interaction, health
sciences, military research, social science, humanities and more. Each prior-
itizes the principles and practices of their discipline and researches through
these perspectives to contribute to the broader body of smart textiles research.
This article takes the perspective of smart textile design, a small yet vital disci-
pline within the broader scope of smart textiles’ research that prioritizes the
textile design process, its techniques and its methods. This article focuses in
particular on woven smart textile design.
The design of smart textiles involves interdisciplinary knowledge found
in seemingly contrasting fields, across diverse materials and techniques, and
works through the translation of concepts, notions and terminologies across
disciplines (Townsend et al. 2017). As an example, the supporting text for a
smart textiles exhibition entitled ‘The Enchantment of Textiles’ in Montreal
identified fifteen different roles involved in the design process of a series of
garments with embedded textile antennas and flexible LED circuits (Layne
et al. 2019). The team involved an embroiderer, a fashion designer, a pattern
cutter, a technical developer of the antenna system, an antenna engineer, a
technical supervisor, an industrial designer, a flexible LED system designer,
a circuit designer, two programmers, a cultural researcher, an archiver and
a research lead. Similarly, an electronic textile entitled ‘The Embroidered
Computer’, designed by Ebru Kurbak and Irene Posch in 2016, required a team
of sixteen people across seven different roles, including a computer circuit and
software designer, generative routing designer, embroidery consultant, metal
thread consultant, multiple crafting assistants, and two researchers/designers
(Posch 2019). The interdisciplinary nature of designing and researching smart
textiles means that any contribution to the practice such as methods and
terminologies influences not only the work of smart textile designers them-
selves but also these collaborative relationships.
The research points to the topic of scale in smart textile design and
suggests that smart textile designers manage multi-layered and multi-scaled
approaches to their work in highly complex and ‘entangled’ spaces with
‘technological compositions’, and that they do so ‘without ever losing sight
of the expressive potential of the work’ (Kettley 2016: 145). As a demand of
the complexity of the design, smart textile designers are required to hold a
multifaceted view of the textile and its scales as a combination of materials,
structure and surface, and in addition, the energetic dimensions of the textiles
such as the forces of intangible materials, the electronic and computational
dimensions, and the various design skills and tools needed to access and work
within these domains.
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Between yarns and electrons
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Conductive yarns used in woven textile structures are further discussed,
and as design is concerned with expression, the article suggests that the elec-
tromagnetic field that the conductive yarns produce can be considered an
expressive domain in itself. In addition, conductive yarn can have a limited
visual appearance and tactility in textiles that can be a challenge for designers
to work with. The revealing of its hidden electromagnetic properties may spark
interest from designers to continue exploring its potential for textile designs.
Currently, the use of electromagnetism as a material in the smart textile design
field is under-represented in part due to these limited expressions, and also
due to a lack of tools and methods for how to access and design with its extra-
sensory and intangible qualities (Lewis 2021; Townsend and Mikkonen 2017).
While methods of detecting and sensing electromagnetic fields are avail-
able within practices of science and engineering, they often involve special-
ized laboratory tools and skills that can be beyond the reach of the smart
textile designer. There is therefore a need for sensing methods that are ‘agile,
visual, and adaptable’ in order for designers to engage with the properties of
the phenomenon (Mikkonen and Townsend 2019). Townsend and Mikkonen
(2019) have introduced Teksig, a visualization method for detecting electri-
cal changes due to micro-interaction in conductive textiles. The method is
an Arduino-based system that draws Lissajous figures on a computer screen.
Lissajous figures are conventionally drawn on oscilloscopes, which is a meas-
urement tool that is high cost and that requires specialized knowledge to
use. The Lissajous figure itself is an emerging circle that forms in relation to
the frequency response of the textile. This could relate to a change in phase,
for example, or a change in the proximity of the conductive yarns in a textile
structure. Teksig can identify micro-interactions with the textile in the form of
pinching, rolling, folding, wrinkling, hanging and placing the hand on, over,
or under the textile. While the smart textile design field tends to address the
non-frequency domain of electricity (DC, or direct-current), Teksig opens up
the frequency domain as an area of design exploration where smart textile
designers can measure and qualify interactions with electronic textiles in the
frequency domain, potentially leading to novel textile interactions and expres-
sions. The aesthetic potential of this approach is that e-textile designers are
equipped with a method and tool that allows the designer to engage with the
frequency-based behaviours of a textile, a perspective of the textile that was
previously inaccessible to designers.
Friske et al. (2019) have designed AdaCAD, a software that simulates
electronic pathways in weave drafts. The software allows textile designers to
design weave drafts and electrical connections in tandem in order to achieve
fully integrated, complex embedded electronic circuitry while providing
immediate screen-based visual feedback regarding the placement of conduc-
tive yarns in the textile (Friske et al. 2019). Circuit simulation software is a
common tool in electronics engineering, and graphical user interfaces (GUIs)
are common to both practices of electronics engineering and textile design.
