Those Who Affected Me (Video)

Those Who Affected Me

Gothenburg Museum of Art
December 5 2015 – February 21 2016
Those Who Affected Me is an interactive light emitting textile art installation. Suspended in mid air, over 1,5 meters tall, and 2,5 meter diameter, the four winged structure invites the audience to gently touch the textile and reacts by sending colorful ripples up and down the intricate fabric.

The custom designed jacquard textile is using optical fibers connected to about 500 individually programmable color LEDs, connected to a microcomputer. Thin, electrically conducting copper threads are woven in to create touch sensitive areas inside the fabric. The 11 meters of fabric are mounted with steel rods around a steel cylinder.

Malin Bobeck is 29 years old, born in Lerum, Sweden. She is educated at The Swedish School of Textiles in Borås, graduating in spring 2014. She was awarded funding from Innovativ Kultur in 2014 to work on her optical fibre textiles.

In December 2015 she was awarded the “Stena A Olssons Kulturstipendium” with the motivation:

“For those who are accustomed to thinking of the woven fabric as something quiet and controlled, the encounter with Malin Bobeck’s work will be bewildering. Her textiles careen, sparkle and switch between different moods. They arouse curiosity and invite us to be tactile. In her still young artistic practice, Malin Bobeck aims to create changing spatial structures in which the latest lighting and interactive technology is combined with handicraft. She is part of a broad movement in craft and design that combines traditional methods with contemporary technology, in an inquiring and inclusive way. Her approach rejuvenates the craft and also creates a new and exciting context for the achievements of engineering science.”

Photos:
Preview

Technology:

  • Custom optical fibre textile, woven on jacquard loom.
  • Teensy 3.1 microcontroller.
  • WS2812 addressable RGB LED pixels.
  • SLS 3D-printed optical fibre connectors.

Hi-Resolution Photographs:
Those Who Affected Me on Flickr