This iteration is intended to add visual effects to the previous prototype
Hardware. 1. MCU (Microcontroller Unit), the main control chip: Atmel’s MEGA32u4 chip, the main function of this chip in this project is his built-in USB to serial programming and debugging functions, to put it bluntly, can be used like a mouse, keyboard.
2. The sensor used is the MPR121, a chip with 12 channels of capacitive touch sensors, communication method is I2C (is a communication protocol).
3. Other peripheral circuits, is the voltage supply circuit, the MCU MEGA32u4 and sensor MPR121 voltage is 3.3v, usb power supply is 5v, so need a voltage conversion circuit will be 5v into 3.3v supply MCU and sensor use.
Software. The Arduino IDE (Integrated Development Environment), the software used for programming this time, uses the c language for development, it has no complex underlying microcontroller code, no difficult assembly, just simple and practical functions. There is no complex underlying microcontroller code, no difficult assembly, just simple and useful functions that can be called directly to implement many complex functions.
This blog is a collection of data on customer feedback related to artefacts following this intervention
The data sources were all provided by JEM staff and those who participated in the questionnaire have given their consent to be photographed as evidence.
Customers selecting canvas bags
The canvas bag is priced at 280 RMB （30 GB） based on the cost of the embroiderers’ work. A total of 15 consumers participated in the test and their age/gender/ and reasons for willingness and unwillingness to buy were collected.
Feedback from customers
Source of data collected: JEM
The data was collected between November 10th and November 23rd, with a total of 15 customers participating in the survey and a total of 3 of the 10 canvas bags sold.
According to the feedback collected from the customers, the reluctance to buy is a big factor in terms of price, which may include the overall consideration of the material of the product itself and the brand factor, all of which are a reference point for the commercialisation of hand embroidery into the market. The relationship between price, hand embroidery, design and product quality.
Evidence of consumer purchases No.9 canvas bag
According to the feedback from the data, this consumer bought the most popular canvas bag No. 9, they love this bag because of its colour and the meaning of the words embroidered on it, which is in contrast to other forms of canvas bags, which shows that the ability of creative expression of these craftsmen was not in the same line, which made the researcher realized that the owners who have the power to control the production of the embroiderers need to apply a combination of design-oriented and commercially-focused interventions to regulate and enhance the commercialisation of the crafts in the industry, rather than completely allowing them to create freely, except for those freelance craft artists or artisans. but this also feeds into the need for standard design guidance in commercial production. So it is a delicate relationship between commerce and art.
Feedback from Experts
Dean Wu and teachers at Hunan Arts and Crafts Institute’s Hunan Embroidery Art School
Dean Wu said he liked these embroidered canvas bags , but he argued that more design elements needed to be incorporated into it, otherwise it would not form a standard item to sell.
Moreover, two experts gave external feedback on the intervention. Zaihong Jiang and Yu Binxia, represented different views of embroidery practitioners and researchers. Yu said that the fundamental goal of this innovation-pursuing intervention should be to keep the essence of embroidery, this traditional handicraft, before creatively developing it. For example, the essence and hallmark of Xiang embroidery is the Mao stitch. Without this feature, technical innovation will be in vain. In other words, keeping the tradition alive is as significant as breaking the mold. On the contrary, Jiang believed that the embroidery product would be a great hit as long as it won over customers by reflecting modern aesthetics favored by the younger generation and cultural trends because she thought buying the handicraft is the best way to pass it on.
# AC Knowledge # AC Enquiry # AC Communication # AC Process
This video records the creative process of these embroiders when they are empowered as artists and presents their final works.
# AC Realisation # AC Process # AC Enquiry
Gallery
Group photo of the creators （One was absent）
The name of each creator is marked with a blue sticker
Translation: Striving for the idealPenguin HandThe Girl’s Back
A representative crop of Hunan embroidery: Tiger’s Paw
Leopard’s PawTranslation: Filial piety is the most important of all virtues.