Where this software innovates is that it allows for complex, multi-layered elec-
trical circuits to be designed in such a way that they are insulated and secured
within the structural design of the textile itself. Further, AdaCAD allows the
designer to exercise the dual perspective of the electrical current flow in rela-
tion to bindings, layers and weft passes, thus narrowing the gap between the
tangible and intangible domains of the textile early on in the design process.
The software affords a new workflow for woven electronic textiles that allows
the designer to anticipate the electrical behaviour of the textile before it is
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23.4 Artifact: Journal of Design Practice
woven. The designer is able to adjust and adapt designs before the weaving
process begins, potentially saving the designer significant time and frustration.
Conventionally, textile designers use patterning for aesthetic purposes that
bridge visual and haptic experiences of the textile, though AdaCAD patterning
can be used for aesthetic embedding of electronic circuitry, and thus the role
of patterning in the textile design process is expanded. This becomes invalu-
able where conductive yarns can be decisively placed in a structure in such a
way that they are insulated by dielectric yarns in the structure, thereby allow-
ing for complex and fully embedded electronic functionality that is both func-
tional and aesthetic.
The article proposes an experimental method that has been developed for
textile designers, and which can be used within their design process to enable
the exploration of the electromagnetic qualities of woven textiles. The aim of
this method is to provide a way of understanding the impact of design deci-
sions when it comes to electromagnetism’s intangible qualities, i.e. where the
density of conductive yarns in a woven textile structure can have significant
effects on the shape of electromagnetic field it produces. Just as with media,
sound and transmission arts where electromagnetic fields are used for expres-
sive purposes (see Kubisch n.d.; Hinterding n.d., as examples), so can they
be used in woven smart textile design as a material to be designed with and
through – if methods and terminologies exist.
The method, called textile surface scanning, visually communicates the pres-
ence and form resulting from the electromagnetic field generated by current
carrying yarns in a woven structure. The method outputs a graphical plot that
illustrates an electromagnetic field shape that results from the placement of
conductive yarns in a woven textile structure. It has accessible tool require-
ments and does not demand specialized knowledge or skills to interpret the
results. The method introduces a key notion of electromagnetic texture and its
related sub-notions of field strength and diffusion. These are discussed in detail
further in the sections that follow. That electromagnetic expressions reside
within a woven textile at the yarn level suggests that decisions regarding
textile design variables, for example technique, structure, density, scale and
overall formal qualities, will subsequently affect the electromagnetic textural
quality. Moreover, it opens a space for textile designers to design with elec-
tromagnetic textures by exploring the relationship of material, structure and
dynamic expressions, thereby broadening the range of design possibilities of
smart textiles. It further answers a long-standing call by smart textiles design-
ers for new methods and terminologies to better understand and work with
the new material dimensions that smart textiles engage with (Berzowska 2004,
2005; Berzowska and Coelho 2005; Hallnas 2008; Worbin 2010; Kettley 2016).
Woven textile design and textile thinking
Conventional woven textile design regards placing yarns in horizontal and
vertical arrangements (as weft and warp, respectively) on a weaving loom in
order to build the textile plane. While the vertical warp yarns are affixed to the
weaving loom during the weaving process, the weaver inserts the horizontal
weft yarns row by row, building the textile material by interlacing warp and
weft with each pass. Structure and patterning are changed as certain warp
yarns are lifted and released, causing variation in the interlacements. Qualities
of fibre type (e.g. cotton, wool and polyester), yarn type (e.g. ply, twist and
thickness) and the arrangement of the yarns in a structure are variables that,
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through manipulation, result in different textile designs (Sinclair 2014). Visual
aesthetics emerge from material and structural decisions made regarding
colour, pattern, sheen, visual weight and visual texture, while tactile aesthet-
ics emerge primarily from surface texture, weight and fibre properties. In the
process of weaving, textile designers must be attuned to the effects of fibres,
yarns and interlacements on the overall expression of the textile. Textile
designers are trained to be highly sensitive towards, to manipulate, to regu-
late, and otherwise surrender to the material forces that present when fibres
and yarns are suspended in textile structures. In doing so, designers learn to
identify patterns of behaviours, emergent properties and tendencies of mate-
rial and structural combinations. They give form to matter through the manip-
ulation and regulation of materials that lead to the final woven textile design
expression. Thus, textiles may be considered assemblages of materials and
forces combined with structural logic that demonstrates a particular expres-
sion inseparable from its constituting elements where the material and imma-
terial spaces of the textile conjoin (Lee 2020).
