Final Project: Sampling and Swatch Exchange #

Your final project is to extend what you learned throughout the course by conducting an iterative exploration into a technique or topic of your choice. We take inspiration in this assignment from the e-textiles swatch exchange, where practitioners develop small samples of a material outcome of a technique they developed and instructions for replication that are shared into a physical book with other practitioners. This is a chance for you to explore one technique or material more deeply, and to present it to the class.

We expect students to complete at least four complete and high-quality swatches as part of the final assignment. Each student, then, will pick one of those swatches, make a duplicate, and turn it in for inclusion in the course swatch book. Alongside the swatches, the student will produce a weekly-style recollection of their sampling process as well as a short presentation of their swatch to the class.

The Assignment Description:
Your swatches should emerge from a challenge that you define. Specifically, you will set yourself up with a question and a heuristic that you’ll use to evaluate your responses to the question. The aim can change, but try to stick somewhat the the original question and heuristic. For your swatch book page, you must title your swatch and write a description of its behavior. You must include a list of the materials and tools used to create it as well as the draft or AdaCAD workflow you used to create it. Depending on the function of your swatch, you can either include a technical circuit diagram or instructions for replicating your swatch. The draft should label all the parts of the swatch, how they function, and how it can be connected to. You must also cite at minimum two sources/references.**

Maximum swatch dimensions: 5.5" x 7.75" x 0.25"
Quantity: 3 copies of the same swatch

You will keep one copy and give the other two to the instructor for grading. We will also compile them into course books that will live on in our institutional library (and possibility digital archives).

Please review the deadlines and phases of the project in the table below for details on each phase:

Below, you will

Deliverable 1: Process Documentation - Due 12/11 #

This deliverable will require you to turn in via canvas a weekly-style reflection of your entire process of sampling for the final project. Use the weekly template to describe the process of your final. Your documentation should include photos of at least four swatches that you created as you worked on towards final as well as the drafts for those swatches. Identify at least three key decision points in your process where you changed plans, tried something new, or developed a new approach to optimize your swatch towards your heuristic. Describe these key points in writing. This is the primary place in the assignment where I will grade you on your decisions so provide strong reasoning for why you tried different techniques at different times.Include a reflection at the end of the documentation about what you would still like to try or what you think you should have done differently. Turn this in as a URL via canvas.

Deliverable 2: A Bag of All Physical Samples Created As you Worked Towards the Final - Due 12/11 #

Bring all the samples (not including your final two swatches) you have produced as during your sampling process for the final to class in a single bag (preferably zip lock) with your name on it on 12/11.

Deliverable 3: Presentation - Due 12/11 #

A max 3 minute presentation about your process and outcomes since the midterm. We will present our projects on 12/11 and 12/13. Please submit this presentation via Canvas as a Google Slides Presentation so professor Devendorf can load them all, and present them all. Turn in a link to your presentation on Canvas by 9am on 12/11

Deliverable 4: Swatches & Swatch Book Page - Due 12/13 #

Turn in 2 structurally identical swatches of your best or favorite sample for inclusion in the course swatch book.

Maximum swatch dimensions: 5.5" x 7.75" x 0.25".

Turn in in person, in class on 12/13 or before. Also Submit a PDF of a page with details about your swatch and its design for the course swatch book. Use the template provided in Canvas.

You must include a list of the materials and tools used to create your swatch with enough detail that a different student in the class could implement what you did. Include details about the loom you used, the materials on the warp and the warp density. Depending on the function of your swatch, you can either include a technical circuit diagram or instructions for replicating your swatch. You must also include an illustrated diagram. The illustrated diagram should label all the parts of the swatch, how they function, and how it can be connected to. You must also cite at minimum two sources/references.