No description available.

This practice-led research will be accompanied by a dissertation which describes the research process and discusses the research questions and outcomes generated by the practice process. From an initial stage of laboratory and workshop experimentation with recycling High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) and General Purpose Polystyrene (GPPS), to a conclusion which brings experimental design practice to serve the needs of a specific user group, this research aims to show that the role of the designer in material-based research is multiple and complex. The significance of emotional experience is discovered to be of central importance to both material experimentation and the design for a specific user group. The initial context of sustainability becomes reframed through work with a community of residents, staff and relatives associated with a care home for the aged. From addressing the needs of a twenty- first century demographic challenge the designer finds complex meaning in the ecological, ethical and political agendas of sustainability. I employed a range of research methods in this project and conclude that qualitative research practice demands the integration of technical skills, sociological enquiry and an investigation into the ‘tacit knowledge’ of craftsmanship. I investigated the design potential of combining traditional craft and industrial technology to address the challenge of a future society and through this research into recycling plastics, polymers, textiles and other materials propose that material and meaning are closely interrelated. In my work the relationship between the visible traces of tactile sense and the presence of the hand is explored as a sign of ‘contact’ and transmission of emotion. The encasement and display of fibre, textile and personal objects in the plastic tiles is deployed as a medium of interior architecture with the potential to represent the meaning of the experience of end-of-life wellbeing. In this way the designer can make materials which encapsulate the sense of transition, departure, memory, presence and continuity for the old, their relatives and carers. Considering the principle of ‘Emotionally Durable Design’, this research finds new uses for old material.

No description available.

Thesis (M.A.)--Brigham Young University, Dept. of Church History and Doctrine.

Thesis (M.A.)--Brigham Young University, Dept. of Church History and Doctrine. / Electronic thesis. Also available in print ed.

Since its inception in the late 1970s, the academic field of design research has lacked significant input from textile design. Textile design inhabits a liminal space that spans art, design, craft; the decorative and functional; from handiwork to industrial manufacture. This PhD by thesis, although recognizing this particularity, asserts textile design as a design discipline and seeks to address key questions that define a design discipline (Archer 1979). Specific factors have prevented the participation of textile design in the development of design theory: the universalism of the Modernist age decried many of the innate characteristics of textiles despite the fact that the versatility of textiles has made it one of the most appropriate mediums for its message. This suppression points to the femininely gendered nature of textiles and how this affected the participation of textile designers in the development of design research. Addressing this historical and cultural context necessitated the utilization of feminist qualitative research methods in a methodology that references matrixial theory (Ettinger 2006) and relationality. Encounters, conversations, stories, drawings, metaphor, meshing and restorying are all key research methods used in this study. In its autoethnographic approach, my position as a textile designer and as the researcher is frequently foregrounded, and is also blended with the experiences of other textile designers. The study unfolds and expands in a non-linear way, structure and outcome co-evolving through my contingent thinking and activity. Theory and texts are montaged from anthropology, philosophy, literature, cognitive psychology and psychoanalysis to define key characteristics of textile design and its associated thinking, both tacit and explicit. These characteristics are then placed into the context of the design research agenda, with particular reference to design thinking and problem-solving. This both strengthens the position of textiles as a design discipline and highlights its anomalies. Through analysing the articulation of textile design practice and thinking, this study proposes an alternative perspective on design thinking and problem-solving in design which contrasts with the notions of divergence followed by convergence which are predominant in design research literature. It suggests that textile design thinking is fundamentally dimensionally expansive yet set in tense relation to external forces of folding and rhizomatic breakage (Deleuze 1993/1999, Deleuze & Guattari 1987/2008). This paradigm of design thinking rests upon the significance of long-established textile metaphors for the embodied and interconnected activities of cognition and action, and is indicative of particular views of post- Postmodernist thought. Based on this, as well as on other key characteristics of textile design process and thinking that have been defined, pedagogic implications are discussed and specific areas of current design research discourse which would benefit from greater involvement from textile designers and theorists are explored.