Yet aspects of the textile are present before the textile-making process
has begun, as a form of impetus on part of the designer. This draws on the
experienced hand of the weaver, conceptual thinking and the deep knowl-
edge of working methods and diverse material experience acquired (Steed
and Stevenson 2020). Textile thinking frames this space as an expanded
notion that enfolds the textile design process of making, where the ‘think-
ing, making, knowing with, in, and of itself (is) bound up within the agen-
cies of the materials themselves’ (Igoe 2018). This builds on the legacies of
Anni Albers (1965) and Tim Ingold (2010) who, among others who argue for
the submission to materials in the process of designing (Igoe 2018: 42), the
used of the knowledged hand, and a shift in focus from the final tangible
object to the process of making and knowing. Textile thinking has influenced
the development and design of the textile surface scanning method as it has
created a conceptual and exploratory space to work within to begin to articu-
late this material dimension, without prioritizing the textile object as a result
(Dumitrescu et al. 2018; Valentine et al. 2017). It uniquely conjoins experi-
mental knowledge of electromagnetics in textiles, combined with the design
practice of textile weaving.
Scales of woven smart textile design
In woven textile design, designers must simultaneously regard the broader
expression of the textile while addressing nuances at the scale of yarns.
Expressions of texture, surface and visual aesthetics (e.g. colour and pattern-
ing) are determined by yarn properties such as fibre type, yarn thickness, yarn
number and twist. Yet for smart textile designers, the design variables increase.
While the focus on structure, material and expression are maintained, further
variables are introduced: time-based, state-changing and recursive and recur-
rent behaviours (Worbin 2010; Kettley 2016; Heinzel and Hinestroza 2020).
These behaviours expand the textile design space to include computational
and electronic states that are incongruent with the natural passage of time,
and that change under certain conditions as a result of external triggers.
Materials often used in smart textiles introduce elements of scale that require
designers to move deeper into the properties of the materials. For example,
the use of conductive yarns requires an understanding of electron flow and
polarity in relation to their placement in a textile structure. Disregarding this
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can result in non-functioning circuits, short circuits and erratic and unwanted
computational behaviours. The type of alloys in the yarn, whether they are
spun or extruded, the yarn gauge, its resistance per centimetre and its current
rating all require textile designers to design not at the scale of the tangible
material, but at the scale of the electron flow within the tangible material
(Lewis 2021). Designers work indirectly with electrons through the compo-
nents within which they flow (Kettley 2016).
The use of conductive yarns in a textile implies the designed behav-
iour of the yarns within a larger electronic or computational circuit that may
involve sensors, actuators, power and signal connections. Sensing and actuat-
ing behaviours require programming, which suggests that the computational
code and algorithms that drive the behaviours are also a form of material that
builds the textile. This combination of computation, electronics and tangi-
ble matter has been referred to as ‘computational composites’ as an expres-
sion of matter that hybridizes the tangible with the intangible (Vallgårda and
Redstrom 2007). When conceiving what a smart textile might do, the textile
designer needs to think about the programmatic states and computational
expressions of the work. These behaviours transfer as electric pulses through
conductive yarns and into the structure of the textile to facilitate their actions.
They are thus temporal electrical expressions that navigate the electron flow
within conductive yarns, and which textile designers must also regard in their
process of making.
All smart textiles designed with conductive yarns interact with electro-
magnetic fields. These fields are beyond human sensing capabilities though
they can be detected, measured, formed and directed using specialized tools
and technologies. Smart textiles that generate electromagnetic fields, or elec-
tromagnetic textiles, are designed matter in active states of doing, independent
of human subjectivity. They express energetic bursts through their coupling
and decoupling of electromagnetic fields, and the minute interactions that
occur in the interstices of the conductive yarns suspended in their structure.
The sensing of the electromagnetic field is a snapshot in time of this coupling
behaviour that causes dynamic intensities across the surface of the textile.
The following three examples demonstrate design approaches to working
with electromagnetism in textile designs and materials, across varying meth-
ods, scales and expressions.
Example 1: Embroidered computational logic using
electromagnetic flip-dots
Designers working with electromagnetic expressions in woven textiles are few,
and works produced have been mainly focused on frequency-based electro-
magnetism (e.g. sound and radio-based works), though some non-frequency
domain examples do exist. Some may be designed using other techniques
such as knitting or embroidery. In example 1 (Figure 1) design researchers
Ebru Kurbak and Irene Posch have designed an embroidered electromag-
netic textile that functions as an eight-bit computer (Kurbak and Posch cited
in Kurbak 2018). The textile contains a matrix of magnetite beads encircled
by the ornate stitches of embroidered conductive thread (Figure 2). A gold
coil relay switch is attached to the magnetite bead, and when an electromag-
netic field is generated in the yarns, the relay coil flips its position, thereby
expressing different logic structures. Participants are invited to program this
textile computer and witness the different logic structures expressed through
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Figure 1: Ebru Kurbak and Irene Posch, The Embroidered Computer, 2018. Woven textile, gold
embroidery thread, magnetite beads. © Irene Posch (2019).
