SAM TOPLEY

The DigiLab Banner is a co-created interactive textile artwork which makes sound when touched. It was commissioned by the University of Manchester in November 2019. 

I was invited to create the piece with students from the university, over three days as a part of a residency in the Main Library. During the "open-studio" style workshops, the participants dropped in to create conductive pompoms, learning about e-textiles, creative coding/physical computing and more. We attached the pompoms to a large fabric circuit board which I constructed in the library at the start of the residency. The participants' conductive pompoms were all connected to a microcontroller and loudspeakers embedded within the artwork. When the piece is touched, tickled and hugged, the pompoms make chirpy beeping sounds at a variety of frequencies. 

Read more about this project in Sam's PhD thesis.