This is a research project by practice, which firstly develops a new material invention derived from natural fibres extracted from waste pineapple leaves; secondly it articulates the contemporary designer’s role in facilitating sustainable solutions through: Insights from my own material invention, PiñatexTM, which integrates the materiality of design with the immateriality of concepts and values Developing a visual model of mapping I began with these questions: ‘What are the challenges in seeking to make a new and sustainable material from the waste products of pineapple agriculture in the Philippines?’ and ‘How can a design practice link elements of materiality (artifacts) with immaterial elements (value systems) in order to improve sustainable social and economic development?’ Significant influences have been the work of Papanek1 (2003), Hawken2 (1999) and Abouleish3 (2008) and in particular the ethical business model initiated by McDonough and Braungart in Cradle to Cradle®4 (2002). My own research project is inspired by the Cradle to Cradle® model. It proposes the development of a new material, PiñatexTM which is derived from natural fibres extracted from waste pineapple leaves and could be used in a wide variety of products that are currently fabricated in leather or petroleum-based materials. The methods have comprised: Contextual reviews; case studies (SEKEM, Cradle to Cradle® and Gawad Kalinga); practical experiments in the field of natural fibres, chemistry, product development, manufacturing and prototyping, leading to an invention and a theoretical model of mapping. In addition, collaboration has taken place across scientific, technological, social, ecological, academic and business fields. The outcome is a new material based on the synchronicity between the pineapple fibres, polymers, resins and coatings specially formulated. The invention of the new material that I developed as a central part of this research by practice has a patent in the national phase (PCT/GB 2011/000802) and is in the first stages of manufacturing, commercial testing and further design input (Summer 2014). The contribution to knowledge is firstly the material, PiñatexTM, which exhibits certain key qualities, namely environmentally non-toxic, biodegradable, income-generating potential and marketability. This is alongside its intrinsic qualities as a textile product: aesthetic potential, durability and stability, which will make it suitable for the accessories, interiors and furnishing markets. The theoretical mapping system Upstream and Downstream forms a secondary contribution.

The work presented in this thesis is a first attempt investigating a new field, exploring the visual effects of movement using light as a continuous time-based medium. Composing over time, temporal patterns - in Textile Design is a practice based research project that investigates the following research question: What does it mean, if time and change – constant movement – becomes part of the textile design expression? The research question has been investigated in a number of experiments that explore the visual effects of movement using light integrated into textile structures as a medium. Thereby, the textile design pattern reveals its composition, not in one moment of time any more, but in fact over time. This thesis aims to create time-based textiles with an emphasis on developing aesthetics of movement – or to establish movement as an aesthetic moment in textile design. Two distinct groups of experiments, colour flow and rhythm exercise, explore a range of different time-based expressions. The experiments have been displayed and explored using woven and braided textile structures which have been construct mainly through the integration of PMMA optical fibres. Through the design processes a first platform and understanding about time as a design material has been developed, which allows composing time-based patterns in light design. New design variables, notions and tools have been defined and established. The achieved new expressions will hopefully lead to discussions on and envisioning of future textiles, opening up the general perception of what textiles are supposed to be like, to show, to express etc., i.e. expands notions of what it means to read a piece of textile work. / <p>Editor: Lars Hallnäs (LHS), Swedish School of Textiles</p>

This research acknowledges that the convenience of fast fashion has shifted dependence on skills such as dressmaking, repairing and altering, passed from one generation to the next. Because of the accessible and affordable nature of mass manufacture the consumer is becoming less active within the design, production and maintenance of their clothing. This research proposes to up-skill consumers and intercepts their flow of fast fashion consumption using textile design interventions. These explore how textile design processes can be combined with social media tools to support a renaissance of making through four different concepts to empower consumer participation. The Textile Design Interventions demonstrate accessible processes of making and aim to broaden engagement. The democratic ethos of the interventions also enables agency to evolve beyond orchestrated interactions. Through evaluating the process of designing, developing and demonstrating textile design interventions a new proposition emerged titled ‘e-­Co-­Textile Design’. This model demonstrates how social and digital media can provide a vehicle for textile designers to facilitate participatory experiences. Fast fashion, both in terms of the product and activity, challenges the concept of sustainability. This research positions textile design interventions from outside the fashion system as a means of achieving more sustainable consumer activity, through longer-­term consideration and connectivity toward fast fashion purchases. This is achieved by making accessible new-found skills and resources via social media. Future research requires a longitudinal study to evaluate the impact from the consumer’s perspective.

