Fabrication

Stretching
Fabrics, Sensors and Arduino

University of Michigan
2015

In this project, we are going to design an installation with textile technology for autistic children. Autistic children usually have social impairment issue, for example, some kids are not verbal, some have social avoidance behavior and some have repetition issue in expression. Physically, some autistic children have hypotonia issue (low muscle tone), some have restricted pattern of behaviors and some have motor issues. Our small client, Ara, has hypotonia issue, and this issue becomes our design concept. What if we can design a playground in which she can play with other people and meanwhile train her muscles. Hence, we adopt the idea from YOGA because yoga is an exercise which can help Ara stretch her body and hold the specific postures and stay in a balance for a long time. Therefore, we use yoga postures to create the space of the installation in which she can follow the nature of the space to hold the postures we design and increase the muscular strength.