ABSTRACT
In response to digital technology, new methods, thinking and aesthetics have emerged that challenge the way we design. In particular, the extraction of movement introduced by motion-capture technology proposes a design process wherein the motion rather than the form is used as a material. In such a process, the motion is extracted from a defined set of points that creates a digital representation. In this exposition, the strategies utilized when capturing a motion is translated into the process of garment making resulting in other bodily aesthetics through dress.
Practically, this exposition is based on two independent studies that aim to define parameters for transformations of the moving body’s expression applied to a garment making process. The transformation is approached from two different perspectives; the first study is non-material and borrows theory and references from the field of dance and motion capturing technology. It maps the body as a point-based system based on the body as a moving form and pin-points body functions that affect these points. This part serves as a foundation for the second study that adds material aspects to the work, in particular, by mapping material parameters that relate to how the material is arranged in relation to these points.
In conclusion, strategies of extraction of movement as the attachments and the scale of fragmentation of materials are considered as the main contribution to the garment making process. As it proposes a new usage of movement, the work has implications for fashion design, costume design and other body movement-based practices.
Keywords:
Motion capturing, motion design, fashion design, body extended, performing body.
2. Enabling transformation: Inversed-kinematic
How can these methods be joint for the practice of garment making? I will start by illustrating a thinking where internal relations are the foundation of the design work. The example to the right (a) displays a typical pair of jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt understood through the type of connections of joints the garment is based on. Particularly, note the traditional division between the upper and lower body that for functional reasons is a common division utilized in the garment making process. In the example, the garment is designed for enabling movements and aims not to interfere with the performed movements. If we think about the role movement plays here, as some sort of material for an expression, it is similar to the tracing process of motion capturing when you use the movement data to generate a skeletal representation; the dress expresses the same form as that of the body. The figure (b) below describes an inverted, similar to inversed-kinematic, usage where the distal limbs and their range are used to perform a movement that immediately proposes a new ‘material’ form. The distal limbs are the primary connection, yet, the other points still affect the distal limbs and therefore become part of the expression. This usage of the distal limbs enables a lot of movement data that benefits a process that uses body motion as a material for transformations. These benefits are a result of a change related to the in-betweens of a form rather than to the form itself. The form itself, understood as the form of the body parts, doesn't change much when moving. What changes is instead the spatial form understood through the in-betweens. An inversed usage of the distal limbs in a garment making process subsequently enables a more independent material expression. This is due to the fact that the distance determines the degree of independence of the material; within a fitted form the material and the body are joint while in a loosely fitted form, where the material is partly free of attachment, it is possible for the body and material to move more independently.
This proposed usage is not suggesting a strictly different working method to be adopted. Instead, it suggests a new hierarchy of the various body parts. An approach offering temporality not only in the body's original structure, but also in the clothed material body. Between these extremities, a vary of designs are possible as new relationships can be formed that exceeds the upper and lower body division, and propose alternative connections between core, mid-limb, and distal. By introducing other divisions of the body, new expressions are made possible as well as alternative ways of thinking about the role of movement. Regarding functionality, one might think, as I too have proposed, that this is perhaps not the most functional. But then I ask functional for what?
The attachment forms the connections that constitute the relation between material and body: the core of the design work. Two different strategies can be used to enable a relation between material and body:
- RELATION OF POINTS: As proposed in image b, changing the fundamental relations that express the movement by creating a new relation of points. A strategy usually applied within the design of clothing.
- FITTED FORM ON BODY: Use the fundamental relations of the body that express the movement of the body but put in another material expression. The most common outcome of virtual representation but also a usual strategy in the design of clothing. It should be noted that this strategy provides minimal or non-existent space between body and material.
