Light-Emitting Textiles for Fashion and Health
Collaborative Research Project Identification Workshop hosted by the IMI and the EPSRC Smart Textiles Network

Evening of 24th January 2006
Full day on 25th January 2006
RIBA, 66 Portland Place, London, W1B 1AD

Background. At the intersection of science, technology, materials and fashion, new multi-disciplinary partnerships are emerging as the basis for novel research into the application of smart textiles in healthcare and fashion. Fashion enables us to construct and communicate personal and organisational identity by the way we display and present ourselves, both in the personal and professional spheres of life. Reflecting the important influences that fashion and materials can have on people’s psychology and well being, this workshop will explore functional and psychological requirements for, as well as applications of materials in, the domains of fashion and health. Light-emitting and colour-changing textiles would allow people to dynamically change the aesthetics of their clothing to suit their mood, their style, etc., allowing them to be creative and expressive in new ways. Light-emitting and colour-changing smart textiles is currently an open space for development, as is the application of fashion and design thinking to health concerns.

This workshop aimed to bring together leading researchers from many disciplines and representatives of industry. Reflecting the mandates of both the IMI and the Smart Textiles Network, the workshop also emphasised multi-disciplinarity as the cornerstone to developing and exploiting fundamental and applied research. The theme of innovation was also applied to the workshop process with the intention of exploring new ways to facilitate across disciplines and generate a common understanding and language that would enable us to work together.

Format. This workshop brought together leading researchers from many disciplines and innovative companies. Keynote speakers introduced trends, drivers and associated design and technological issues around the application of colour changing/light emitting textiles to fashion and health. The Commercial Opportunities for Smart Textiles given by Dr. Andrew King of the DTI Global Watch Service. The Social Aspects of Fashion was presented by Suzanne Lee of CSM. This was followed by a presentation on Colour and Cognition by Prof Jules Davidoff of the Psychology Dept., Goldsmiths College, which revealed that the impact of colour on people is culturally constructed. An Overview of Health Psychology was given by Dr. Beth Grunfeld of the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College/Guy’s Hospital. An Overview of Nanotechnology was provided by Prof Andrew Fisher of the London Centre for Nanotechnology, and Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, UCL. The presentations were concluded by Dr. Jon de Mello of the London Centre for Nanotechnology, and Dept. of Chemistry, Imperial College London, who gave an Overview of Polymeric Materials and Plastic Electronics.

Facilitated discussion and brainstorming were central to the workshop process. Using design methodologies an external facilitator, Remko van der Lugt, TUDelft, supported discussion in both break-out groups and plenary discussion around the emergent themes. The overriding aim of the initial brainstorm was to generate visions for light-emitting textiles. The brainstorm was launched by playing clips from a well-known sci-fi film, in order to encourage participants to think about the future. These visions captured by CSM art/design students provided the basis for further discussion within the three multi-disciplinary sub-groups. The groups focused upon i) health, ii) functional clothing, and iii) fashion. Exploring the “who, why, what, how” questions of future light-emitting smart textiles, the break-out groups brainstormed different types of applications that could be developed in social, institutional and commercial scenarios. Throughout, art/design students sketched ideas and themes that emerged from discussions. The use of drawings proved very useful as the basis for embodying and generating ideas and promoting a shared understanding. The subsequent plenary discussion attempted to map the outcomes of the sub-groups in terms of emergent research themes and questions that cut across the groups. Three research themes were identified, which included the fashion-health interface; sports clothing-health interface; and technology and fabrication. Research questions that arose included: What methods could be employed to apply fashion to a variety of healthcare concerns and issues, e.g., could dynamically changeable clothing affect self-esteem and emotional functioning; could fashion be a tool to better understand and influence people’s behaviour in the context of health psychology? Could light-emitting textiles in sports clothing be used as part of a monitoring and bio-feedback system, and as a rewards system for achievement in order to improve health behaviour? Technology mapping – how can the different technologies be characterised that might be appropriate for these applications? The IMI team of four Business Development Managers, is and has been committed to supporting follow-up initiatives and projects

Attendees
Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, UAL, Fashion and Textile Design
Central Saint Martins Innovation, Research and Enterprise
Chelsea College of Art and Design, UAL, Textile Design and Sustainability
Consultant, Textiles and Sustainability
DTI Global Watch
EPSRC
Goldsmiths, University of London, Colour and Cognition
Goldsmiths/King’s, Design
Heriot Watt University, Technical Textiles and Design
Imperial College London, Bioengineering
Imperial College London, Enterprise
Imperial College London, Centre of Electronic Materials and Devices
Imperial College London, Computing Science
Imperial College London, Electronic Engineering
Imperial College London, Intelligent Agents
Imperial College London, Mechanical Engineering
Imperial College London, Nanomaterials
Imperial College London, Medicine
King’s College London, Enterprise
King’s College London, Digital Signal Processing
King’s College London, EPSRC ArtEngineering Network
King’s College London, Physical Sciences and Engineering
King’s College London, Health and Design
King’s College London, Materials Group
King’s College London, Nanomaterials
King’s College London/Guy’s Hospital, Health Psychology
Kodak
London College of Communication, UAL, Digital Printing
London College of Fashion, UAL, Research and Enterprise
London College of Fashion, UAL, Textile and Fashion Design
National Physical Laboratory, Knowledge Transfer
Nike Europe
Pinguin XL
The Design Laboratory
University College London, Enterprise
University College London, Cognitive Neuroscience
University College London, Condensed Matter and Materials Physics
University College London, Modelling of Optoelectronics Materials
University College London, Nanotechnology
University of the Arts London (UAL), Enterprise

Report
Workshop Report