Figure 2: Ebru Kurbak and Irene Posch, detail of The Embroidered Computer, 2018. Woven textile, gold
embroidery thread, magnetite beads. © Irene Posch (2019).
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the textile materials. In this work, the two have greatly enlarged the scale of
matrixial computational logic gates, visually revealing the basic material inter-
actions that are normally intangible, miniaturized and embedded within inte-
grated circuits. The designers have utilized a quality of the gold yarns that,
when stitched together to create a dense spiral, are able to produce an elec-
tromagnetic field that is strong enough to cause the magnetite bead reverse
its magnetic poles. Here, they highlight the kinetic energy potential of elec-
trons that are contained within the gold yarn, and creating a visually stunning
aesthetic of computer logic flows across the surface of the textile.
Example 2: Accessing the magnetic properties of conductive yarns
for voice recording
Kurbak has worked with So Kanno to design a magnetic yarn voice recorder
(Kanno and Kurbak cited in Kurbak 2018). Using this recorder, a participant is
able to record their voice on a single thread of conductive yarn. Soundwaves
of one’s voice are passed to the yarn while turning a spindle. The yarn is
guided through a recording head where the yarn is magnetized with the
magnetic order of the voice recording (Figure 3). The yarn can then be played
back by winding the yarn spindle to listen to the recording. This work uses the
effect of mechanical magnetic recording as used in cassette players of previ-
ous decades. Here, the pair reveals an overlooked quality of conductive yarns:
their ability to store and transmit data in their magnetic field. The two work
with the finer scales of textiles (at the yarn level) and electromagnetics (at the
level of electrons in a magnetic field).
Figure 3: Ebru Kurbak and So Kanno, Yarn Recorder, 2018. © Elodie Grethen (2018).
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Example 3: Translating radio communications into knitted textile
patterns
Working with frequency-based electromagnetic expressions, Afroditi Psarra
and Audrey Briot explore satellite transmission data as a material for textile
design. In Listening Space (2019), the two used software-defined radio (SDR)
to record satellite transmissions from their reception station. Psarra and Briot
work with radio waves as a spatial material to be captured from free space, and
later bring that data into their textile design process. The transmission data is
translated as a graphical image in SDR software and turned into a Jacquard
pattern for machine knitting. Radio waves are represented through changes
in textile structure, material and patterning, using symbolism to balance the
scales of design between yarns and electrons (Figure 4). In this work, Psarra
and Briot regard the spatial qualities of radio waves at immense scales and
are simultaneously concerned with the matching of frequencies, directional-
ity and temporality of the interception (i.e. being in place at the correct time
and for the duration of the satellite pass and transmission). In addition, they
use ‘low-cost methodologies’ and ‘digital crafting’ combined with textile design
processes (Psarra n.d.). This assists in opening textile designers to electromag-
netism as material, particularly where it can be accessed through materials
that textile designers are already engaged with, and are intimately familiar
with.
These three examples serve to demonstrate an interest by textile designers
and researchers to explore electromagnetics through textile design processes
Figure 4: Afroditi Psarra and Audrey Briot, Listening Space: Knitted Archive of the NOAA 18
Transmission Intercepted on 8 May 2019, 2019. © Afroditi Psarra (2019).
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and materials, where electromagnetic fields are generated within the yarns,
or are received from an external source and set within the yarns. In doing so,
the designers work fluidly from internal and external sources of electromag-
netism, and between electrons, yarns and – in the case of Psarra and Briot –
atmospheric scales. Thus, designers of these works present varying methods,
scales and expressions of electromagnetism in textile design, and in doing so
they highlight an alternative dimension to textiles and textile materials. In the
section that follows, a method for sensing and visualizing a generated electro-
magnetic field in woven smart textile structures is described.
METHOD
Through experimental design research, a method for sensing and visu-
alizing electromagnetic fields in woven smart textiles was designed. The
method comprises a smartphone app, a physical setup, a sliding technique
and a visualization approach. The method uses the magnetometer contained
within a mobile phone. Magnetometers measure magnetic fields in multiple-
axes and generally provide a high resolution of sensor data. Commonly, the
magnetometer in a mobile phone is a triple-axis magnetometer that measures
X, Y and Z axes for navigation purposes and determines the handheld posi-
tion of the device. Mobile phone magnetometers carry several benefits of use
as a measurement tool: they access computational processing power directly
from the mobile phone as opposed to an external microcontroller unit; they
have embedded calibration processes; they have a display screen for show-
ing measurement data; they are small and portable; and they have internet
connectivity for uploading or downloading data, in addition to other general
tasks. Finally, they are incredibly accessible as they are embedded in all mobile
phones. For this reason, woven textile designers are not required to purchase
or otherwise acquire and assemble new tools or measurement systems as they
can use what they already possess.
