The Circular Techno-Aesthetics of Woven Textile-forms

Abstract

Material-Driven Design (MDD) proposes that we value the behaviours, performance
properties, and aesthetics that emerge from a material’s inherent properties – an approach that provides a much-needed perspective for the textile and fashion industry as it develops new sustainable and circular systems. This research expands this material-led approach to include design-production processes framed within holistic notions of sustainability. In contrast to a conventional top-down design
research process, material-processual-driven design approaches may enable us to break from the trap of developing and evaluating the outcomes of new design systems through the lens of our existing (usually unsustainable) approaches. This paper reflects on the tensions experienced by the authors in navigating concerns of technological feasibility, aesthetic outcomes, and the sustainable goals framing
two sets of woven textile-form design experiments. Textile-forms are design-production processes that emerge from the simultaneous production of textile and form via the interlacement of matter/fibre/yarn and are designed to facilitate localised, on-demand production of textile-based objects. We will present the experiments, which were developed over six months, reflecting on the technical and evaluation processes that contributed to their development and the challenges that arose. This paper provides grounded examples of design researchers navigating this challenging space and the outcomes that emerge and aims to contribute to a greater understanding of circular techno-aesthetics that may support the industry as it develops the new systems it needs.