​NeoCraft : Craft and

Smart Textiles

The threads running through this research finds ways to tie together the fields of smart textiles and traditional textile crafts;  to move smart textiles beyond the phase of material exploration so to find new contexts and content; and to develop this field into a craft form in its own right.

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The approach taken for this was to relook at traditional textile craft - materials, techniques, narratives etc. to understand how meaningful and valuable products were made in the past that satisfied both our senses and our soul. By bringing these ideas and values into the exploration of smart textiles - both in the material and immaterial frames, as well as by democratising technology, the research hopes to bring smart textiles development into the traditional craft communities (and vice-versa) where knowledge, skills, techniques and narratives are shared and developed/generated between the two fields.

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NeoCraft is a term used here to describe new kinds of artefacts that result from this process where there is a craft like engagement and exploration of smart textiles. NeoCraft is also the term I am introducing as a genre of products that lie between the gap of gadgets and craft artefacts.

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What is the relationship between traditional craft and smart textiles?
What can each give and learn from the other?



• Relooking at traditional materials/techniques in the light of smart textiles​

• Democratisation of technology​

• NeoCraft – the merging of gadgets and crafts