MA Musings

https://www.racked.com/2017/5/2/15518540/met-gala-gown-design-science-technology-engineering

How to display toiles Need to create a number of 1/2 scale mannequins... Make a mould of current one and cast plaster ones? - straightforward, heavy, cheap, messy, safe. 3D print? - modelling program learn, time consuming, expensive? unknown outcome lazer cut cardboard - modelling program learn, laser cut time consuming. unknown outcome explode paper diagrams via pekala paper engineering program? https://medium.com/@CarolinVogler/fabricating-human-shapes-6854cb14aef7

Methods - specific ways of collecting the “Data”... what are the processes of discovery? Methodology - The way these methods combine or work together to give an overall view of the research or an answer to the research questions... What system are you using to get the method discovery processes to fit together to give a big picture?  Methods Creative Practice - design and making up specific garments. Filming and documenting process.  Expert Interviews  Reading/lectures  Archives Methodologies The  analysis  of the principles of methods, rules, and postulates employed by a discipline - what is cutting? What is creativity? What is pattern?  Holistic approach - looking at connections and development between science and art, man and machine. Creative Practice explores relationship between the artist and machine through physical creation and problem solving of pattern making. Qualitive analysis by looking at the documentati...

"Kandinsky" Collaboration with Deepart (J.Hewitt 2018) Best way to get started on something is just to start. so I sat down with the DeepArt IO and doodled exhaustively, using a combination of the basic silhouettes devised with C. Peacey and some vintage pattern blocks to reference the "rules" and history of cutting. I feel there are varying levels of "success" in these. They may or maynot fulfil prerequisites for computational creativity. I think they are certainly aesthetically pleasing rather than simply novel, but how far the algorithm itself is part of the aesthetic evaluation process I need to investigate further. Many are absolutely stunning images, and were I a fine artist who had painted them or had I written the Deepart Program myself  they would easily be worthy of submission as my finished pieces. However, I am a pattern cutter and I didn't write the program, it is simply a design starting point for my 3D pattern creation exercise. ...

"Vintage block" Collaboration with Deepart (J.Hewitt 2018) It has been very difficult to get back to thinking about the major project after the excitement of the group project and the epic construction task in the pattern processes module. Although everything is interconnected, and many sections of the research and development of the other modules will impact on this final piece, I fear I rather suffered from cognitive overload and found getting intensly involved in several projects at once (to say nothing of working and selling my house) very draining. I really don't want to end up just creating a fashion collection based on Deepart AI drawings... the literary research I am doing on neural systems and machine learning is just so fascinating, I want to do justice to the big concepts involved. I accept this is probably just my own personal desire to do something new and meaningful, but as I am reading more of Margaret Bodens work and becoming aware of H creativity...

I created the final presentation in Google Slides adding information and pictures from the website and videos and research poster, while also bearing in mind the additional information and suggestions of what to include, that were given in the last session. Google slides has been great to work with as a team, because I simply put place holders in till the others could update with the pictures or 3D motion captures that only they had access to. I also wrote a first draft "script" and uploaded to our shared drive so everyone could rewrite their sections in their own words. I tried to break it up into short sections for interest so different voices could maintain interest. We were scheduled for the end of the session and I knew peoples attention spans would be flagging by then. We had a lot of information to get through and we wanted to give people a real sense of not only our experience but the product and the brief as well. We met up on the Monday to have a quick rea...

Transitions2 Huddersfield University April 2018 The culmination of all the work! The conference was absolutely fascinating, I attended on both days to assist the management and organisational team. The talks were extremely varied in subject matter as was to be expected from the breadth of conference themes. I engaged particularly with the academic papers, noting not only the content but how each was structured and presented. It was of great value to have so many different styles in a short period of time and to note what was particularly engaging in the power points (short video clips, vibrant images) and what I found hard to maintain focus for (extensive text that simply repeated the speakers words) Sign posting the content at the beginning of the talk and also keeping to time.   Transitions2 Posters Huddersfield University April 2018 I was slightly surprised at how badly over time many of the speakers went, especially considering people tend to talk faste...

The evolution of visual cohesion. Team robot has worked very successfully as a machine that is greater than the sum of it's parts. We have seen many different colourschemes/layouts and concepts for the look of the website and the posters cycle through, and through each iteration we have blended everyones strongest ideas to create something that is definitely a group design rather than one persons vision. Often I have suggested an initial concept in a group meeting, and sketched it out roughly using readily available clip art, but this has then been enhanced and embellished further by B and R as the skilled graphic artists and software practitioners, evolving along the way as they developed logo's and backgrounds to create a cohesive style. M has kept us on track with making sure the information is clear, as English is her second language and she also comes from industry, her priorities for legible typefaces and clear headings has been invaluable for keeping us comi...

Sketchy Robots picture of Alice (2018) As it was national Science week, I took a young friend to enjoy Robot Day at the Quad in Derby. There were many interesting innovations and projects in development being demonstrated as well as a variety of lectures on Robotics, AI and related themes. I was particularly pleased to meet "Sketchy" the drawing robot who drew a likeness using an android phone picture taken at the time to create and then execute a line drawing. Whilst not as sophisticated as Aaron , the pictures created were definitely unique and recognisable as sketchy's work. Also of particular interest was an R&D company investigating nano skin. During the Netrologix lecture, the possibilities of a new type of skin, capable of immense data capture via nanotechnology was demonstrated. The company was initially formed as part of a student project investigating an alternative drug/needle method of administrating medicines, and is now engaged in exciting R...

Pitch Presentation created by Team Robot in Google Slides 2017 Our Vir-Toile Pitch Presentation had lots of great research, (Following my Pitch Plan, we each undertook to research one company and one aspect of the project, make a slide, write a paragraph and then compile everything together) but the pitch did not contain as many facts and figures as we felt the project could do with, so Team Robot sat down, brainstormed and wrote a list of questions we wanted real figures for These included.... How much water does it take to grow the cotton to make 1m of calico? How much calico does a design studio use for toiles each week? how much of that is thrown away? How many VR headsets were sold last year? in the 5 years before that? and in the 5 years before that? How much energy does it take to run a VR headset for a day? M was delegated to find the answers to these questions as her task of the week.... I also did a quick personal poll in a closed costume-studio group on Facebook to see h...

New exciting Visual AI development....

  Team Robot  Hewitt, J. 2017   What is your evaluation of the project and the project idea to date? Who does it benefit? This has been a very interesting experience for me, coming from industry I am used to working with specialists to perform specific tasks relevant to their expertise. My expertise is obviously making costumes, which has not been an obvious relevancy for this project which needed a website and a graphic poster and a presentation......so it has been a steep learning curve to dive out of my comfort zones and have a go at writing voice overs, mocking up posters, organise schedules and plan presentations. I have enjoyed working with the team very much, we have complimented each others skills I think, and keeping the dialogue going almost constantly in WhatsApp has led to a very tight focused and supportive group. The research elements have obviously been fascinating and I have added considerably to my knowledge of digital technologies in the textile...

My initial sketch of the glove sensors and positions (2018) One of the key senses involved in draping a toile is touch. being able to feel and tweak the texture of a fabric, put it into place with accuracy and emotional creativity are essential to the success of a draper. At the moment common devices for interacting with VR are fairly large and clunky hand held devices with buttons and triggers. These can be very intuitive to use, or very not, depending on the manufacturer. I am experimenting with creating a design prototype for a lightweight glove that would enable both finger tip precision and control - enabling sensors to read exactly where in space the hand was for accurate recreation in VR, but also with return sensors of the fingertips that would allow the exact feeling of fingers on cloth, pins etc to be felt by the wearer. The prototype design will be 3D printed directly onto Power-mesh fabric with PLA  using autodesk sketchup as the design tool The p...

Mood Board and composite created by J.Hewitt February 2018   What is your specific role/responsibility in the project? I have very much taken on the role of project manager, I think it is essential that everyone knows what to do and the time frame they have to do it in. The team are all so creative that without very firm parameters we could quite happily just discuss and design indefinitely without actually producing the pre-requisite tasks. Therefore it is my main task to make sure as a team that we stay on track, that tasks are delegated suitably and everyone works effectively. I have been keeping notes, making lists and schedules, organising our meetings and keeping track of tasks and also setting up communication interfaces (WhatsApp and pinterest). Creatively, as well as producing initial ideas and concepts, I will be writing the bulk of the voiceovers and website text and be responsible for the photography. We all shared ideas and individual mood boards for th...

Hazard, B. (2018) Jema working with TiltBrush in Bradford R and M had not experienced Tilt brush before so it was exciting to see how they would react to being creative in 3dimensions but in a digital environment. I had attempted to get use of the Uni's vive in Queens Street, but the technician had not had time to install it all properly yet and could not give a definite schedule for it being up and running, so we decided to just go ahead and pay for the session ourselves and B booked us an afternoon at VR Immersion, Bradford . The company resides in a big, repurposed, but unprepossessing mill with camo netting on the walls, tuck shop behind the counter and a battered pool table in the corner, the headsets images projected onto pieces of chipboard painted white - not at all the hi-tech sci-fi facility one might have imagined, but then inside the headsets becomes the real world, and the outside environment simply a waiting room. Tilt Brush is an extraordinary fusing of e...

  Team Robot members with their Toiles 2018 What is the experience of project planning like in preparation for the initial live-pitch? In order to give the best presentation possible we wanted to dive headfirst into the research... We decided it was vital that all the team had experienced the physicality of draping with actual fabrics to fully appreciate the technical issues and quantity of waste produced through this way of patterning, (as well as an appreciation of the skill levels required!) to this end M and I held a mini workshop for R and B so they could try out their first toile creation. We cut 1m lengths of calico and demonstrated different techniques of pleating, darts etc before letting the other two loose with the pins! I videoed the process with an eye to B creating a short R&D series of videos on the final website It was agreed that it was actually harder than it looks, and also that the physical act of touching and handling cloth is an essen...

Jemas initial benefits and problems list (2018)   We want to find new ways of working for the future that will inspire and enhance the skills of designer and cutter while helping solve the problem of fabric waste and ecological impact. VR (or AR) would allow a cutter to drape in real time on a stand without actually using any fabric. This could be viewed from all angles in real time in the same VR space by a designer anywhere in the world, adjustments made, decisions on fit and fabric enacted instantly with the touch of a button. The technology could then be integrated with patterning software to digitally take apart the toile, make a pattern and send to factory. It would fuse the skills of an already talented workforce with technology that already exists (albeit in multiple forms) Tilt brush has proven the possibilities of intuitive artist creation in VR. Marvelous designer / Optitex already have fabric draping engines used for 3D simulation of 3D patterns. Combinin...

Matsuda, K. (2016) Hyper Reality what workshops/lectures do we propose to undertake? what are the social implications and viability of the product? Team robot met today to discuss the initial Ideas we had come up with individually - M has joined us so we now have 2 pattern cutters in the mix. After looking at current technologies and trying to think beyond what is already possible, my final contributions were, An online training academy to inspire young designers to work digitally. Having run into so many problems attempting to learn pattern software I thought a course of simple, well presented tutorials for optitex, MD etc and a supportive design based rather than tech based community would encourage new ways of working among young design and cutting students. A piece of Virtual Toile creation software. Using a VR technology like the VIVE's tilt-brush application, a pattern cutter would be able to drape a custom sized mannequin with simulated pieces of large cloth, r...

Deep Art Algorithm and Hewitt, J. (2018) Tokyo Drift What is your own understanding and interpretation of the Transitions conference ideas? In order to start getting my ideas together to talk about in our next group session, I've been looking at the digital manufacturing areas already being researched and exploited. The Transitions Conference is bringing together a wide variety of experts and companies across disciplines to share knowledge, learn and develop new ways of working, new materials and new technologies. The statistics of waste and pollution created by the textile industries is very sobering. It is vital that the industry moves forward at the same swift pace that other industries have to rectify damage done to the planet already and create a new sustainable future. This can be achieved in a variety of ways and the conference themes explore many of them. Suuchi Ramesh flags up 5 areas of development Supply ch...