Lillian Ritchie
Exploring how to teach embroidery enthusiasts with no computer science or programming background how to enhance their embroidery practice with simple circuits.
https://circuit-samplers.glitch.me/
Description
Embroiderers and fiber artists love to learn. As a community that is mostly self-taught, we find ourselves constantly combing the internet for projects and tools that will help us build on our existing skillset to make more beautiful and impressive things.
As an ITP first year, I was excited to learn physical computing. As a tactile person who loves making physical objects, I expected this to be the subject where I excelled. Instead, I found myself caught in a sisyphean cycle of “debugging” code that didn’t need to be touched only to find out that I had a loose connection in my circuit, and I had now broken my code.
E-textiles and soft circuits open up a world of possibility for exciting additions to embroidery and fiber art, but many of the resources available to learn how to use them are either geared towards children (with quick projects that don’t require much technical construction skill) or geared towards people with a background in electronics (with complex circuitry or a need to understand code). This project is an attempt to make these exciting tools feel accessible to adult crafters who want to challenge themselves with a new material, but aren’t ready to make the leap to learn C++. By focusing the project on learning how to make secure electrical connections before introducing code, I’m hoping I can help embroiderers avoid the discouragement that comes along with debugging and get them enthusiastic about soft circuitry!
Classes
Thesis Part 2: Production
Presentation Video
https://circuit-samplers.glitch.me/