The Smart Textile Problem and Its Implication for Teaching

Abstract

The 21 st century has seen the textiles industry and academy face the challenge of smart textiles. There is a popular view that describes smartness in textiles as a synonym for responsive behaviour. This perception however is challenged by the idea that all natural textile materials change in reaction to its environment. A question therefore remains as to what responsive behaviour constitutes as smart behaviour. In other words, when does the responsive turn into smart? The textile industry heavily relies on weaving as the construction methodology for cloths. Weaving, and woven materials, have changed very little since the Stone Age. Even the Industrial Revolution only changed the speed and efficiency of weaving-but not the basic structure of woven materials themselves. The dramatic change that was introduced from the Industrial Revolution is the bonded dependency of structures potentials in the specifications of the machines. This link still rule textile manufacture today and the interesting thing here is that our weaving machines have only changed a little in over 250 years. The dramatic introduction and ever increasing development of new technologies and textile components has created, as a result, an inherent gap between cutting edge technologies, advanced material science and what could only be described as ancient textiles construction methodologies. This session will outline the issues concerning smart textiles. It will portray the weaver as a behaviourist learner and will introduce the formation of a new experimental learning space through a plantation of a rhizomatic strategy within a behaviourist discipline. The session will consequently discuss why such seemingly two incommensurable approaches to learning-behaviorism and rhizomatism-may come together and work alongside one another through a new agonistic and interdisciplinary space to allow the development of innovative textile structures. This session will appeal to textiles designers, makers, teachers and researchers from all creative disciplines. It will also appeal to those interested in pedagogic frameworks and research into academic structures and delivery of programs.