The basic structures of twill, waffle and honeycomb were selected to
weave in this experiment for their variations in expressing electromagnetic
field shapes. The samples were woven with a conductive enamelled copper
yarn (0.16 mm) with an electrical resistance of 0.89 Ω/m. This yarn is thin, flex-
ible and strong, and does not typically break under weaving tension. Cotton
yarns (30/2) were used as a dielectric material in both warp and weft direc-
tions. The textile samples were woven on 24-shaft computerized ARM looms
with warp density of 24 ends-per centimetre (EPC) for twill and honeycomb
samples, and 12 EPC for waffle weave. Each textile was woven with the ends
of the conductive yarn ends exiting the textile on left and right selvedges at
intervals of 1 cm. This provided access to the conductive yarns for electrical
connections.
The sensor data outputs magnitude measurements as microTeslas (μT).
The textile samples were placed vertical to the Earth to avoid sensor data
being affected by the Earth’s own electromagnetic field. The mobile phone
app ‘Magnetic Field Sensor’ by SMF Apps gbr was used to access the data
from the magnetometer sensor in the mobile phone. The app formats the
output data as a 2D graphical plot of magnetic field strength mapped over
time. It stores within the mobile phone memory as a text file with positional
data, magnitude and timestamps. The flexibility of this text file is that it can
easily be imported into a variety of software capable of plotting and visual-
izing data sets.
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Setup
In the physical setup, a mobile phone holder, tripods and a plastic planar
surface were used (Figure 5, top left and bottom right). A sliding camera
mount was modified by attaching a mobile phone holder (Figure 5, top right),
allowing one to smoothly traverse the mobile phone over the surface of the
textile. A textile sample was positioned vertically against a plastic board, facing
the mobile phone (Figure 5, bottom left). Power and ground connections were
made to the textile via conductive yarns at the selvedge, and 1 A of current
was applied.
The sensing technique requires vertically sliding the mobile phone over
the surface of the textile. The textile was placed vertically on the plastic board
and the smartphone scanned the surface over ten to fifteen seconds moving
from top to bottom, selvedge to selvedge. This duration range provided the
clearest visual impression of the field. An external timer assisted in timing
the movement. Subsequent readings across the textile surface need to be
shifted by approximately 1cm in order to accommodate for the sensor read-
ing range.
Raw sensor data can be imported into software that is capable of plotting
2D data sets, for example Python, P5.js/Processing, MathWorks and Excel. The
plot lines from the app can also be used in image software (e.g. Photoshop
and Illustrator) to isolate the field shape line from its background, in order to
produce a single line representation of the texture, as in Figure 6. Both image
and raw sensor data can be imported into 3D software (e.g. Rhino, Blender
and Fusion 360) to construct 3D surface visualizations. The flexibility of the
visualization method is a strength, where one is able begin with either the
graphical image or the raw data, to style and represent the field in whichever
way is best suited to the means and the desired outcome.
EXPERIMENT
Sample 1: Striped twill
In Figure 7, the weave draft illustrates a twill structure that carries the weft
yarn over one and under three warp threads (Lewis 2021). With every subse-
quent weft pass, the interlacement shifts one step. This gives the textile
the visual effect of diagonal lines (Sinclair 2014: 272). Twills produce dense
textiles as the yarns are able to sit closer together in the structure, and where
conductive yarns are used, this is beneficial as it can allow for an increase
in electromagnetic field strength. In this sample, the woven textile is a
1/3 weft-faced twill (6 cm×10 cm) designed with a striped pattern which
alternates between areas of dielectric cotton with conductive copper yarn.
As seen in Figure 8, the conductive areas become increasingly more thin
towards the bottom of the textile sample (Lewis 2021). Using the textile
surface scanning method, a measurement set of ten sequential sensor read-
ings were made and panelized using 3D software to create the visualization
(Figure 9, Lewis2021).
This example illustrates an incongruity that emerges between the tangible
textural qualities of a textile and electromagnetic qualities that arise, where
visual, tangible surface of the textile in Figure 8 is flat and smooth with mini-
mal textural qualities yet the intangible qualities of the electromagnetic field
show strong variations across the textile surface. It is noted that the field
strength is strongest over the widest conductive copper stripe at the top
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of the textile, resulting in a strong visual peak in the electromagnetic field.
Towards the bottom of the textile the peak tapers off as the conductive areas
get progressively smaller while the dielectric areas increase.
Sample 2: Waffle weave
Waffle weave structure expresses a matrix of cells formed by peaks and valleys
on both sides of the textile, as seen in Figure 10. As warp and weft threads
Figure 5: Full setup, sensing position (top left); detail sensing position (top right); textile suspension
(bottom left); two tripods separated (bottom right). © Erin Lewis (2021).
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have long floats on both surfaces, the outcome is a textile of high volume and
density where the peaks and valleys give dramatic visual effect dependent on
scale and material selection (Sinclair 2014: 278).