Whether the points are placed on the joints or not, individual relations between these points are the foundation for RELATION OF POINTS. The points change the fundamental relations of the body that express movement by the creation of new relations. A selected relation can be made by a set of as little as two points. It often provides different material simplifications and abstractions articulating specific understandings. FITTED FORM ON BODY uses the fundamental relations of the body and allows the whole body to transcend as form and movement into the material. Both strategies are quite traditional approaches that can result in various bodily expressions but by introducing them in these terms they become accessible as tools for extracting material for the creative process of garment making. Neither of these methods assigns a particular style or scale of transformation but rather this depends on material qualities and their scale. To apply this type of parameter in a design process requires an understanding of how to use both a materials potential for form and the body’s potential to form (act) and the symbiosis that can occur in this relation. This notion provides another form-thinking where garments are designed as systems of material suggestions available for the wearer.
1.The body as material - The expression
This exposition reflects upon the possibilities of body movements to generate temporal expressions through dress. It draws on the changes digital technology offers in terms of techniques and methods that often include data extracted from specific aspects, imposing various abstractions of the body and situations. However, the technological systems used by the fashion industry are based on the traditional method for construction and production, utilizing the cut and assembly, which results in a conformity of expression. In such processes, the body is often reduced into a set of data to suit particular construction methods1 .I.e. they are not refining the expression of dress but the production of it. So, these other aspects of the body offered by technology are not incorporated and, as proposed by Fashion Design scholar Karin Landahl, at least to some extent the possibilities offered of new technology are still held back by old perceptions of form”2. In terms of the kinetic aspects of the body, these old perceptions of form are dividing the body based on functionality. The upper body, used for finer motor activity, is separated from the lower body, often used for locomotion. Though this may be functional it is not generating ‘new’ forms.
So, new methods and techniques offered by virtual mediums are challenging the expressions of the body. Their way of understanding the body has been exemplified by Carey Jewitt3, professor of technology and learning, to put the body through an intense re-imagination exploring its expressions. These re-imaginations of bodily expression are essentially what traditionally has belonged to the field of fashion as a field concerned with ‘newness’4. While the way we design for the body and the way we engage through wearing is mainly influenced by habit and functionality and as Landahl puts it old perception of form; I would say that the development of the expression is rarely progressively challenged within fashion. Even if fashion is concerned with newness (Ibid.), it remains resistant to radical change5. As a result, more experimental works often fall into other fields instead of being recognized as innovative fashion ideas. Thiel continues: “it should be about human representation and visual manifestation of it (…) be they physically or digitally”6 while proposing a new field of bodily expressions that move beyond restrictions of mediums. In this exposition, a material-based approach is offered, that aims to broaden the possibilities in the garment making process by proposing a different usage of the body in another system rather than the same usage through a different technology.
Howcome the expressions are more innovative in 3D animation? I suggest that the primary reason is that they are mainly non-material. A virtual expression of a body is fundamentally a representation, it allows for a complete transformation and dissolving of the body since there, in most cases, is nothing underneath; the structure and surface are one and equally virtual7. The proposed virtual expression, the bodily abstractions, are often mediated by various motion capture technologies that collect data derived from movement. The 3D animations ISSEY MIYAKE by Euphrates, birds by Zeitgeist and the very recent and augmented-wearable Super You by Universal Everything, are examples wherein various forms express the same moving body. The presence of the body is in these examples communicated through its appearance in motion and its materiality can take any form. On the other hand, design of clothing involves an aesthetics that is based on static forms and works with the ideal forms of the body. Aspects of form have been dominant in garment making since the dress encloses the body. Such enclosure requires, for functional reasons, motion to be adjusted for in the construction rather than to be used as “material” to influence the design. However, when a dress is moved, its form becomes temporal through the qualities of the body and the material. The body wearing dress is too, at least partly, represented through its movement.
To conclude this introduction, movement is already present in the garment making process but to make use of movement, as opposed to positioned form, as a design material is something utterly different. The approach offered so far could now go in two directions; (1) approach virtual mediums, exploring the aesthetics of fashion through digital technology, i.e. approaching animators as fashion designers, or; (2) explore the possibilities of expression this thinking has for the material based process of garment making. This exposition will follow the material based approach and propose a re-contextualizing of these methods into the garment making process. In this repositioning, movement is brought forth as the main material for the design of dress, subsequently, it shifts the focus from the dress itself to the expression of wearing generated by dress where the body too is part of the structure of dress.
