Sue Ngo: ITP Coursework

I want to create a live image capturing display using themrochromic fabrics and textiles. My project will use soft circuits, electronically activated textiles and sensors to simulate what is typically a hardware experience. The piece will be designed to instill the feeling of animated life where one least expects to experience it – on the walls.

Initial Sketches:
One form could be strips of fabric that activate and change color when a visitor walks past the piece.

Another form could be a simulated pixel display using textile squares.

Maggie Orth of International Fashion Machines creates electronic textiles. She uses hand-woven resistive yarns dyed in thermochromic ink to create complex plaid patterns. I appreciate the melding of handcraft and technology. Below are gallery pieces that slowly change from clear to the plaid pattern when visitors push a button.

After meeting with one of my experts, Amanda Parkes, I had a few more ideas on how to create a heating coil for the thermochromic fabrics I’ve been experimenting with. I have used nitinol wire in the past with success. So, I sent out and for and received a free sample of nitinol foil. However, the cost of ordering more is too high. Amanda suggested that I experiment with heating wire, even thinner nitinol wire or Peltier Junctions.

I think the Peltier Junctions would create an interesting pixelated look, if I were to pursue my wallpaper/installation concept. Documentation of experiments to follow.

Last night I tested out batiking methods on fabric. Using a wax-resist dyeing technique, I was able to create patterns on the fabric.

Here I used traditional dyes, but next I will be testing with chromicolor.

Batik styles can be found in several countries such as Malaysia, Japan, China, Azerbaijan, India, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal, and Singapore.

I purchased thermochromatic inks and chromicolor fixer from Matsui-Color. Of all the different companies I researched, Matsui had the best prices and an easy to navigate website. I ordered 1 kilo of the fast black and turquoise.

Initially, I did different tests with dyeing muslin fabric and pink taffeta fabric. Dyeing the fabric was an easy and fast process. However, my first experiments without fixer made the inks dry poorly onto the fabrics. Chips would flake off of the samples I created. More tests to follow.

Here is a video of the paper we rested the fabrics on.

For the science fair project assignment, I put together the classic lemon battery. In my work, I am very interested in parasitic energy and finding ways we can move away from traditional forms of energy. A lemon can be made into battery through a simple chemical reaction.

Materials:
+Copper mesh
+Galvanized nail
+Alligator clips
+4 lemons
+LED
+Multimeter

Step One: Roll the lemons to losen the pulp
Step Two: Insert the copper mesh on one end of the lemon and the galvanized nail at the other. Make sure neither are touching.
Step Three: Wire the lemons in series treating the galvanized nail as (-) and the copper mesh as (+)
Step Four: Measure the amperage and the voltage generated with your multimeter
Step Five: Fasten the LED to the lemon battery.

I was able to generate up to 3.5 volts with 5 lemons connected in series and about 0.0001 Amperes creating an average power of average power of 0.00035 watt [V (volts) x I (current) = P (watts)], just enough to light a red LED.

Stop motion work shot with Canon 30D
Live Action work shot with HD Xacti Sanyo

For my final project, I built a puppet for stop-motioning with armature wire, blue foam, and metro cards. We were trying to create a small creature to serve as an imaginary friend for the main actor.

Here are some greenscreen tests with our puppet.

We laser-cut the organ pieces to sew onto the garments:

lasercut_lungs from Susan Ngo on Vimeo.

Nien modeling our look on the street:

warning signs from Susan Ngo on Vimeo.

Some still shots: