Cathy Treadaway

Hand e-craft: an investigation into hand use in digital creative practice

The hands play a vital role in everyday creativity and are our primary interface with the world. This paper focuses on hand use in creative practice and presents case study research that illuminates the ways in which the hands inform creative processes when working with digital technology. The investigation documents the development of a body of work by an artist who uses a hybrid digital practice in which hand craft is combined with digital processes to create intricate digitally printed paper-cut collages. Digital technology is shown to support the artists creative practice by providing access to tools and processes that enable work to be generated that could be made no other way. Interfaces that are used by many artists in everyday computer aided design practice however, are shown to frequently inhibit the expression of emotion and frustrate the user due to their lack of haptic sensitivity.

Digital Imagination: The Impact of Digital Imaging on Printed Textiles

Abstract Digital imaging technology is providing textile practitioners with a medium that is changing and challenging the processes used in the generation and production of printed textile artifacts. The phenomenological research being undertaken at University of Wales Institute Cardiff indicates that when the technology is used as a creative medium rather than a production tool it facilitates an evolving visual language, new hybrid craft practices, and the opportunity for collaboration through the sharing of digital imagination. The findings reveal that since physical experience in the world informs thought and fires imagination, future developments in computer interfaces and humanization technology will provide even greater opportunities for the creative exploitation of the media by printed textile practitioners. A number of innovatory printed textile artists and designers based in the USA and Europe who are using digital imaging in their creative practice have contributed to this research through informal interviews, personal correspondence, and case studies.

Sensor e-textiles: person centered co-design for people with late stage dementia

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present design research investigating the development of sensory textiles with embedded electronics to support the wellbeing of people with late stage dementia in residential care. Design/methodology/approach – The research presented is qualitative and uses a mixed method approach informed by grounded practical theory and positive design methodologies. It uses an inclusive and participatory co-design process involving people with dementia and their families with an interdisciplinary team of experts. Findings – Both the co-design process and the artefacts developed have been beneficial in supporting wellbeing. The textile artefacts have been found to soothe, distract and comfort people with dementia. They have also been shown to facilitate in the moment conversational bridges between family members and carers with persons with dementia. Research limitations/implications – The findings are based on a small cohort of participants, observational reports and descriptiv...

Using empathy to research creativity: collaborative investigations into distributed digital textile art and design practice

This paper describes the use of practice-based distributed collaborative investigations to examine ways in which digital technology can support creative visual art practice. The development of artworks through digital collaboration has enabled empathy to be used as a tool in the research process. The focus of this study concerns how digital technology impacts upon the creative strategies deployed by art practitioners and the resulting effect on creative cognition. Data gathered through qualitative ethnographic research methods has been verified through a series of practical investigations. Findings from this research indicate the importance of mutual experience and memory in the collaborative process. The investigations demonstrate how shared physical experience stimulates imagination through the building of visual concepts, enabling common values, language and trust to be developed concurrently.

Materiality, memory, and imagination: using empathy to research creativity

ABSTRACT Our perception of the physical world is informed by our bodily sensory experiences. This rich source of information stimulates the brain and is remembered and remade in the creative processes that feed our imagination. How does experience of materiality shape our creative use of digital imaging tools, and how does the technology influence creative practice? This article contends that creative processes are heavily reliant on our memories of physical experience and that tools to support creative digital practice could be enhanced to utilize the rich multi-sensory stimulation it provides. This paper presents collaborative art-making that has been used to investigate issues arising from case study research, enabling the author to empathically experience the artists creative processes and to provide insight into how digital tools can support creative practice.

Translating experience

This paper describes research investigating the significance of physical experience and materiality in creative digital visual art and design practice. Findings are presented from a recent phenomenological study, which indicates the ways in which memory of lived experience informs creative cognition and feeds the imagination. The importance of physical engagement with the world, through the senses, enables emotional expression to be made in artworks that can be perceived by both artist and audience. Digital creativity support tools have been found, in this research, to lack interfaces that facilitate the translation of these visual aesthetic qualities in the virtual representation. Hand use and the sense of touch stimulate novel ideas and enable practitioners to break from fixated thinking when working with digital design tools. Examples of artworks are presented that illustrate ways in which artists, working with digital technology, make use of physical experience to inform visual ideas and innovate design solutions. Case study research is described that illuminates the ways in which memory of physical bodily experience and the time related factors involved in making by hand are crucial within the creative process. Findings from this research are presented that reveal the importance of physical interaction with the world when working creatively with digital design tools.