1.2 Comparing the methods
Let’s start by mapping out some of the differences and similarities between the processes of generating the expressions. Firstly, the capturing of movement and the interaction with a virtual representation is often mediated by various motion-capture technologies wherein markers, trackers or a RGBD camera marks the joints or other body parts while the tracking software and their algorithms rebuild the joint locations virtually. In such a process, there is no tactile dialogue with the expression aside from what the markers offer. Based on this extraction, a representation is created through for example blob tracking, optical flow, skeleton tracking or 3d recordings. These processes understands the body in different ways8. Still, the derived data aims to replicate the natural body as a structure that later can be replaced by another structure. When extracting movement, the joints play an important role as they enable bodily movement. The joints are equally important in the garment making process, but they are treated differently since the garment making process is mainly, as previously mentioned, concerned with aspects of form. Within such a process, more points than the joints are added that relate to form, or more precisely, to transform a flat two-dimensional fabric into a three-dimensional form by horizontal and vertical measurements9. In the process of garment making, the designer establishing internal relations by choosing points on the body from where a form can be molded, sculpted, and the form of the body can be rethought. The selected relations in the construction of clothing are usually what enables freedom of movement through a ‘good fit’ but they equally have the potential for expressing movement, to ‘make something happen’ in the material.
The methods for constructing form are utterly different. One is designed for enclosing the body, while the other is representing something from a physical distance. This results in two fundamentally different ways of dealing with materials, on one hand, materials that can produce a mould are preferred, while on the other, 'materials' are chosen to create a form or texture, a structure based on the body as a geometric representation. One of the main design materials of clothing is however not the material itself but the space between body and garment, the negative space or the space in-between. This space constitutes the form of clothing, i.e. the way it differs from the form of the body, and enables the dialogue between two movement identities. In virtual representations, this 'negative space' becomes an artificial construction that is created through the rigging process, where the skeleton is connected to the virtual body. In such a process the mesh is attached via a binding process where the 3D applications apply the rig to various elements throughout the rig. Still, the virtual representation is built as a structure rather than on a structure as is the case when making a garment. This subsequently results in, as previously proposed, different interactions with the expression as one of them is providing a mainly visual expression for the ‘wearer’, while the other provides a mainly tactile one.
3. Conclusion
Through the design examples, this work proposes a theoretical thinking and methodological approach for integrating movement as a design material in the garment making process. Subsequently, this challenges the aesthetic norms of dress as another way of doing reflects in another type of expression. Through the examples and the notions, another form-thinking is proposed, where motion is captured from the body into a garment and garments are designed as systems of material suggestions available for the wearer, i.e. it is not just the design of a form, but a design of all possible forms one form includes, a system of forms in movement. The proposed method enables various transformations of the moving body into other moving forms. As a system of design, its purpose is to enable various possible transformations of form including temporal aspects of material and body.
The two studies presented together propose a foundation for a method of body-based temporal forms. The first study provides a rethinking of the usage of the joints by comparing how they are used in motion capturing technology. The second one provides material parameters related to this strategy. The main contribution considers the usage of motion as ‘captured’ through a garment making process. Subsequently, this approach includes the act of wearing, as it is within this act that the captured motion is being expressed. Through the act of wearing, the body is the mechanism, the main design drive, and the place from where the ideation departs.
Particularly, the work brings forth the complexity of the material aspects as they are the main influence of the expression of form. This study proposes that the scale of fragmentation of material constitutes the possibility to give and take form and formulates directions and possible expressions. When applied to the body, it does so through either ‘full-body form’, or ‘selected relations of points’ as two methods for attachment. One of the main findings is considered to be the extensive effect the degree of fragmentation has on both the attachment points and the performed movement. In its relation to movement, a low fragmentation imposes restrictions on the body as it restricts the movement and the possible form; fragmentation at the scale of the body imposes movements that act within this new material system; a high degree of fragmentation acts by mainly enhancing movements of the body or act through the tactile dialogue. Further, due to its scale, highly fragmented materials prefer a “fitted form on body”- approach in most cases.