Le procédé d'obtention du cuir à partir de peaux est appelé tannage. Il agit par stabilisation chimique du collagène. Il permet de transformer la peau en un matériau stable et durable. Actuellement, plus de 90% de la production mondiale de cuir est effectuée avec du sulfate de chrome, et les effluents du tannage contiennent des quantités importantes de ce sel métallique qu'il faut impérativement traiter par des procédés couteux. L’objectif de ce projet est de proposer une alternative, durable et écologique, au chrome pour le tannage. Dans ce but, des composés organiques ont été synthétisés et leur capacité à stabiliser le collagène a été évaluée par différentes méthodes. Des essais à petite échelle ont été réalisés sur du collagène pur et la capacité de stabilisation du collagène par ces composés organiques a été évaluée par DSC. Les composés organiques sélectionnés suite à ces essais ont été testés sur des peaux entières en tannerie. / The manufacturing process used to obtain leather from skin is called tanning. It acts by chemical stabilization of collagen, which transforms the skin into a stable and durable material. Currently, more than 90% of the production of leather worldwide is carried out with chromium sulfate. Therefore, tanning effluents produce significant quantities of this metal salt, which must be treated by expensive processes. The purpose of this project is to offer a sustainable alternative to chromium for tanning. To this end, organic compounds have been synthesized and their ability to stabilize collagen has been evaluated by different methods. Small-scale tests were carried out on collagen and its stabilization by these organic compounds was evaluated by DSC. The organic compounds selected after these tests were then tested on hides.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 97-103).

One of the major problems facing the meat and leather industries is dung cladding on hides. Dung dried onto hides is difficult to remove during the early stages of processing, resulting in the necessity for prolonging the soaking step, with the consequence of risking bacterial damage to the hides. Microscopic examination of dung on hide reveals that adhesion is between the dung and the hair alone, with no sticking of the dung to the epidermis. This accounts for the difficulty in removing dry dung; the matrix of the hair within the dung creates a strong composite material. Analysis shows that major components of the composition of dung are lignocellulosic materials (lignin, hemicellulose and cellulose). This project concerns solubilising the dung faster, to reduce soaking time by targeting these components with enzyme technology, using hemicellulases, cellulases, and laccases from commercial products and a range of fungal organisms (Coriolus versicolor and Aspergillus niger). Removal of dung from hide pieces is affected by the action of cellulase, xylanase and laccase separately over 20-24 hours. Mixture of these enzymes removes dung in 6-8 hours demonstrating that synergistic activity is more effective than separate enzyme treatments. When commercial enzyme mixture or Coriolus versicolor or Aspergillus niger cultural broths were used to effect dung removal in tannery drums in a larger scale experiment, in some cases the removal of dung was observed within 1 hour by the help of the mechanical action and nonionic surfactant. The enzyme treatment did not affect the components of hide, such as collagen, hyaluronic acid and dermatan sulphate and it was found that enzyme treated leathers and control samples showed no differences in terms of their physical characteristics. Investigations in the mechanism of dung removal by spectrophotometry, chromatography and chemical techniques show that the enzyme treatments remove the dung from hides without changing the fundamental structure of the substrate. The enzymes probably attack the structural parts in lignocellulose, which are most susceptible to solubilising with enzymes: these attacks make small changes in the carbohydrate and lignin contents, but these changes are powerful enough for effective dung removal

To elucidate the reaction between collagen, condensed tannins and oxazolidine, two prodeiphinidin tannins have been studied: extracts from pecan nutshell pith and myrica esculenta bark. The tannin chemistry study showed pecan tannins are copolymers of catechin and gallocatechin with a ratio 1:6 and myrica tannins are prodeiphinidins with 40% of the structural units gallated. The average molecular weight was measured by GPC and the number average molecular weight of tannins was found to be 25 00-3000. The molecular structure of oxazolidine, 1 -aza-5-ethyl- 1,3-dioxacyc1o[3 .3.0] octane, was confirmed by IR, GC-MS and ‘H-NMR spectra. From NMR, the ratio between cis and trans conformations is nearly 1:1. Complete hydrolysis of oxazolidine is slow under weakly acidic or neutral conditions. The reaction of polyphenols with oxazolidine was modelled using simple phenols phioroglucinol, pyrogallol and resorcinol; the process was followed by chromatographic and NMR methods. The results show the reaction is second order: phloroglucinol has the highest reactivity. By using catechin and gallocatechin, it was shown that the cross-linking reaction of gallocatechins can happen between an A- ring and a B-ring, while for catechin, the reaction is only at the A-ring. Polyphenol polymer studies also support this result; more oxazolidine can be reacted with prodeiphinidins. The reaction of collagen with oxazolidine was studied; the reaction sites were determined using modified collagen. Few cross-linking reactions were found, which is supported by hydrothermal isometric tension (HIT) results. The reaction between polyphenol, collagen and oxazolidine was studied by HIT and it was found that the cross-linking is between collagen and tannins, which is responsible for the high stability of treated collagen. Based on this, organic combination tanning can be explained as an effect of covalent bonding, hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic bonding together, but the high shrinkage temperature is mainly due to the covalent bonding forming a complex matrix structure around the collagen fibres