Coded Cloth: A 21st-Century Revolution in Art, Fashion and Design

The Analytical Engine weaves algebraic patterns just as the Jacquard loom weaves flowers and leaves.

—Ada Lovelace

A single connecting thread winds through 300 years of textile and computing history. John Kay's invention of the flying shuttle and Joseph Marie Jacquard's binary punch cards and loom head led to mathematicians Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage's design and programming for an Analytical Engine, the direct predecessor of our modern-day mechanical computer. Without the warp and weft of textile technology, the hardware and software that enable today's ubiquitous information-processing revolution would never have emerged.

In the early 21st century, the newest hybrid art forms of embedded computing and wearable technology are generating creations that would, until only recently, be beyond imagination. Take for example the luscious wearable artworks of London-based Turkish Cypriot fashion designer Hussein Chalayan—including a short animation projected through 15,600 LEDs and Swarovski crystals integrated into one dress. Chalayan, like many creatives today, works seamlessly across art, fashion and design, appearing to be equally at home showing at the Venice Biennale or Paris Fashion Week.

This blurring of delineated arenas of practice, and the entwining of the latest technologies into established realms, is not new. In 1956, Japanese avant-garde artist Atsuko Tanaka updated the rich textures and intricacies of the traditional kimono with the dazzling colored lights of the modern world. Her Electric Dress was composed entirely of light bulbs of all shapes, sizes and intense colors and a plethora of connected electrical cords. It was however a little dangerous as daily attire, appearing mostly as a sculptural form and recently being one of the central works exhibited at Documenta XII.

In summer 2007, in order to facilitate such interdisciplinary experimentation in Australia, Australian Network for Art and Technology (ANAT) initiated the reSkin Wearable Technology Lab in collaboration with Craft Australia and the Australian National University School of Art. Twenty-one media and sound artists; programmers; jewelers; and object, textile and fashion designers immersed themselves into an intensive three-week research and development environment with six facilitators [1].

One of the many outcomes of reSkin was a physical exhibition titled Coded Cloth, held at the Samstag Museum of Art, University of South Australia, in Adelaide (29 October-19 December 2008). The exhibition drew from artists and designers who attended reSkin along with practitioners whose work combined age-old craftsmanship with innovation. In this Leonardo Gallery, we see a sample of that exhibition [2], wherein artists used traditional textile practices such as weaving, stitching, embroidery, printing and dyeing. However, the different electro-mechanical or biological properties of their materials produce aesthetically charming and complex works that have both practical properties and surprising functionality.

Elliat Rich's elegantly designed reactive furniture piece, the Yala Sofa, blossoms in the company of others. Working in Alice Springs, Rich employs the motif of the sustaining bush food of the Pintupi people from the Australian Central Desert, the Bush Potato or Yala, to illustrate the importance of connection and community. The Yala flowers printed on the sofa's fabric use a thermochromatic ink and thus remain invisible until the heat from the bodies of those sitting on the sofa "activates" the ink and the flowers appear—just as the Yala plant blooms after life-giving desert rains.

The gathering of food and weaving of cloth—traditional women's business in many cultures—also provide opportunities to fashion close-knit social groups, and it is not surprising that most of the pioneering and prominent figures in the field of wearable technologies today are women. Rich beautifully illustrates her philosophy of designing sustainable "objects that celebrate the poetry of humble pleasures." She understands that sitting together and sharing a cup of tea and a conversation is the invaluable emotional nourishment that grows and sustains our relationships, our community and our culture.

Aotearoan artist Gina Matchitt incorporates the traditional Māori art form of Tukutuku patterning (cross-stitch weaving) used for wall panels within the Wharenui (meeting house). Her evocative 1.8-meter Tukutuku wall panels are constructed with recycled black and...