The abstracted figures do not only propose material strategies, but also theoretical ones that can be applied to various fields as they propose spatial points that the body according to various structural extensions can reach. Moreover, this doesn’t only have implications for fashion design but also for other fields that use body motion as a design material. Particularly worth mentioning is costume design for dance, as this in its essence is a temporal aesthetics.
For a designer working within the field of performing arts, this raises a question; how come the set of data related to the construction of form still is the most relevant? Wouldn't a thinking similar to the motion capture technique be beneficial for this field in particular? The joints as points that trigger change in the materials...
2.1 Enabling transformation: Fragmentation
This part of the exposition deals with the process of relating a material to the body. It has to do with materiality, the complexity it suggests in itself, and how to apply it into a method for construction. The study is based on 30 sketches of hand movements performed between the November 1 and November 31, 2018. The hand was chosen due to the vary of movement it can perform: twisting, rotation and folding its various limbs. The sketches act as figures of thought as defined by Karin Peterson18 "physical representations of thinking" that generate knowledge. To the right on the screen, a selection of the experiments is discussed by placing the examples together two and two or three and three with the purpose to define, problematize, or motivate a particular finding. The main analysis is based on video recordings and stills from the recordings, from this, the categories are grouped and relationships between them are identified.
In general, the kinetic properties of materials influence form in complex ways, which makes design into essentially a material practice. Hence, structuring methods for a material based practice is therefore equally complex and the contribution of this work is a suggestions of how to arrange and treat the material with examples of the arrangements relating to the expression, rather than a particular construction technique. The work proposes three categories that depended on the 'scale of fragmentation' in a particular design example. The scale of fragmentation is in these examples discussed as a material fragmentation, i.e. to what scale the material is attached on or cut by in. The scale is defined in relation to the body, and therefore simultaneously performs fragmentation on the body. This scale is what determines how much of the body that is part of the expression, in movement and in form. In general, the degree of fragmentation of a material provide a material language for the movement to be understood through as each material, and its degree of fragmentation, understands the body differently and therefore addressed different aspects of a movement.
A material that is fragmented to a low extent proposes a clear geometric form. Geometric forms have a clear ‘starting point’, that makes movement articulated by distortion of form between somewhat defined states. The material abstracts and simplifies the hand and when simplified to this extent the movement the hand performs focuses on actively manipulating the material through its restrictions. From the examples within this category, one may think this only applies to somewhat rigid materials, this is however not the case. A soft material would provide the same structural simplification, only occasionally allowing more points of the body to be temporary active in the expression. Within this category, the material's potential for form is dominant in the expression. When a material is fragmented in the scale of the body's limbs or joints, it is recognized as body-based, it relates closely to a specific movement or pattern of movement that the body can perform and uses the body in a straight forward way as a mechanism. The design examples suggest material interpretations of a specific movement and through this, they provide a movement language in close dialogue with the body. Examples based on body parts and limbs naturally relate to the functions of movements since the scale allows for particular movements to be performed. In general, they create a new ‘stance’ or posture based on a specific function. It can, however, risk of limiting movements to those that are primary the movements to be expressed. When a material is fragmented to a scale smaller than the limbs or body parts it is often recognized as texture. The form is based on the full body’s form through another material expression. The movement the body can perform is often very versatile since the scale of the material is smaller than the body and doesn’t provide restriction. However, the material expression is often less clear in comparison to previous fragmentations, it doesn’t provide clear starting points and stances. In general, this category provides more freedom of movement by enhancing material expression in motion.
Though these figures mainly work with materials that have an external direction, the same applies for less volumes or fitted arrangements. While discussing aspects of transformation, the three approaches will be visible by the framing of each video:
BLUE: Design processes utilizing a large scale or dominant material form, often covering the whole body replacing it as form. The form is often constructed inspired by the potential of the material for form.
YELLOW: Design processes utilizing ‘units’ that are, on one or another level, in the scale of /or arranged according to a joint or limb. The body and material are often equally active in inspiring the design work.
PINK: Design processes utilizing small scale materials or material texture in relation to the body, its limbs, and joints, often starting with creating material units or arranging material units.
