Computational Composites

To continue from my previous post from the happy day in Borås, I must introduce to you, Anna Valgårda.

I was invited to the Swedish School of Textiles by Anna Valgårda who has her background in computer science and did her  PhD project about the computer as a material. - as a post-doc at Borås she's also the head of the research school in practice based textile research.

Anna introduces her interest at her web site

I study the computer as a material for design. Computers, however, have no expression in and by themselves so in order to study and work with them I develop various "computational composites." The vision is that we through understanding the materiality of computers at some point will be able to work with computers in the same way we work with other more traditional materials like textile, glass, or wood. Current experiments evolve around textiles exploring the possibilities in the various structures of textiles.

 [Recurring Patterns piece, from Anna Valgårda's web site]

Anna writes about the ongoing project that were just exhibited at Salon de Mobile:

These prototypes are part of a larger project in the Smart Textile Design Lab at the Swedish School of Textile where we explore how to use programmable textile expressions in furniture design. What does it entail to design with expressions that change in context over time? What can these recurring patterns do to the use of furniture? What new kinds of furniture can we imagine?