Recently, scientist Tessa Luijben and designer Margherita Soldati started their (graduation) research in the TextileLab. An update!
Activating textures
Margherita's project explores the tactile perception of elderly with dementia or Alzheimer's disease and how they can benefit from being stimulated by textile surfaces. She is developing a tool to help them exercising their proprioception, but not as an exercise, but as something that is incorporated in their daily life. For example through personal objects like a dress with different activating textures. She researches several textile manipulation techniques to create different 3D patterns which can give diverse tactile sensations. Moreover, the project aims to automate this handcraft technique and make it accessible to a larger public by using 3D software and biomaterials.
This research is part of the TextileLab and Creative Care Lab. Margherita is testing her tools with different people living in a care home and sees how she can work towards a functioning prototype.
Fishy bioplastic
Tessa researches the possibility to make biodegradable materials for shoes out of fish material. This idea came to life when she saw that there is so much by-catch and a lot of this material is wasted. She believes that when you take anything from nature, it is our duty to deliver it back to earth in a clean and responsible way. She does this by making bioplastic out of shrimp waste. At this point she has developed the plastic. The tricky thing is to make it waterproof and flexible. The next steps in het research are to explore what other applications are possible.
Tessa Luijben - Shrimp to Bioplastic