1.4 Forming / Tracing
The developments of technology such as the camera, various movement notation systems and latter motion capture technology have influenced our way of thinking about movement. Many of these technologies are mainly concerned with various forms of tracings. Tracing often results in a data visualization or some sort of representation of the preformed motion. An interaction mediated by various motion-capture equipment. These various tracings come naturally from the fact that the body lacks contact with physical materials and for this reason lacks input 16. When the body encounters physical material, the body begins to form the material while at the same time being formed by it in a simultaneous tactile and visual interaction. What is here discussed as tracings and forming can be further understood by having a look at William Forsythe’s improvisation technique17 as it addresses both how a dancer can improvise, based on an imaginative tracing of the motions in space, and through establishing connections internally within the body, to enable a forming. These formings propose ‘that something happens’ to the space outside the body when one moves, by doing so it addresses the aspects of relationality that a set of reference points can provide. Forming as opposed to tracing concerns primarily how the design of an action or type of movement can be proposed to a wearer by the change of form. Subsequently, this proposes a closer dialogue to the material expression; forming dress through wearing.
2.2. The examples
The examples are discussed as follows:
1.1 Arrangement – The same material
1.2 Arrangement – relations of points
1.3 Arrangement – fitted forms
2. Abstraction
3. Different functions of the body
4. Same movement different expressions
5.1 Informing movement - function, placement
5.2 Informing movement - texture
5.3 Informing movement - from
6.1 Material movement - texture
6.2 Material movement - gravity
7.1 Extensions - fitted form/ relation of points
7.2 Extensions - systematic or random
1.3 The role of body movements
The purpose of this study is to detect methods that enable transformations of the form of the body into other moving forms. In such process, body movement is used as a material which requires a knowledge of the body as another type of form, as a temporal form, a form that moves and changes in expressions. This exposition understands dress too as a temporal form10 enabled by the tracking process of movement rather than by the body as ’positioned’ static form. The tracking process is utilized so that forms of dress could be changed between defined states in correspondence with the body. These are allowing the movement of the body to extend its current form into other kinds of expressions as temporal forms.
Technology scholar Robert Wechsler11 lists the input data used in the EyeCon system, noting the following as factors that indicate change and temporality: “height of body from the floor, width (measured from left-most to right-most point of the body), degree of expansion or contraction in the body’s pose, degree of symmetry in the body". These are aspects related to the measurable changeability of form and propose that spatial aspects aid an understanding of body movement. Further, the tracking method of inverse-kinematics proposes a tracking of only the endpoints of the body from where the rest of the body is understood. This method understands movement as a relational material defined through a set of points. It proposes that a motion can have various expressions depending on what relation is utilized at the foundation of the design.
Inversed-kinematic proposes that the distant limbs are especially important. If we compare this to the garment-making process we find that this is usually initiated on the torso. The distant points are due to their movement range and functionality often left free of materials or provided with something additional like gloves, socks or a hat. In inversed-kinematic, this movement range is precisely the benefit, since the relational material generated can understand the whole body not just the form of the limbs. Similarly, Ciane Fernandes with her basis in Authentic Movement and Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analysis, divides the body according to the type and range of movements that the different body parts can perform within; distant limbs, mid-limbs, and core12.
The four images to the right illustrated the four kinds of movement the body, from its physical structure, can perform comfortably; peripheral action, rotary action, flex extension, locomotion13. These movements have their origin in joints. The joints allow the body to change its size: flexing and extending from in to out, from big to small, from low to high, from close to far, and so on. The joints are uniting two structures to form a mobile unit. The four kinds of movement the joints perform affect how the material will relate to the body as a structure and are therefore important as a design material for the temporal expression. There is a distinction between these as the first three strategies are directly based on the potential of the joints, while the fourth is related to what these joints can perform when acting in a movement chain.