My PhD research develops production processes incorporating origami folding, shibori, additive printing and fusing techniques to create textiles that sustain three-dimensional, adaptable form with little or no supporting substructure. In these materials the textile surface itself becomes structural. The controlled packing, deployment and structural stability offered by predetermined folds in planar surfaces are extremely beneficial in many situations e.g. engineering, architecture and product design. I have devised transferable templates of folding that can be reinterpreted in a variety of material weights and scales that have potential for application in a number of these areas. The inherent mobility of these structural textiles, combined with the judicious choice of substrate and materials applied through printing and fusing, enables properties such as thermal or sound insulation, electrical conductivity or light transmission to be varied, as the situation demands. The textiles created are not only autonomous physical entities but also speculative design models. Such developments more usually originate from material science, engineering and textile technology contexts. However, by building on research carried out by these disciplines to develop folded structures but emphasising a ‘poetic’, design-orientated outlook I explore the potential for a more intuitive, nonlinear approach to highlight hitherto overlooked elements in the design process.

This research was prompted by a concern for the vulnerability of traditional pre-industrial handicrafts, namely the songket textiles of Malaysia. The songket textile has been woven for over two centuries in Southeast Asia, and its materiality represents cultural heritage, tradition, and national identity in Malaysia. Market competition from imported, less expensive and mass-produced songket textile replicas has forced local makers to instigate creative change, as a means of longevity and secure a place in the market. Within this research theories of development and social science are used to direct the creative practice of the researcher, forming a textile praxis. The practice of the researcher, as a textile designer and weaver, will introduce alternative technology, namely yarns and weaving techniques, to the production of the textile in order to instigate change. This practice is conducted within the field in Malaysia and in the London studios of the Royal College of Art. The implementation of the practice reflects the local material, technological, and economic environments, hence, providing alternative yarns and weaving techniques which are ‘appropriate’ (Schumacher 1993) to the local hand-woven production infrastructure. It is the socio-cultural context of the textiles materiality which most challenges the researcher in her practice; the duality (Gell 1998) of the object, subject, and social relationship. Manifesting itself as objectivity, dualism presents an agency upon creative practice. The autonomous practice of the researcher is challenged by the autonomy of material representation. The textiles which were produced by the researcher’s practice consist of radical changes in materiality. Through acquiring local knowledge, they represent creativity, where social objectivity has been considered and also abstracted by the researcher. The textiles exist, not as a new genre of materiality, but as exposure and influence to local makers, demonstrating creativity which can be achieved by expanding upon existing technological frameworks. By experiencing the use of alternative yarns during the researcher’s field practice, local makers have chosen to adopt and appropriate the use of the yarns within their practice and subsequent textile market, a use which they have sustained. The use of exposure to influence the local makers practice has already caused changes in the textiles materiality. The future materiality of the textile depends upon the time and space in which its creative practice and society resides.

The practice based research "Skin stories: charting and mapping the skin" deals with issues across the fields of art, design, technology, biology and material science. In an attempt to bridge the gap between aesthetics and technology by investigating the potential of new and industrial materials, the epidermis is used as a metaphor for creating innovative textile surfaces which behave, look or feel like skin. As a result of theoretical enquiry and practical experiments, interactive design solutions have been developed to a prototype stage for possible application in domestic environments and public spaces as well as for integration into body related design concepts. The development of such functional and interactive textile membranes will hopefully enable individuals to experience a polysensual and responsive environment and it is this aspect which is considered to be an original contribution to knowledge in the textiles field. The aim of this written thesis is not only to illustrate the journeys and investigations made along the way and to demonstrate the outcome of the research, but also to situate the practical work in its cultural, critical and technological context. This thesis is accompanied by an interactive CD-ROM which is a visual representation of my 'research map' and holds a record of the practical work carried out during the research project. The ideas of the project "Skin stories: charting and mapping the skin" have been developed and tested during a 3-year research programme towards a Ph. D. at The London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London.

Thesis--Wisconsin. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A. in apparel and textiles)--Washington State University, August 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 50-52).