The textile is woven with a dielectric cotton warp and conductive copper
yarn weft (10 cm × 25 cm) (Figure 11). Using the textile surface scanning
method, ten sequential sensor readings were made and a visualization of the
electromagnetic field across the surface of the textile is presented in Figure12.
The textile was scanned horizontally over the course of fifteen seconds. The
visualization reveals strong variations in the electromagnetic field, where
density changes in the conductive yarns are expressed as changing electro-
magnetic field strength across the surface of the textile. The electromagnetic
field extends approximately 5–6 mm from the textile surface.
In an electromagnetic waffle weave, the strength of the electromagnetic
field is increased in areas where there are long floats of copper yarns. Floats are
yarns that are not tightly bound into the structure and are left to move freely
between two points. This allows parallel copper yarns to sit closer together
than if they were bound in a structure. In turn, the electromagnetic fields
of several yarns are coupled together and the electromagnetic field strength
increases in those particular areas. Therefore, the use of parallel floats with
conductive yarns increases the electromagnetic field strength in areas where
conductive yarns gather in the structure, and conversely the electromagnetic
field strength decreases where the dielectric yarns gather in the structure. This
stark contrast between conductive and dielectric areas of the textile produces
a strong undulation of peaks and valleys in the electromagnetic field shape.
Sample 3: Honeycomb
The honeycomb structure is characterized by an undulating weft that circles
sections of plain weave in the ground layer (Sinclair 2014: 283). Honeycomb cells
are designed as alternating blocks of larger and smaller size (Figure 13), and cell
shapes can be defined through contrasting yarn thicknesses between the ground
and secondary wefts. The qualities of the yarns in combination with the tension
Figure 6: Single line visualization of electromagnetic field expression placed atop of waffle weave structural
visualization. © Erin Lewis (2021).
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Figure 7: 1/3 weft-faced twill weave draft (left) and structural visualization (right). © Erin Lewis (2021).
Figure 8: Striped twill woven textile. © Erin Lewis (2021).
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Figure 9: Electromagnetic texture of striped twill textile. © Erin Lewis (2021).
Figure 10: Waffle weave draft (left) and structural visualization (right). © Erin Lewis (2021).
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of the bindings cause cells to condense and relax alternatingly throughout the
structure, giving rise to the characteristic cellular matrix (Figure 14).
The textile is woven using a dielectric cotton primary ground weft, and
sixteen copper yarns twisted together as a conductive, secondary weft on a
dielectric cotton warp (10 cm×25 cm). Through the method, ten sequential
sensor readings were made. A visualization of the electromagnetic field across
the surface of the textile is presented in Figure 15. The textile was scanned
horizontally over the course of fifteen seconds. The electromagnetic field
extends approximately 5–6 mm from the textile surface. In this structure, the
thick copper weft yarn encircles the ground layer cells. The secondary weft
generates a strong electromagnetic field that presents in the visualization as
broad peaks. The broad peaks are strongest when four conductive weft yarns
move close together at the top and bottom of each cell (Figure 14), and diffuses
into wide valleys where the dielectric ground weft dominates. The honeycomb
structure can be used to design field shapes with strong contrasts and broad
peaks and valleys rather than steep inclines. Additionally, the use of multiple
conductive wefts in a single pass assists in increasing contrasts in the field
shape by increasing field strength in those areas.
Results
The result of this experiment is the formation of a design language that can
be used to set up new woven smart textile designs. The result was formed by
Figure 11: Waffle weave textile. © Erin Lewis (2021).
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reflecting on the passage of conductive yarns within the textile structure and how
they corresponded to peaks and valleys in the graphical plots. To do this requires
knowledge of both woven textile structures and a basic understanding of non-
frequency electromagnetics, and the ability to consider what is occurring at the
scale of the electron with what is occurring across the textile surface. Through
these corresponding elements – the textile structure and the graphical plots –
certain behavioural patterns appeared. Wherever conductors laid densely together
either through adjacent weft passes or through layering and floats, the magnetic
field strength increases, and where dielectric yarns separated the conductive
yarns either through adjacent weft passes or through layering and floats, the
magnetic field strength would conversely decrease. These density changes in the
textile structure, regardless of its surface texture or visual appearance, would be
Figure 12: Electromagnetic texture of waffle weave structure. © Erin Lewis (2021).
Figure 13: Honeycomb draft (left) and structural visualization (right). © Erin Lewis (2021).
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23.18 Artifact: Journal of Design Practice
reflected in the electromagnetic field produced by the textile. These qualities of
increasing and decreasing the electromagnetic field through the woven textile
structure, as well as the resulting surface expression, lack terminologies in this
context and so three new notions for woven electromagnetic smart textiles are
suggested: electromagnetic texture, field strength and diffusion.
The suggestion of an electromagnetic texture offers a new notion for the
design of textural qualities that expands the textile convention of visual and
tactile sense. Much like the conventional quality of texture in woven textiles,
electromagnetic texture is dependent on the structural and material selec-
tions of the textile, yet it is both designed and expressed in different ways.
