Welcome

Welcome to Fashioning Circuits, a public Humanities project.

Photo "electronic led light dress at the museum of science and industry in chicago" by Flickr user David Hilowitz
Photo “electronic led light dress at the museum of science and industry in chicago” by Flickr user David Hilowitz

Fashioning Circuits was launched in September 2011 as part of a series of independent studies in the graduate program in Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication (formerly Emerging Media and Communication, or EMAC) at the University of Texas, Dallas. In Fall 2023, Fashioning Circuits relocated to San José State University.

The project began as an investigation into wearable media and technology. Wearables, and the shifts that arise from joining computing to the body, remain an important part of the work in the project. But our scope has expanded as we have done the work of exploring these questions and tracing these entanglements over the years. Fashioning Circuits is now a place where we also engage with the rich histories and practices of computational craft, domestic technologies, soft activism, and so forth. These practices, often hyper-feminized and located within homes or community collectives, are an important and often unacknowledged pre-history of what is today referred to as “maker culture.” We both study and engage in these practices in our scholarship, creative practice, and community partnerships

We are inspired by the possibilities of:

  • Learning new techniques
  • Recovering histories
  • Working in collaboration in an inclusive space
  • Developing strategies of expression that engage with broader cultural contexts

In Fashioning Circuits “fashion” functions not just as a noun to describe cultural trends, but also as a verb, “to fashion,” to indicate the experiential and problem based learning strategies of the project as well as the potential for a diverse range of students to fashion new histories and to fashion themselves as members of the publics and counterpublics of the future.

If you are interested in these possibilities and the connection between media or technology and embroidery, sewing, knitting, crocheting, felting, haberdashery, quilting, scrapbooking, cooking, and other craft or domestic technologies, contact us. If you would like to work with us on planning a community event, please email kim.knight@utdallas.edu  If you would like to volunteer your time at one of our community events, please join our Facebook planning group at http://facebook.com/groups/fashioningcircuits

Aside from the blog archive, the editorial team is also active on Twitter and Instagram. Follow our accounts @fashioncircuits (Twitter) and @fashioningcircuits (Instagram). And search both sites for the hashtag #fashioningcircuits to see all of the interesting resources we are finding and sharing.


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2 responses to “Welcome”

  1. Laurie Korte Avatar

    Hi,

    I am writing a dissertation titled Development of Collaboration and Creative Thinking Through the Creation of Wearable Technologies. I thought you might be able to help me locate some opportunities to include in my study. Any chance you are working with any high schools integrating e-textiles within their curricula? The problems I am addressing are the elimination of arts programs in education and employers looking for these skills. The purpose of my research is to discover the perceptions of students and their teachers on how engagement in digital artistic creation of wearable technologies affects the development of collaboration and creative thinking in learners.

    Any assistance you could offer would be greatly appreciated.
    Thank you,

    ~Laurie Korte

    1. kimaknight Avatar

      Hi Laurie,

      Thanks for your message. Your dissertation sounds very interesting.

      Unfortunately we are not currently working with any high schools. We have worked with high-school aged young women through The Girl Scouts, but not directly with any schools.

      Are you in the Dallas area? If so, you might consider contacting some of the local magnet arts schools as a starting point. For instance, Booker T. Washington. Even if they don’t have any wearable tech curricula, they might know if other schools do.

      Good luck!