Disobedient Antennas: Breaking the Rules of Textile Antenna Design

Abstract Contemporarily, antennas are receding into their parent devices, minimizing or disappearing completely from sight. They are affected by the technological trend toward miniaturization of electronic devices [8]. Similarly, textile antennas are being embedded into clothing where they lay flat to the body, seamlessly integrated into the surface of the garment [7]. Yet the question arises whether textile antennas must be discrete and designed out of sight. In this paper we propose a possible alternative. Disobedient Antennas are textile interaction design examples using textile design and experimental research methods. They are textile receiver antennas that disrupt the convention of planar textile antennas [7,8] to suggest that textile antennas can be voluminous and sculptural wearable objects. Further, they occupy a performative space, suggesting body-space-object interaction by using the antennas to perceive and explore electromagnetic fields through sonic feedback. Their use opens to improvised movements and choreographies in response to electromagnetic space. Author Keywords Textile interaction design, interaction design; textile antennas; knitted textiles; electromagnetic fields; artistic research, experimental design research.

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Erin Lewis The Swedish School of Textiles University of Borås Borås, 50901, Sweden erin.lewis@hb.se

CSS Concepts • Human-centered computing~Interaction design Disobedient Antennas Textile antennas present themselves as soft mediators between our bodies and the electromagnetic fields that surround them. This opens up possibilities for interactions between bodies, spaces, and electromagnetic fields (EMF). Disobedient Antennas explore the possibilities of textile antennas from the perspective of textile interaction design. Modifying Hallnäs’ definition of interaction design, we propose that textile interaction design can be characterized as “designing the act that defines the intended use of textiles and textile systems” [5]. In textile interaction design the textile behaves as an interface, mediator, or threshold, that connects the qualities of the textile to its final expression through means of interaction. As a series of performative objects they amplify the presence of textile antennas by making them voluminous, wearable, sculptural objects. This breaks from the convention of planar, dense, uniformly surfaced textile antennas [8] that are typically designed to be discrete i.e. hidden away within clothing and textile materials [7]. The textile antennas presented here disobey the conventions of textile antenna design, which gives rise to the project’s name, Disobedient Antennas. In this conference performance, the attendees are the performers. Attendees can select a Disobedient Antenna to wear and use it to navigate around the exhibition hall while exploring electromagnetic space. Through EMF-sensing circuitry and headphones, the attendee can listen to the electromagnetic frequencies picked up through the antennas. Related Works Mediators of electromagnetic phenomena have been explored in speculative design, notably with Dunne and Raby [3,4]. The artefacts proposed in Design Noir explore human-techno relations and emotional responses to the awareness of electromagnetic fields. Within textile interaction design, the work of Afroditi Psarra [12] explores frequency-based electronics through materials and interactions in the form of wearables. Hannah Perner-Wilson and Mika Satomi demonstrate textile antennas for sensing EMF in their EMF Listener Hoodie [11]. Finally, Ebru Kurbak and Irene Posch’s work Drapery FM [6] explored sending and receiving audio transmissions between textiles in the installation space. Design of the Textile Antennas All of the textiles were knitted at the The Swedish School of Textiles on a specialized Mayer & Cie metal knitting machine, while the narrow tubular knit was created on an experimental medical stent knitting machine. The knitted structures used in the textiles were plain knit, plain knit with floats, and pique knit; while copper wire, stainless steel wire, and Lycra were the yarns used. The antennas can be seen modeled in Figure 6. In Arm Tube (Fig.1) copper wire (0.14mm) is knitted into a 3-metre tube using plain knit structure. The tube is deformable and can condense and expand in use, changing its overall impedance of the antenna and affecting the quality of its reception. The antenna is intended to be exploratory through

Figure 1 Model wearing a knitted copper tube antenna

Figure 2 Model wearing a knitted loops antenna as face mask

use and can easily be worn on the arms, suspended in the air, or held above the head. In Face Mask (Fig.2) a copper face mask is proposed. The mask is created with knitted copper (0.10mm) tubing that has been woven into plain weave base structure. In use, the wearer can hear the sonic qualities of EMF that occur directly in front of their face. Alternatively, the textile antenna can be placed elsewhere on the body (Fig. 3). Head Fin (Fig.4) is a fin-like antenna knitted with stainless steel wire (0.12mm) in plain knit ground with black Lycra floats on every fourth needle. It secures onto the waist and allows the wearer to explore EMF directly above their heads. Leg Pouf (Fig.5) is knitted pouf created with stainless steel wire (0.10mm) in a pique structure. The pouf is sewn to an elastic strap and can be worn on different parts of the body. The model is wearing the antenna on her leg and is therefore picking up EMF low to the ground.