Electromagnetic texture is an overall surface expression of the electromag-
netic field across a textile (Figure 16). It is designed through variations in the
Figure 14: Honeycomb textile. © Erin Lewis (2021).
Figure 15: Electromagnetic texture of honeycomb structure. © Erin Lewis (2021).
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placement and density of conductive yarns through variables of field strength
and diffusion. The amount of variation in the field shape, as opposed to the
magnitude of the field, is what determines its degree of texture. A lesser
degree of electromagnetic texture may present as very small differences in the
field expression, i.e. the electromagnetic field across the surface of the textile
is more flat rather than expressing pronounced peaks and valleys, whereas a
higher degree of electromagnetic texture across the surface expresses as peaks
and valleys. Therefore, to increase the electromagnetic texture of a woven
smart textile, a textile designer might look to incorporating strong contrasts
between conductive and dielectric yarns (Figure 16A), for example in stripes,
waffles, herringbone and other patterns distinguished by changing yarns.
Field strength is the rising intensity of the electromagnetic field (Figure 16B).
It presents in areas of the textile structure where conductors lay closely together
to produce a conjoined field, as in the tightly wound coils of conventional elec-
tromagnets. In the electromagnetic field shape this is represented by peaks, or
mountains. Designers can work with this quality by strategically placing conduc-
tive yarns in the structure, understanding that where conductive yarns lay closer
together, the field strength is increased. Further, where conductive yarns sit
closer to the surface, are more densely set in the structure, or are free to float,
allows them to move closer together than when they are bound in a structure.
Diffusion is the decreasing intensity of the electromagnetic field as it
becomes obscured by dielectric materials, or where conductive yarns are
spaced apart in the textile structure (Figure 16C). It is marked by valleys in
the electromagnetic field. Diffusion occurs when dielectric yarns pass over or
between conductive yarns, diminishing the field strength before it reaches the
outer surface of the textile (where it is sensed by the magnetometer), or spac-
ing conductive yarns apart in the structure so that the electromagnetic fields
cannot couple, resulting in lesser field strength.
Designers attempting to design intentionally in the electromagnetic field
may apply these notions to shape the field through managing field strength
Figure 16: (A) Stark contrast of conductive and dielectric yarns produce a strong electromagnetic textural
quality across the surface of the textile. (B) Increasing the density and number of conductive yarns in
contact with one another allows for increased field strength in those areas. (C) Decreasing the amount of
conductive yarns while increasing dielectrics will diffuse the electromagnetic field and simultaneously result
in decreased electromagnetic texture.
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and diffusion within the design, resulting in an overall quality of electromag-
netic texture. Then, the designer may also use the textile surface scanning
method as a way to perceive the hidden dimension of the textile. In this way,
smart textile designers can embed hidden elements of their designs that, only
through scanning the textile, can be revealed. This opens to new expressional
possibilities for woven smart textile design.
Figure 17: Copper and cotton yarn floats in a waffle weave, resulting in dense areas of conductive yarn.
This expresses a high degree of electromagnetic texture across the surface of the textile. © Erin Lewis (2021).
Figure 18: Diffusion of the electromagnetic field by increasing the amount of dielectric yarns that sit on the
surface of the textile. © Erin Lewis (2021).
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Discussion
This research has been conducted in the context of doctoral studies in smart
textile design. The broader research aims to develop methods and tools for
exploring this alternate physical domain of conductive smart textiles, and
discusses these in the context of textile design thinking. It also seeks out new
means for producing artistic expressions of electromagnetics through textile
design methods, and argues that electromagnetism is a non-visual design
material to be worked with in this context. The method of textile surface scan-
ning introduces new textile design notions of electromagnetic texture, field
strength and diffusion that serve as a contribution to the smart textiles design
field. These notions build vocabulary towards describing qualities of the textile
that extend into the non-visual, intangible surrounding space. In doing so,
this article responds to an ongoing call for new methods, techniques and
terminologies for working with smart textiles and materials that are intan-
gible, invisible, temporal and spatial (Berzowska 2004, 2005; Berzowska and
Coelho 2005; Hallnas 2008; Worbin 2010; Kettley 2016). These designers have
recognized that engaging with electronic and computational materials within
textiles opens to new qualities and properties of the textiles that effect or are
effected by the textile’s basic structural elements. Working towards identi-
fying, characterizing and naming these qualities and properties has been
addressed by the smart textiles design community to some extent, though
rarely towards electromagnetic phenomena (cf. Beuchley 2008; Worbin 2010;
Korooshnia 2017; Bredies 2017; Greinke 2017; Townsend and Mikkonen 2017;
Friske et al. 2019; Scholz and Greinke 2021). Even still, as the smart textiles
design community looks further into basic properties of light, colour, sound,
spatial and temporal behaviours, for example, new design possibilities emerge
through the discovery of unearthed qualities properties and the advance-
ments of design research, practice and knowledge. This gives momentum for
researchers to explore intangible, invisible design materials and their expres-
sions through the lens of textile design. This further suggests that to explore
possible expressions of textiles, one might adopt a multisensorial approach
that looks beyond our dominant senses and, by engaging with new methods
and tools, hidden properties of textiles may come to light.
