Course Guide¶
This collaborative course brings actuation and textiles together to explore their creative potential. Students develop group projects culminating in a public installation. Within this process the top-level objective is a reflection on the nature and process of interdisciplinary collaboration.
We will focus on experimental approaches to fabric structures which respond to actuation. The course includes elementary textile technique but focuses on fabric as a raw kinetic material rather than textile craft.
Spring 2026 News¶
We will once again be using textiles and soft materials to create kinetic sculptures for an outdoor show at the end of the semester. The details are still being revised, but the Spring 2025 Agenda shows how the development process typically unfolds.
The course meetings are Tuesdays and Thursdays noon-1:50PM in the IDeATe Physical Computing Lab, Hunt A10, on the library lower level.
Contents¶
Course Role and History¶
This course is part of the Integrative Design, Arts, and Technology (IDeATe) program at Carnegie Mellon University. It is a “collaborative” course elective for the IDeATe Soft Technologies and Physical Computing programs. This course makes use of the IDeATe fabrication and lab facilities in the lower level of Hunt Library. The permanent link for the course is https://courses.ideate.cmu.edu/16-376.
This course was previously offered in Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022, Spring 2021, Spring 2020, and Spring 2019.