Development process

The development process of hacking the machines into textile printers for depositing biochromes with an interactive and haptic input, unfolds under 5 complementary directions. These are defined by our model of craftsmanship 2.0, which delineates the relation between traditional crafts and technology, while acknowledging the different aspects necessary to develop and design this new process.

Each represent a parallel with the traditional way of printing on textiles, explore the 5 development directions:

tool

ways of leaving a mark on textiles

tool holder - hands

incorporating movement in painting

medium

bio-inks, mordants and pastes into the textiles

machine - body

protocols for hacking our equipment

code - mind & language

interactive language for interactive painting

Tool

A craftsperson's tools, are fundamental means to deposit ink onto the textiles, the brushes, the rollers, the blocks. Those tools and new ones are being acknowledged and developed to further extend the possibilities for printing.

Making your own tools

With a printing craft comes the obvious need for tools to print with. In the Netherlands there is a rich history of craftspeople making their own tools, adapted to their personal preferences or the preferences of the people for whom they were making printed textiles.

Hollow parametric tools

In conjunction with the development of the IV drip tool holder, the need for hollow brushes arose. There is multiple ways to go about this. You can use hollow pipes and stick the ink tubes in there directly, and securing them with something like a stopper (a broken brush in this case).

Tool holder

A craftsperson's hands, have the ability to impart and perform movement with knowledge and dexterity. The tool-holders we develop performs similar movements, with the additional feature of being able to indefinitely rotate or swing a brush tirelessly.

Machine-specific attachments

To make our machine hack more easily adaptable for any machine in any lab, we decided to split the tool holder development into two parts: the universal tool holder and the machine-specific attachment.

Tool holder 1

To keep this post to the point, the focus will be on the design iterations, fabricated tool holders and their electronics. The code for the tool holders with electronics can be found on the bottom of this page.

Interactive tool holder

Looking back on the first version of our machine hack, it is working but not very elegant yet. There are some issues to address in a version 2 focussing on reliability and ease of use.

Interactive devices

One of our main challenges in Hacking the machines is how to maintain the performative action of the craft process. How do we safeguard the knowledge of the hands, serendipity, the sensorial exchange between the craftsperson and the material, intuition and chance within the artisanal process, when working with digital solutions that tend to be more sterile and optimised for faster, cheaper, replicable large quantities of products?

Water pump ink deposition

This blog post describes the development of the water pump system using three 5V aquarium pumps that can be turned on or off with buttons. This is the precursor to the Dye and motion output system, which uses a more powerful 12V pump that can be controlled more precisely.

Medium

The medium prepared by the craftsperson holds significant importance and is developed in order to match the tool and surface. In this case it is coupled to the challenge of the tool holder and creation of reservoirs for a machine, while being produced of local biochromes and mordant pastes.

Examples of direct printing

General techniques and processes

When exploring biochromes as a more sustainable alternative to synthetic inks or acrylic paints, a number of routes appear, each holding its pros and cons, each offering a different set of materials, tools, steps and results with their own accompanying aesthetics.

Principles of bio-based printing on textiles

Bio-based printing for textile colouring, in the traditional sense of the term, is done by printing into the textile, rather than superficially, on top of the textile. This means that generally speaking, the colouring substances (bio-chromes) and the affinity-creating substances (mordants) are deeply penetrating the fibers, then fixated and result in lasting printed textiles, where the colour is visible on both sides of the textile cloth.

Machine

The body of a craftsperson is fully engaged in the action of printing, the machine partially takes over the strain of this engagement, while still being guided in part by haptic input.

Shopbot Operation

One of the machines we are developing hacks for is the ShopBot, a versatile CNC router designed for large-format subtractive fabrication. It’s commonly used for cutting wood, foam, plastic, and soft metals, and it’s capable of both 2D and 3D operations.

Axidraw Operation

One of the two machines we’re developing hacks for is the AxiDraw V3/A3, a precision plotter known for its versatility in 2D motion-based tasks like drawing, writing, or marking surfaces.

Machine Hacking Research

To get a sense of what is out there already regarding custom and hacked machines for drawing we looked at various makers working with plotters. Our main goals are to discover what’s out there already and who is doing inspiring things with machines and crafts.

Code

The conscious instructions and language the craftsperson imparts while performing their craft are translated into code and communication protocol, forming the link between the machine's ability to execute tirelessly and the creative and technical knowledge of the craftsperson. 

Machine Communications and Code

In machine hacking, taking control of the communication between human and machine is not just a technical necessity—it’s a creative opportunity. Standard machine workflows often assume a fixed chain of operations, leaving little room for experimentation or adaptation.