Basic knowledge of electromagnetics that present in this work can be
incorporated into the textile thinking that woven textile designers engage in
when ideating, sampling and designing woven textiles such as these. Using
these notions and terminologies, woven textile designers can anticipate certain
electromagnetic expressions that result from decisions made using tangible
textile materials. Furthermore, these new notions and terminologies can be
seen as interdisciplinary communication tools where electromagnetic and
electronic engineers (for example) who may pair with smart textile designers
on a collaborative work may share this hybrid understanding and new notions
of the tangible and intangible qualities of a conductive textile.
Using the textile surface scanning method and the aforementioned termi-
nologies, smart textile designers may be able to take this work further to
design new electromagnetic expressions in textiles. This could, for exam-
ple, involve kinetic expressions that result due to the generation of an
electromagnetic field (as with conventional electromagnets), the embed-
ding of data within textile materials (e.g. the weaving of ‘secret messages’
that only appear in the electromagnetic field and need to be scanned to
be interpreted) or representative approaches such as producing 3D-printed
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topographical objects that tangibly illustrate the electromagnetic field shape
alongside its textile source. These approaches suggest ways smart textile
designers to move deeper into the properties of conductive and electronic
textiles.
Notably, electromagnetic texture may contradict the conventional textural
quality of a textile. A textile with a visually smooth surface and little tactile
texture may express a highly textural and nuanced electromagnetic field as
the result of the placement of conductive and dielectric yarns in the struc-
ture. This is evident in sample 1: twill stripes, where a conventionally flat
and smooth textile reveals a high peak and long slope as the field strength
decreases over the dense dielectric area. Similarly, in sample 2 the uniform-
ity of waffle weave peaks in the tangible textile is expressed electromag-
netically as being highly irregular. This discrepancy between expressional
domains is what makes electromagnetic texture an intriguing textile design
notion – it follows its own expressional way of being, and that may be
inverse to our perception of the tangible textural expression of the textile.
Improvements to the method can be made by standardizing the timing
of the scanning motion through motorized, timed movement. This would
remove any unwanted variations related to the pace and steadiness of scan-
ning movements. Further exploration into working with the raw data in vari-
ous software to produce alternative expressions of the visualizations could
be undertaken to explore alternative expressions of the magnetometer data.
The textile surface scanning method could be trialled with a variety of other
woven textile structures, and has yet to be applied to other techniques such as
knitting or embroidery. These are viable future directions for developing the
method further.
CONCLUSION
This article has presented a method for sensing, visualizing and discussing
expressions of electromagnetism in woven smart textiles. Through a method
of textile surface scanning, woven textile designers can easily produce a visual-
ization of its electromagnetic field of the textile without specialized knowledge
or lab equipment. The contribution of the method both supports and expands
upon textile designers’ inherent practices of textile design thinking and the
constant toggling between scales of design, where the textile surface, yarns
and electromagnetic behaviours and properties must be held in perspective
and negotiated between. The presentation of new notions and terminologies
of electromagnetic texture, field strength and diffusion provides textile designers
with a way to describe the properties of the textile in novel ways. The applica-
tion of this method can stimulate new expressions of woven textiles that move
beyond surface and selvedge, into the electromagnetic domain and the space
that surrounds the textile.
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SUGGESTED CITATION
Lewis, Erin (2022), ‘Between yarns and electrons: A method for designing
electromagnetic expressions in woven smart textiles’, Artifact: Journal of
Design Practice, 9:1&2, pp. 23.1–23.25, https://doi.org/10.1386/art_00023_1
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CONTRIBUTOR DETAILS
Erin Lewis is a Ph.D. candidate in textile interaction design at The Swedish
School of Textiles, University of Borås. Her Ph.D. research explores the connec-
tion between structural textile design and electromagnetic field expression.
She employs artistic methods to communicate the extrasensory domains of
structural textiles and designs custom electronic tools that enable the aesthetic
expressions of these hidden qualities and properties. Prior to her studies in
Sweden, Erin was a researcher and instructor of wearable technologies in the
Faculty of Design at OCAD University in Toronto, Canada. She previously
held the position of education manager at Canada’s leading new media art
gallery, Inter/Access, in Toronto.
Contact: The Swedish School of Textiles, University of Borås, Allégatan 1,
50332 Borås, Sweden.
E-mail: erin.lewis@hb.se
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9490-5828
Erin Lewis has asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work in the format that was
submitted to Intellect Ltd.
