Updated storyboard of narrative

Here are the images of my updated storyboard. The link below will take you to a flash simulation of the overall story. Check it out? Tell me what you think?

Flash Storyboard

Overview

Dog

Crow

Rat

Nanotec & textiles

Wow, I need all of my clothes to be made out of this material.

Current works of Betsy Garcia

During my time with the Christ Church Sheffield quilt group this weekend, Betsy Garcia showed me some of the other quilt projects she has been working on. 

Below is a picture of a round robin quilt that Betsy has been working on with a few friends. I was particularly interested in the applique shapes on the quilt. Betsy gave me a few tips on applique techniques. It is expected that this quilt will take a total of a year to complete.

Round robin quilt

The below photos are of a hand-made quilt that Betsy is working on for the Hancock Shaker Village. I was particularly interested in the combination of embroidery and applique techniques used on this quilt. 

Tree of life quilt

Tree of life quilt detail

Back of tree of life quilt

Finally, Betsy showed me a quilting sample that she used to teach a three hour quilting class earlier this year. 

Quilting sample

Quilting detail

Christ Church Sheffield Quilting group

Today I was invited to a gathering of Christ Church Sheffield’s quilting group. Every year they create a queen-sized quilt that will be raffled off in the church’s fundraising yard sale. This was a great opportunity to see how these community quilts are constructed and to pick up some quilting pointers.

Betsy Garcia is the manager of this year’s quilt and hosted today’s meeting at her house. Members of the group had already cut the squares that would be used to create the spools and background in the center of the quilt. Today’s mission was to begin piecing those spools together. When all is said and done, the group will need a total of 400 spools in order to complete the queen-sized quilt. 

Betsy created a series of helpful guides that show how the pieces will be sewn together.

Fabrication instructions

Instructions continued

 The four attending members of the meeting worked in an assembly line to create the squares. The first step was to mark the small squares with a single diagonal line between two of the points. 

My mom would then pin these pieces to a rectangular piece of fabric. 

Pinning the squares

These pinned pieces were then machine sewn together and pressed. 

Sewing the pieces together

Finally, the completed squares were measured to ensure they were perfect squares.

Squaring off the completed pieces

I really appreciated being given the opportunity to view this process. In the end I was wrangled in to help with some of the pinning and to count all of the completed squares.

Sketch of the interface

Sketch of the interface

This is the most recent draft of my interface sketch. The story begins in the upper left corner with the title of the story embroidered in the quilt. The viewer’s eye follows the path along the river to the end of the story. This layout is based on the Trade and Commerce Quilt by Hannah Stockton Stiles.

After the quilt’s viewers arrive ad the final scene of  the narrative, they are given the prompt “What happened?” accompanied by a group of animal icons and a hand.

This is meant to communicate to the viewer that they are supposed to touch the animal icons. At this point in the interaction model, the viewer should begin reexamining the narrative while pressing the animal icons where they appear in the key scenes of quilt. This will trigger the embedded LEDs and, in turn, reveal hidden narrative elements embedded in the center of the quilt.

Inspiration

Over the winter break I researched alchemy and mysticism for potential inspiration. I also continued my research into pictorial and story quilts. 

Below are some images I found interesting. 

Fall Final Prototype – testing

This clip shows some of the interaction testing I ran on my final prototype for the fall semester.

(music by Nico Muhly)

Final Prototype for Fall Semester

 

Prototype

Above is a photo of the prototype I created at the end of the fall semester. My goal in creating this prototype, was to experiment with some of the techniques I have been talking about incorporating into my interactive story quilt. This included quilting methods as well as integration of technologies into the quilted square. 

I thought of this prototype as a rough sketch and was more concerned with completing it than the narrative and aesthetic components. 

Below is an image of the circuit that was embedded into this prototype. 

 

 

Circuit

Threads

 

Conductive Yarns

 

 

I received these sample threads from Bekaert (http://www.bekaert.com/) to experiment with my quilt. I selected these threads based on their resistance levels. I am hoping that some of them could be used in resistive heating applications if I decide to include thermochromic inks in my quilt. At the very least, these will be useful in building the quilts circuitry and will serve as resistors for the LEDs that will be embedded throughout the quilt.

Heating my thermochromic ink

I quickly sewed some copper to the back of one of my thermochromic ink  samples. The copper has a low resistance. In the video I connected the copper to 9v and 5v. The 9v activated the ink too fast. I think 5v will end up working well. More testing is needed where the copper is fixed more permanently to the back of the inked area.