Embodied Experience + 3D Digital Knitting = Affording Tactile Sensory Pleasure
To feel is a whole body sensation; an embodied experience. This project invites participants to rediscover their own personal tactile sensory preferences through immersing themselves in the tactile aesthetics of the knitted objects presented and discovering their embedded affordances. The video shows how others have interacted with the materials to form haptic memories, engaging in a dialogue through their bodily movements and moulding the perfect form that supports their body and emotional needs in that moment.
Affording Tactile Sensory Pleasure began as practice-based research by designer Maureen Selina Laverty. She set out to explore the heightened tactile sensory experience of living with autism but what emerged was a process that facilitates the creation of truly pleasurable experiences for everyone; experiences that empower us to take ownership of our surroundings, build emotional bonds with our possessions, and shape what we need from an object.
Laverty’s objects are produced using 3D digital knitting; an efficient automated and zero waste manufacturing technology. Within this technology lies the potential to utilise it as both an iterative design tool and a process that affords customisation, even within mass-production, to indulge personal tactile sensory preferences.
