Unravelling project scenario: Knit a wearable overall made as one-piece-knit, easy to unravel. Use the fluorescent yarn for knitting the overall. One-day-One-night action: Wear the overall during the sunny day in order to allow the fabric to absorb the sun light. During the night attach the loose end of the knit to a fixed object on the street then walk away and let the overall unravel, leaving the glowing trace behind you. Walk around the city for as long as you need and let the knitted overall unravel and disappear completely.

Process of unravelling of a knitted fabric and then reusing its threads again has always been part of this technique due to the quality of the cotton and its ability to be re-knitted. The proposed knitted wearable object will appropriate this technique in order to be able to unravel and transform itself into a physical record or trail mark. Wearing this knitted object while walking in an urban or natural environment one will be able to let this object dissolve into the record of the movement in a real time, leaving the trace behind for someone to be found, followed, deciphered, appropriated and eventually reused again. Using a smart materials such as fluorescent yarn or retro-reflective thread can add properties such as  light emitting or back reflection of the mark during the night while almost invisible during the day. The transformation of the object through the movement raises questions about how we perceive and define our environment, how we act in it, read the “terrain”, leave the marks or traces on its surfaces or abandon objects.

smart threads research: optical fibers, shape memory alloy, retro-reflective thread

smart threads research: CNT cotton, conductive yarn, light-emitting textiles

smart threads research: EL wire, nitelite, electroluminiscent light

Unravelling concept poster

Unravelling test 1.0

Unravelling Test 2.0