The main aim of this project was to find new tools and finishing techniques for designing recyclable, aesthetic ‘surfaces’ within the context of a ‘closed cycle polyester economy’ (Livingston, 2003). This can be explained as a mechanism of industrial ecology where all waste can be reused in a perpetual material metabolism or system. Of the total textile fibre produced globally, up to 65% is lost, post-consumer, to landfill, incineration or composting. Of this, at least 50% is said to be recyclable (Laursen et al, 2005). In particular polyester, a synthetic fibre group derived from oil, is responsible for as much as 79% of the global synthetic fibre market, at 31.9 million tonnes in 2009 (Engelhardt, 2010), and therefore represents a significant proportion of this textile waste. Polyester is a thermoplastic material and as such is fully recyclable, thus making a closed cycle polyester economy a theoretical possibility. Therefore sending it to landfill is an unnecessary waste of a non-renewable resource. However, if this textile fibre is used without an understanding of its material make-up, this inherent recyclability can be inhibited. Many design approaches to recycling are end-of-life interventions that can be described as ‘extended life techniques’ rather than ‘design for recycling’. In order to design fully recyclable polyester textile products, potential barriers to recycling needed to be identified and ‘designed out’ at the production stages. Current processing and finishing methods such as chemical coatings or lamination, commonly used in the industry’s ever growing desire for performance and functionality, often create barriers to this continuous cycle, by mixing materials with different reprocessing needs into an irreversible state. These complex hybrid materials leave a legacy of waste and prevent inclusion in future fabrications (Allwood et al, 2006). If polyester textile products are preserved as monomaterials during their production they can be returned for reprocessing into virgin quality material over several cycles through chemical repolymerisation. The research set out to find new, technological alternatives to these traditional finishing techniques which could be employed to preserve monomateriality in polyester materials in order to work within the boundaries of a Cradle to Cradle metabolism (McDonough & Braungart, 2002). Laser processing was selected as the most appropriate tool for development, because of its ability to manipulate thermoplastic materials through heat and its potential for flexible control through digital means. The resulting prototypes showed that several finishes which would normally need chemical coatings or adhesives could be achieved without any added agents. In summary, this research contributes to knowledge firstly by proposing a new model for designing ‘Cradle-to-cradle (C2C) textile products’ that can contribute to a future closed- loop material economy and secondly by presenting a new application of laser-welding technology as a tool for the finishing of 100% polyester textiles which can be repolymerised at end-of-life.

This thesis is concerned with the influence of the merchant converter on design practice in the Lancashire cotton industry in the period 1900-1939. The thesis aims to supplement the existing design histories of the industry by focusing, firstly, upon the role of design in the context of the industrial and commercial organisation of the industry, and secondly, by examining the practice of design in relation to the export trade in cotton goods. The Lancashire cotton industry had a unique structure that facilitated the production of a wide variety of cotton piece goods that serviced the needs of consumers in markets across the globe. Despite the enormous decline of the inter-war years, in which the major markets of China and India were dramatically reduced, the industry was able to maintain a significant export trade in cotton piece goods. The successful sale of these goods depended in part upon the successful interpretation of consumer preferences by their designers. Lancashire employed a large number of designers who worked either in the employ of manufacturers or on a freelance basis. The thesis examines the different categories of designer who supplied designs to the Lancashire industry, including their education and working practices. It also investigates the relationship between the designer and the agents who employed them. Lancashire's ability to respond appropriately to consumer demands played a significant part in establishing and maintaining exports to markets such as West Africa. A case study of the West African market illustrates the mechanisms that made this response possible. It also emphasises the importance of established merchant organisations that provided the links between consumer, manufacturer and designer. The case study underlines the key relationship between the communication of market information and the production of commercially successful designs. The thesis also addresses the issue of government intervention into an industry that was faced with increasing economic hardship as a result of the loss of markets worldwide. Design was not at the forefront of government policy in respect to the Lancashire cotton industry. Nonetheless, design issues were increasingly associated with government attempts to improve the trade in manufactured goods during the inter-war period, and this is particularly evident in the activities of the Board of Trade. The thesis evaluates the activities of two government organisations, the Council for Art and Industry and the Department of Overseas Trade, their reception by merchants and manufacturers of the day, and assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the contribution they made to the industry.