‘Soft Sensors for Soft Bodies’

An introduction to building sensors that are soft, stretchy and fit to our fleshy human bodies to capture our movements, gestures and interactions with the world.

What if electronics and textiles come together? By embedding circuits and sensors out of different conductive materials like yarn into fabrics little hand puppets are brought to life and can make expressions.

Instead of using off-the-shelf sensors the participants built their own textile sensors from a range of electrically conductive, resistive and piezoresistive materials. They will learn how to sew, knit and crochet their own textile sensors that can detect interactions such as push, pull, stretch, stroke, bend, tilt, pinch, punch and squeeze.

 
 

Behind the scenes

The workshop hosts explain the digital and analog workflow for creating interactive puppets – and participants show their lovely made ideas.

 

The hosts

Hannah Perner-Wilson

Craftswoman, Designer

Austria

Hannah Perner-Wilson combines conductive materials and craft techniques, developing new styles of building electronics that emphasize materiality and process. She received a BA in Industrial Design from the University for Art and Industrial Design Linz and an MA in Media Arts and Sciences from the MIT Media Lab, where she was a student in the High-Low Tech research group.