Materials Exploration | Workshop

Last week I attended the Materials exploration workshop held by the fashionable technology team of Parsons. Here is a link to the fashion tech blog. Below are some interesting materials and facts I discovered over the course of the event.

Workshop materials included; Woven Optic Fabric, Photo Luminescent Fabric, Photovoltaic Fabric, Heating Fabric, Liquid Crystal Fabric and Anti-Magnetic Fabric.

The workshop was sort of set up as a game, where each group of students were to pick up a set of cards with constraints listed. My team got

WHO – With friend
WHEN – A slow time
WHERE – In a big city
WHAT – Photovoltaic

We came up with several different projects and ideas for using the technology with these set of constraints.

The idea we followed through with was Dance Dance Beach Blanket. An interactive blanket that can use the solar energy power received from sitting out in the sun all day, getting your tan on like JWOW and The Situation (See image below) and when the sun goes down, the party continues with this networked, dance dance revolution and twister inspired interactive light up game.

In the end, I think it was a fun way to structure a workshop but it was unfortunate that we got a material that was not available for us to cut up and prototype.