mm2 01 technicalknowledge

TEXTILE material

DEFINITION Everything is made of something. Take away concrete, glass, textiles, metal, and the other materials from our lives and we are left naked, shivering in a muddy field.

(Miodownik, 2014)

WHAT IS THE NATURE OF TEXTILE TECHNOLOGY? Take for example, a piece of thread, which exists at the same scale as hair. It is a synthetic structure at the limit of our eyesight that has allowed us to make ropes, blankets, carpets, but most importantly, clothes. Textiles are one of the earliest synthetic materials; when we wear a pair of jeans we are wearing a miniature woven structure, the design of which is older than Stonehenge. Clothes have kept us warm and protected for all of recorded history, as well keeping us fashionable. But they are hi-tech too. In the 20th century we learnt how to make space suits from textiles strong enough to protect astronauts on the moon as well as solid textiles for artificial limbs called carbon fibre composites.

(Miodownik, 2014)

HOW DOES IT FIT INTO THE BIG IDEAS OF DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY AS A SINGLE SUBJECT?

(Barlex 2015)

CONCEPTS Properties Source Footprint Longevity

PROPERTIES

SOURCE

FOOTPRINT

RESULTS

DISTANCE OF RESOURCE STREAM

Screwfix Show BitsHeart Educational Supplies

Kite PackagingJohn Lewis

CPCRapid Electronics

ARCO GROUP

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200

Distance in miles

LONGEVITY http://www.wrap.org.uk/content/clothing-design-for-longevity

INVESTIGATE AND COMMUNICATE Investigate a textile material and communicate the:

SourcePropertiesFootprintLongevity

As a PetchaKucha– to share in the next session

PECHAKUCHA

TEXTILE Barlex, D., 2015. A single GCSE for D&T – will it fly? [online]. David and Torben for D&T. Available at: https://dandtfordandt.wordpress.com/2015/01/02/a-single-gcse-for-dt-will-it-fly/ [Accessed 01/04 2015].

Fibre2fashion, 2010. Measuring the Eco Foot-print in Textiles [online]. Fibre2fashion.com. Available at: http://www.fibre2fashion.com/industry-article/29/2825/measuring-the-eco-foot-print-in-textiles1.asp [Accessed 02/02 2015].

Miodownik, M., 2014. Why the story of materials is really the story of civilisation [online]. theGuardian. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/sep/14/story-of-materials-human-civilisation-mark-miodownik [Accessed 02/02 2015].

Wikipedia, 2015. PechaKucha [online]. Wikipedia. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PechaKucha [Accessed 02/02 2015].