Peacock Hand
Translation: Creating a better life with a passion for fireGoldfish hand
The following was established：
Theme: The Temperature of the Hand
Number of participants: 10 embroiderers （aged between 47-55 women）
Forms of intervention ：event-based intervention
Cooperation：JEM, Changsha Xiang Embroidery Research Institute.
Event Duration：28-30 Oct 2022.
Test subjects 1: 10 embroiderers （Feedback after embroidering their own hands through the free use of their imagination）
Test subjects 2: Consumers (test why they would or would not buy this hand-embroidered canvas bag with hands)
What to do：Seven embroiderers use their imagination to embroider their own hands on canvas bags.
How to buy：Sold separately at JEM and the Changsha Institute of Hunan Embroidery.
Money sold for：The price of this canvas bag will be returned to the embroiderers with all the remaining profit after removing their corresponding labour and costs.
Hand & Lock are London’s premier embroidery house providing embellishment services to the Royal Family, top European design houses, the Royal Armed Forces, Savile Row and members of the public.
Thanks to Jessica, Production Director of hand&lock, she thinks an education exchange would be really interesting， for accepting this invitation to talk about：
How the Chinese traditional stitches are introduced into their workshops?
Comments and feedback on the “ melding experiment”
Jessica on the left，and a person in charge of a embroidery school on the right
This dialogue identified the following：
Because of the language barrier for Chinese embroidery teachers, instructional videos of traditional Chinese stitches in both English and Chinese versions may be required.
The melding experiments were interesting, but it was important to get the interactors to understand the technique or to inspire them to learn about embroidery or to learn about the culture of embroidery.
In response to the feedback from this exchange, I will be collecting and collating teaching videos in both English and Chinese versions of traditional Chinese embroidery and will be working with the Hunan Embroidery Institute in Changsha. Because it would be beneficial for more people who want to learn Chinese embroidery to learn it, and they can become an independent learner, regardless of borders or languages!
Regarding the meldingexperiment, I will try to see if I can meld these instructional videos into existing works, interactive works of technology + education + embroidery culture.
# AC Communication # AC Process # AC Enquiry # AC Knowledge
This online meeting not only asked their feedback on my intervention, but also explores the needs of embroiderers and the problems they want people to help them solve
Evidence of online meetings （11th，June)
Participant background
These craftspeople are all women and have been practising embroidery for between 4 to 48 years. The education level ranges from primary school education, junior high school education to Specialty.
Participants：Xiang Embroidery Craftmen in Chang sha city （Hunan province, China) Number of participants：11 Age distribution of participants：22-60 age
Question/enquiry
views on my personal project
problems they are facing or problems they would like others to focus on and help them solve
1. Feedback （views on my personal project）
Evidence of feedback
When I sought their feedback on my personal projects, such as the combination of embroidery with technology, I desired each of them to embroider their memories, identities and stories on a 3d embroidered duck. The response from embroiderers aged 45 above was that due to their limited age, literacy, understanding and decades of traditional thinking in conservative background of the past, it was difficult for them to understand or give me advice on my project, but they expressed their willingness to cooperate with me and support me in my project, but also said that the production of 3d embroidery was a bit complicated for them, and they suggested that it is crucial to reduce the man-hours of this production and the complexity of the process.
I reached a preliminary understanding with these embroiderers that we now start with a piece of cloth embroidery instead of making 3D embroidered ducks, because the materials and tools required are complicated and the production process is complicated.
When I mentioned whether it was possible to use everyone’s hands as the basis and then express freely, their first reaction was that it was acceptable and positive, because it was easier than 3D embroidery, and it was something they had never touched before. The themes of their works were previously painted by embroiderers, and this was the first time that they were related to their own themes. This time, they can embroider for themselves, not for others.
They immediately said if they were each embroidering their own palm prints and fingerprints, I said that I still need to think about and give them feedback on Tuesday, how to incorporate their unique story into the palm print, not Back to the realistic embroidery style （Time demanding).
2.Feedback (problem they faced and wanted it be solved)
Improvements of embroiderying tool (they hope someone can design or provide ergonomic tools to help them reduce the physical strain during the embroidery process, such as the spine, which can lead to spinal strains caused by bending over for a long time).
