D+TM #31 #32 Mika Satomi & Hannah Perner-Wilson

What: SOFT SENSORS FOR SOFT BODIES II
When: Monday 11th of May, 10am-5pm
Where: Parsons Paris room 500
Who: Mika Satomi & Hannah Perner-Wilson

A six-hour introductory workshop to the materials, tools and techniques for building resistive sensors from textiles. Making your own sensors enables you to customize interactions to the specifics of your project. Sensors made from fabric, thread and yarn are great for applications that involve other soft and malleable materials like the human body.

In this workshop students will build their own custom soft sensors and connect these via an arduino (or similar) to a computer in order to visualize the range of data generated by the sensor.

http://www.kobakant.at/DIY/?p=5415

Mika Satomi and Hannah Perner-Wilson have been collaborating since 2006, and in 2008 formed the collective KOBAKANT. Together, through their work, they explore the use of textile crafts and electronics as a medium for commenting on technological aspects of today’s “high-tech” society. KOBAKANT believes in the spirit of humoring technology, often presenting their work as a twisted criticism of the stereotypes surrounding textile craftsmanship and electrical engineering. KOBAKANT believes that technology exists to be hacked, handmade and modified by everyone to better fit our personal needs and desires.
In 2009, as research fellows at the Distance Lab in Scotland, KOBAKANT published an online database for sharing their DIY wearable technology approach titled HOW TO GET WHAT YOU WANT.

Only satisfied when things are working, Mika Satomi is always looking for new ways to use any kind of material, or bending existing techniques to her needs. Since 2006, she works together with Hannah Perner-Wilson under the collective name KOBAKANT exploring the field of eTextiles She holds a BA in Graphic Design from Tokyo Zokei University, and an MA in Media Creation from IAMAS, Japan. She has been a researcher at The Smart Textile Design Lab at Textilehögskolan in Borås, Sweden from 2010-2012. Currently she is a guest professor at eLab, Weissensee Academy of Art Berlin.
mika@kobakant.at

Hannah Perner-Wilson combines conductive materials and craft techniques, developing new styles of building electronics that emphasize materiality and process. She received a BA in Industrial Design from the University for Art and Industrial Design Linz and an MA in Media Arts and Sciences from the MIT Media Lab, where she was a student in the High-Low Tech research group.