Data TexStyles

An interdisciplinary project Data Tex-Styles balances on the verge between art and design inspired by aesthetic tendencies influenced by new media and technology. Specifically, the author focuses on a parametric representation of reality through the optics of machines. Machines are rendering the space according to predetermined parameters and thus create visually interesting images free from individual aesthetic preferences. A very similar principle has been used by the author in creating a digitally printed collection of textiles. Together with a computer programmer Matej Fandl, she developed an application which uses the Kinect sensor in order to scan the structure of surrounding space and render it as a fabric weave which is adjustable as well as the lines’ width, relief or a colour. The application then generates an image which is further developed by the author in graphic programmes to create digital prints for textiles. The user-friendly application thus allows anyone to become a textile designer and apply subjective aesthetic criteria. Hence, the final image is a result of a collaboration between the user, the application and a machine – the Kinect sensor. As a result, in Data Tex-Styles the author presents an experimental collection of digitally printed fabric samples.