Increase in income (this viewer says they don’t have any ideas either, just simple and pure, to make a living and hope to earn some money with their own hands).
Talent people can lead them to innovate (lead them to embroider new themes, increase the interest of the theme, or develop new stitches).
Young people communicate with them more
Loing some weight, or try to stay in shape as much as possible
Summary
Through this communication with so many embroiderers, what I really feel is the simplicity of their inner thoughts. I am very grateful that they are willing to actively support my personal project, so I say that I want to protect this group with more enthusiasm. Help this group to have a voice in society, and I hope my personal projects can connect with them as much as possible. Therefore, next, I will draw and design the pattern of the palm print by myself, and then communicate with them, try to let them express themselves fully and freely under a simple framework, and show more people their own stories. Stories belonging to their group, in order to build emotional connections with more audiences through works. I will also discuss with the programmers and think about how the sensor and the embroidered palm can be integrated to better increase the interactivity, interest and the times of the work.
Thanks to Tia for lending me a book called LOVEWORKS by Brian Sheehan, this book is about how to create an emotional connection with the audience, which just happened to be related to my project, so I utilized the concepts from it to integrate with my project.
Lovemarks theory, source:LOVEWORKS, p17
Based on this theory, I applied to my project based on physical, embroidery, virtual concept map
Direction of “melding experiment”
Based on this direction, I will think and find my embroidery pieces, based on this aspect, I can develop later to see how to combine sensors and animation or even virtual reality with this concept.
# AC Knowledge # AC Enquiry # AC process
Bibliography
Sheehan, B., 2015. Loveworks. New York: PowerHouse Books, U.S.
The participants in this meeting include Zhenzhe Lin(graphic designer), Zaihong Jiang(embroidery craftsman), Xin Di(programmer), and Binxia Liu(embroidery research experts in Hunan museum)
Evidence of meeting
In this meeting, based on the first “melding experiment”, the following directions for improvement were summarized.
Highlight handcraft techniques, such as mao stitch.
More improvement of art forms, can add animation projection
Determine the theme of the embroidery work
Next step
Wifi module (to figure out how wifi controls the computer to play specific animations)——Programmer
The concept of interactivity in the visual arts became popular in the 1950s, as people realized that interactive art could serve as a bridge to connect artists and audiences in new ways.
What is a interactive installation?
According to the Tate Museum, digital art includes artworks that are either made using technology or shown in a digital format. Interactive art relies on audience participation. Thus, digital interactive installations showcase and activate a large physical space accompanied by mixed-media compositions, engaging viewers with responsive technology. In interactive art, it is presumed that the viewers will no longer be passive onlookers, and that they will be the ones to complete the purpose of an artwork or to participate in its realization, but it does not only aim to be physically appealing or intriguing, and it seeks for people’s interference instead.
Why I need make Chinese embroidery interactive installations?
Today, many artists have discovered technology as a new medium not only to create art, but to transform traditional artworks into innovative, immersive events.
Artists have long explored the use of technology in their craft, such as the utilization of lasers and video projection, in order to improve the quality of audiences’ interactive experiences, which means I’m dealing with creatures of emotionn, not dealing wih creatures of logic, if I could use these art form into Chinese embroidery.
As a tool and point of interest that promotes tradiontional handcraft education in younger generations.
Making a deeper impact on audiences through allowing personalized expression and the creation of memorable, poetic, and immersive experiences.
How to make interactive installation
The four components that make a work a form of digital art installation
Art work
Audience
Artist
Environment
Interactions in a Digital Art installation. Source: Research Gate
In addition to the four components of digital art installations, there are four categories in which these artworks can be placed:
Static (The category static describes works wherein the art object is mostly static and does not adapt itself to the context. In other words, there is no interaction between the audience and the artwork).
Dynamic passive (Dynamic passive describes when the artwork remains inactive in response to audience interaction, but changes with time).
Dynamic interactive (In dynamic interactive artwork, audiences play an active role and are given the ability to change the artwork when interacting with it).