1.1 Arrangement - The same material
These examples show that whatever materials are used, the attachment and degree of fragmentation, i.e. how it is placed on the body, are the main parameters that determine how an experiment is categorized. The three examples are based on a similar technique, different line-based materials extend the body and reform an elastic tube. The more abstracted the form is, the more limited are the movement possibilities; the body is simplified until it does not matter what is underneath, it becomes primarily a material form. Finer units tend to transform the body as movement and form, allowing the body to move with fewer movement constrains, still permitting versatile and unexpected movements and forms to occur. Examples based on movement principles of the body tend to introduce a new stance and positioning of the body; a new clear movement language of form for the body to explore. The more units the more possibility of bodily movements, the more possibility for the body to affect and change the form, but less clear distortion.
Rotary action permits the body or body part to move within its own space, which can result in turns and twists.
Peripheral action holds one body part anchored in place while the other end can move freely, prescribing a linear design.
1.2 Arrangement - relations of points
The examples above are based on a similar material, but differ in the arrangement. Though both examples are based on a selected relation of points, the yellow and pink straws are systematically arranged in accordance with the twisting of the hand, while the beige barbeque sticks are arranged randomly on the hand. Therefore, the first express a function while the other is creating texture and is distorting the body since it is not arranged accordingly to it. The straws are creating a new stance and a clear movement language, it suggests an understanding of a particular movement. The scale of the material affects the degree of distortion. If it had been smaller it would allow more of the body's form to transcend. Both examples can interpret and distort form and movements but they encourage different movement vocabularies.
Movement chains
These movement functions act within various movement chains, the following are some examples collected from Hartley's Wisdom of the body moving: an introduction to body-mind centering14:
Head to tail movements
The movement chain of the spine by bending it forward, for example bending it backward, extending it upwards, moving it in a wave-like form, etc.
Contra-lateral movement
The difference in movement between the left and right side of the body, for example, crawling, waving your opposite arm and leg, move the right side of your body while the left side remains still, etc.
The homologous movement
The difference in movements between the upper and lower parts of the body. Walk and wave your hands, jump with two feet, run, etc. In everyday life movement of the lower body is often used for stability and locomotion and the upper body is used for finer muscular activity.
Flex-extension is a joint action that extends or condenses the body in space. This has a key role in construction of garment as points that need flexibility are provided this. Rudolf Von Laban defines flex extension, open-close, as the fundamental function of the body15.
Locomotion, the whole body is moved from one position in space to another. Locomotion creates and defines spatial composition. Most often used in interaction design when a certain spatial position activates a sensor or are used as to capture motion when visualizing spatial movement patterns.
1.3 Arrangement – Fitted forms
In these examples, the material is fitted on the body, meaning that all parts of the hand affect the material expression. The material of the red foam form provides more resistance and is arranged in larger breaking points. These points are not designed in accordance with the joints but with the form, which makes the movements of the hand transcend less; the hand in itself becomes secondary to the material form. Thus, its role becomes to manipulate the form. The rubber bands are built as a repetition of smaller units and allow more of the hand movements to transcend the material[JS1] . In both examples, the hand is in dialogue with the tactile material. The red foam is restricting and minimizing the range of movements and the tempo of movements. The rubber band enhances fast and jerky movements. The material qualities affect the categorization, but the material arrangement determines the categorization.
2. Abstraction
These examples are both based on movement functions of the hand. While the purple circles are abstracting the joints of the hand into 3 levels, the cardboard sheet is abstracting the bending of fingers and thumb through diagonal and horizontal cuts. The cardboard is abstracting the form until the point it becomes a geometric two-dimensional form. The form and cuts are arranged in such a manner that they distort the folding of the hand rather than articulating it. The degree of abstraction and distortion of the lines puts the example in the form category even if it is based on the body. The sheet also shows how over abstracted movement and form eventually become oversimplified as movement qualities; its expression in terms of movement becomes less versatile. The purple circles includes more movement possibilities since it is based on the 3 levels of the hand and allows for movements in all directions. The placement and scale of the circles are in relation to the hand's joints and limbs and are therefore articulating the function of those joints and limbs.