Digital Crafting and Crafting the Digital

ABSTRACT This paper presents part of a recently completed doctoral research project investigating the impact of digital imaging technology on printed textile practice. It describes how digital technology is able to support the creative process at the generative stage of idea development through to the production and embellishment of the printed artefact. It focuses on the ways in which digital tools are being used to support creative craft practice and proposes areas for future research. Previous studies investigating the use of digital technology indicate that digital inkjet printing frees textile practitioners from the technical constraints of the printing process and facilitates new strategies in design production and craft making. Recent studies in the field of HCI (Human Computer Interaction) have demonstrated the importance of understanding the creative process in order to develop more effective digital tools. Research described in this paper investigates the ways in which digital technology is able to support creative thinking within printed textile practice. It illuminates the role of hand making in the digital crafting process and reveals the importance of human memory and physical experience in the development of creative cognition. A strand of the project focusing on a textile craft practitioner is described. The selection of qualitative research methods, including case study and practical investigations, is explained, as is the concept of ‘disciplined noticing’ as a research methodology. Digitally printed artworks, created as a result of the practical investigations, are presented and their purpose within the research explained. Findings from the research as a whole indicate that digital tools are able to support creative practice through the stimulation, communication and manipulation of visual concepts; digital communications technology also facilitates creative collaboration between practitioners. The findings reveal that making by hand informs creative thought and enables emotional content to be perceived in the resulting artwork. This is evidenced in hybrid practice in which digital techniques are combined with textile craft skills. Further research is required to elucidate the role that making by hand plays in creative cognition and the ways in which digital tools might be enhanced in the future to support this.

Digital Reflection: The Integration of Digital Imaging Technology into the Creative Practice of Printed Surface Pattern and Textile Designers

Early phenomenological research into the impact of digital imaging on the creative practice of artists and designers of textiles and surface pattern indicates three key areas in which its deployment is initiating change in surface design. These include the development of a new visual language, the evolving of processes and craft techniques in the elaboration of surface and the use of digital communication, Internet and email as an integral resource in the generation and dissemination of work. This paper seeks to explore issues fundamental to the changing nature of practice that arise from the integration of digital technology. New material sourced from case study research, informal recorded interviews, meetings, and personal correspondence, illustrates the way in which a selected group of individual innovatory artists and textile practitioners are using digital technology in their working practice. Reflection upon the creative strategies deployed and the visual outcomes produced indicates several emergent issues. These include the implications of working in virtual rather than physical space, the difficulties posed by the lack of global true colour fidelity, and the way in which the digital workspace is impacting on creative practice. The digital functions of cut and paste, layering and the ability to record and iterate the actions that build the surface are influencing the visual nature of the work created. This, along with the rapid production of virtual surfaces, is stimulating new methods and processes in their physical elaboration. Historically, technological innovation has been instrumental in changing the visual dynamics of the final textile or surface outcome. Digital technology is likely to prove no exception. Problems, difficulties and concerns that are highlighted indicate areas of current and likely future research in this field.

Designing for Dementia: Iterative Grief and Transitional Objects

Designers increasingly are exploring how to support individuals transitioning through loss and grief and coming to terms with a loved ones death. For people living with dementia and their families, the loss and grief they experience is iterative and ongoing. This paper discusses design research to make sensory textile objects for people with advanced dementia, intended to support positive well-being, shared experiences, and “in the moment” pleasure. It draws on theories relating to transitional and transformational objects to show how these textiles support those living with dementia as they transition into greater dependency and move toward the end of life. It shows how, after their death, the objects become memorials and symbolic representations, further supporting family members through their experience of loss.

Conversations at the edge of play: media, communication and cultural intersections with dementia

Abstract The mean age of the global population is increasing significantly. Incidences of dementia are also predicted to rise and this will impact society as a whole as well as individuals, who will find they are primary carers for one or more family members with the disease. Dementia carries a stigma and is not openly discussed. Discourse continues to be led by bio-medical approaches that focus on the need to ‘fight’ the disease and often leaves individuals feeling ill-prepared and powerless to act. This paper reports on an innovative approach that engages with material culture production; it uses textiles as media to encourage people to share their personal experiences of dementia. The pilot project involved the general public in the making of bespoke sensory objects to promote ‘in the moment pleasure’ for people with later stage dementia, while facilitating an exchange of information about dementia both formally and informally with participants engaged in the making process. The study found that while participants’ individual knowledge and understanding of dementia varied significantly, each participant was able to contribute, share their knowledge and become empowered through activity.