The American designer Jessica Smarsch mainly specialises in textile innovations. For example, she works with textiles generated from recordings of physical movements and wearable tech with sensors integrated into the textile.
In her project ‘De-Formance’, Smarsch used the muscle movements of dancers in choreographed sequences to generate patterns for a series of knitted garments. The shape of the garments was also influenced by the acceleration and deceleration of the movements, causing the shape to shrink or expand respectively. In a final performance, the dancers reinterpreted the original choreographed sequences in corresponding costumes. Smarsch’s aim with this experimental project was to make a meaningful connection between different forms of creative expression: dance and design.