Artists, programmers, engineers, CG animators, mathematicians, architects, web and print graphic designers, and editors
# AC Knowledge # AC Process # AC Enquiry
Bibliography
Widewalls. 2022. How Does Interactive Art Create Meaning? | Widewalls. [online] Available at: <https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/interactive-art-meaning> [Accessed 24 May 2022].
Zhou, H., 2022. Artistic Futures: Digital Interactive Installations — AMT Lab @ CMU. [online] AMT Lab @ CMU. Available at: <https://amt-lab.org/blog/2021/10/artistic-futures-digital-interactive-installations> [Accessed 24 May 2022].
“Melding experiment” is a experiment testing through combine the embroidery and technology together
I worked with a programmar in the first “melding experiment”, used a piece of ready-made Chinese embroidery to be the sample of this intervention.
The original Chinese embroidery
We have a discussion before this experiment, we talked about what sensors can be added in and why used these kind of sensors.
“Melding experiment”
Tools:
Mp3 player
Arduino Uno
MPR121 touch sensor board
Conductive fiber line
speaker(4 ohm 3 watt)
Crane sounds by touching embedded conductive fiber wires that have been connected to touch sensor board and speakers
The reason why we use touch sensor + sound is to hope that participants can touch the Chinese embroidery to feel the emotion behind the embroidery（Embroidery art work has always been looked up by the audience, we hope it can be closer to people）, andtouch the surface of the piece, such as touching a crane, it will stimulate the sound of the crane, and touching flowers and grass can make the sound of forest appear, thereby creating an emotional connection between the embroidery artworks with audience by technology.
On Thursday I’ll be organizing an expert meeting with this demo to get feedback and set the direction for my project.
# AC Enquiry # AC Knowledge # AC Process # AC Realisation
I have been reflecting on the answers of these stakeholders and all feedback I received in the past few days. The common point in their answers to the current Chinese traditional embroidery questions is that they feel that traditional Chinese embroidery needs innovation and needs to keep up with the pace of the contemporay society, such as the content of traditional embroidery (embroidery content) It can’t be old-fashion , it must be combined with the current mainstream art forms (such as contemporary art or surrealism ）and contemporary aesthetics(such as Bauhaus designs，a lack of ornament, the use of clean lines, smooth surfaces and geometric shapes）. Some feedbacks is that traditional Chinese embroidery and technology need to be integrated together, such as sound, light and shadow and other elements into the static embroidery screen.
Chinese embroidery (Hunan embroidery)
Diana also gave me some useful feedback on Monday. She said that my topic can have 3 directions. The first direction is to change the traditional embroidery education or training mode. The second direction is to do some handicrafts. The third direction is that these two directions can also be combined at the same time. And when I asked her how she would do intervention if she were me, she said she would probably revolve around some combination of embroidery and technology. And she thinks the most important thing for my project to focus on is how long and how much my embroidery work will cost. Maybe for personal reasons, I will let my mother participate in embroidery, because I don’t need to spend money because of this special relationship, but I will also consider, how can I make up for the embroidery time? Or how can I make this craft work in a short period of time. I hope that this project is the best in both creative expression and embroidery craftsmanship, so that it can be attractive enough and be instructive and futuristic in how traditional craftsmanship develops. I want to express my concept of the future of Chinese embroidery based on this project, so that more people can discover that this thing has never been seen in traditional embroidery, or they were inspired by my project and thus influenced by traditional Chinese culture. I’m very happy to be a pioneer in this tradional culture industry.
‘Rhythm of Matter’ explores the dynamic relationship between physical and virtual hand gestures through programmable interactive embroidery (Ganit Goldstein)
To sum up, based on these feedbacks, I personally have great enthusiasm for this project to make an embroidery interactive installation combined with technology. This technology has interactive elements in it. I need to consider how to add the feelings of these human factors to the interactive technology. What type of sensors do I use, how to use these interactive devices, and how to combine these interactive elements with hand embroidery are also the directions that I need to explore with relevant coding or programming experts or companies in the next step.