Body-Space-Object Interaction Disobedient Antennas are connected to an EMF-sensing electronic device that expresses the EMF as sound waves. The ability to perceive EMF sonically builds upon our sense bodies through augmentation and human-techno pairing. The figurative displacement of the ear occurs when one places a Disobedient Antenna at different points around the body. This allows one to perceive EMF at different heights and directions in relation with the body, giving rise to a body-space-object interaction. How one passes through a space in relation to body positioning, antenna positioning, and speed, vary the sonic expressions transmitted as one moves through EMF. Sound artist Kubisch notes: “you can only hear them [EMF] in certain areas. And sometimes, if you move 10 cm to one side or the other, they disappear. I think of them as electrical corridors.” [1] Disobedient Antennas therefore also describe the electromagnetic space that one occupies. Body movements, gestures, and choreographies become methods of interacting with electromagnetic fields and “corridors” through the textile antenna, and form a gestalt between the formal and technical qualities of the textile antenna, the sense of audition, and the frequencies and amplitude of EMF through which one moves. In the performance of the textile antennas the Detektors EMF-sensing device designed by Martin Howse and Mizayaki Shintaru [9]. When connected to this device, the antennas are tuned to receive 50Hz – 2.5GHz, spanning the range of WiFi, GSM, GPS, and other wireless transmissions. The sounds of electromagnetic space present as “noises, bleeps, blips, and pulses” [10]. Transmissions intermingle with one another, fluidly passing from background to foreground. Dubois describes Bluetooth transmissions as a high steady pitched sound that, when mixing with other signals, starts to create a sonic texture where “medium to fine grain particles intertwine in the foreground, while a more fat and gross granular texture lies in the background”. WLAN expresses a dry, persistent ‘pa.pa.pa.pa.pa’, while the sound of GSM presents as a “morse code that displays an aggressive character” and that does not evolve over time [2]. Additionally, the human body carries capacitive qualities, thus touching the textile antenna against one’s skin changes the tuning of the antenna which allows for pickup of other frequencies, for example radio stations. The Disobedient Antennas are able to modulate the sounds through their textile form where

Figure 3 Knitted copper tubes antenna placed on leg

Figure 4 Model wearing a "Head Fin" antenna

intermittent connections and deformation of the antenna change the tuning of the antenna and therefore influence the qualities of the sounds expressed. The combination of body movements through the object in space give rise to the expressive qualities of the interaction. Conclusion The antennas presented here are “more than just another textile antenna”. They challenge the role of textile antennas in the age of smart textiles by suggesting that textile antennas can become wearable objects of interest rather than being designed out of sight. Further, they can serve as artistic tools that allow to exploration of non-visual phenomena of EMF, which can open to further design explorations of this understated phenomenon in the artistic fields.

Acknowledgements Many thanks to knitting technicians at The Swedish School of Textiles, University of Borås, Sweden. References [1] Cox, C. (2006). Invisible cities: an interview with

Christina Kubisch. Cabinet Magazine, 21. doi: http://cabinetmagazine.org/issues/21/cox.php

[2] Dubois, V., 2017. Electromagnetic Field as Medium to Listen to the Texture of the World. In: Invisible Places. [online] Azores, pp.660-665. Available at: <http://invisibleplaces.org/2017/pdf/Dubois.pdf> [Accessed 12 March 2020].

[3] Dunne, A., & Raby, F. (2001). Design noir: the secret life of electronic objects. Basel: Birkhäuser.

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[5] Hallnäs, L., & Redström, J. (2006). Interaction design: foundations, experiments. Högskolan i Borås, Institutionen Textilhögskolan

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[7] Loss, C. (2017). Study of the Electromagnetic Properties of Textiles. Phd Thesis. Universidade Biera Interior. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.6/4770

[8] Mehmann, A. (2017). Textile Antennas. In Smart Textiles (pp. 139-159). Springer, Cham. doi: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-50124-6_7

[9] Miyazaki, S., & Howse, M. (2010). Detektors. Rhythms of Electromagnetic Emissions, their Psychogeophysics and Micrological Auscultation. In Proceedings of the 16th International Symposium on Electronic Art ISEA (pp. 136-138)

[10] Miyazaki (2013). Urban sounds unheard-of: a media archaeology of ubiquitous infospheres, Continuum, 27:4, 514-522, DOI: 10.1080/10304312.2013.803302

[11] Perner-Wilson, H. and Satomi, M., n.d. KOBA. [online] Kobakant.at. Available at: <https://www.kobakant.at/KOBA/emf-listener-hoodie/> [Accessed 12 March 2020].

[12] Psarra, A., n.d. Embodied RF Ecologies: Afroditi Psarra. [online] Afroditipsarra.com. Available at: <http://afroditipsarra.com/index.php?/on-going/embodied-rf-ecologies/> [Accessed 12 March 2020

Figure 5 Model wearing a leg pouf antenna