15-469A/869K Algorithmic Textiles Design (original) (raw)

Fridays from 13:30-16:20 in GHC 4301 via video conference.

Instructor: Jim McCann. Office hours, virtually or in person, by appointment.
Help also available in Wean 1334 during Knitout Office Hours (most Thursday evenings at [around] 5-6:30pm, sign up for mailing list).
Class Piazza: http://piazza.com/cmu/spring2020/15869k.

Description

Textile artifacts are -- quite literally -- all around us; from clothing to carpets to car seats. These items are often produced by sophisticated, computer-controlled fabrication machinery. In this course we will discuss everywhere code touches textiles fabrication, including design tools, simulators, and machine control languages. Students will work on a series of multi-week, open-ended projects, where they use code to create patterns for modern sewing/embroidery, weaving, and knitting machines; and then fabricate these patterns in the textiles lab. Students in the 800-level version of the course will be required to create a final project which develops a new algorithm, device, or technique in the realm of textiles fabrication.

Other versions: this course also appeared in Spring 2019 and will appear in Spring 2021.

Prerequisites

Familiarity with at least one programming language.

Evaluation

Students will be graded out of 55 points, divided as follows:

Feel free to use source code from others, as long as that code's license permits it and you give proper credit. Using the work of others without giving credit (even if they don't ask for credit) is plagiarism and will result in you failing the course.

Schedule

This schedule is perpetually prone to adjustment.

January

01/17/2019 No Class: Jim is in Japan Before Class: Start the Warm-Up Tetraptych

Knitting

01/31/2019 Knitting Basic Knitout Operations In Class: Hand-Powered Knitting Machines

Big ideas in Machine Knitting In Class: Your first Knitout Rectangle Puzzles: knit/purl on tube; four layers of fabric

February

02/07/2019 Before Class: knit your rectangle on our machine Before Class: post Knitting Project inspiration 2/3rds Gauge Dependencies and Slack Stitch Scheduling Discussion: Knitting Project ideas Tube Layouts and Gauge Mappings

Flat Sewing

March

03/06/2019 No Class: Mid-Semester Break

03/13/2019 No Class: Spring Break

Weaving

April

Remainder of Class

04/17/2019 No Class: Carnival Make-Up Day For Monday Classes

May