3. Different functions of the body
There are several different functions of the body to base a design on. All of them provide equally accurate expressions regarding to this function. The white sticks are expressing the angularity that the joints perform while the yellow and pink straws are expressing the twisting of the joints. In both interpretations, the material's ability is important but the original function of the movement is even more important. Both of them, as most of the designs based on movement principles, primarily encourage the movement of the function expressed and therefore act slightly limiting in terms of movement qualities. Both of them propose a new stance and individual movement languages that depart from this stance enable a close correlation between expression and movement.
4. Same movement different expressions
The expression of one movement can drastically change depending on what material is used and how the material is arranged. Above, the same movement is performed, the simple bending of the metacarpophalangeal joint, the simplest trigger for change. When this movement is understood through the three different material arrangements, the expression of the movement changes. The pink ball is designed to express the movement function. The paper is a texture arranged on points below and above the joint to make use of the movement. The balloon is an external form responding to the movement of the joint. It should be noted that the paper differs from the other 'textures' as to how it is placed on the hand. It is only placed on a specific relation and the material is a ridged structure that only enables the hand to make a closed or an open form. It is arranged slightly different from the other examples of texture, an arrangement more similar to the ones of form or function.
5.1 Informing movement – function (placement)
In the examples above, the material is arranged on the same line of the hand but formed into two different materials and forms. The outline of the hand is spatially extended by how the materials are used. The different forms and arrangements of the textile further encourage movements that in different ways affect the specific line. The blue felt mainly explores the shifting of the directionality of the fingers. The white foam explores the open-close, as these movements are those who visually and tactilely are giving most response to the hand. The examples display the possibility of varying expressions resulting from the same points of the body and how this, in the end, will inform different types of movement patterns.
5.2 Informing movement - texture
The examples display two different ways of informing movements. The umbrellas are arranged as a texture that primarily informs movements visually, while the black fringes inform primary from the tactile response. Since the fringes are fast and fluid, they encourage movements that are fast and jumpy. The fringes provide a slight echo of all movements, leaving the hand free of constrains while providing a direct response that enhances all movements as an echo.
5.3 Informing movement - form
In the examples above the primary design aspect and choreographic information accessed by the hand comes from the form, i.e. how the material in itself is arranged as a structure. The circular form is encouraging horizontal movements of the fingers to manipulate this form, while the red foam encourages vertical movements due to the form and its breaking points. The forms inform movements mainly through constraints, making some movements easier to perform.
6.1 Material movement - texture
In the examples above, the material movement quality is highly influential to the movement the body will come to perform; the material is choreographing by means of tactility. The rubber band has a direct response to the movement performed, encouraging movements that are fast, asymmetrical and jerky, while the texture of the plastic paper offers more resistance and thus creates slower and more controlled movements.
6.2 Material movement - gravity
In these examples, both materials are highly affected by gravity. Both examples consist of units that are systematically arranged. The two different materials provide different responses through different weights and degrees of stiffness for the body to react to. The information to the body is primarily tactile. Both materials provide a tactile echo to the movements that influence the tempo and the quality of the movement performed.
7.1 Extensions - fitted form/ relation of points
Several of the forms presented so far extend the movement spatially. Just like the barbeque sticks introduced earlier, the umbrellas are arranged randomly on the hand extending random points spatially. This enables a transformation of the hand movements through the material as a filter. In the fringes, points of the hand are extended equally far outside the body, but since the material is not rigid the extension of points changes in response to gravity. Both examples are categorized as texture due to scale, placement, and repetition of units. The umbrellas use the change in the relation of points, while the fringes use fitted form on the body, since all parts of the hand affect the expression. One could assume that the fringes, for this reason, would give a more accurate expression of the hand movement, but since the material is dominant in both examples, the expression of the hand's movements are equally distorted.
7.2 Extensions - systematic or random
The extension can be systematic or random. The examples with the white sticks are examples of a systematic extension according to a specific function, even if the new spatial points are distant and have another behavior than the hand, they clearly express an idea of the hand's movements. The umbrellas, on the other hand, are arranged randomly. The random points are spatially extended to enable a transforming of the movements of the hand. The hand, the source of movement, is more or less visible in the first two examples while hidden in the third, which further contributes to the mystification of the form.