Abstract
To stimulate engagement and interaction within one’s imagination, this research explores the aesthetic potential of tactile and sensory materials. This practice-based inquiry explores and combines different textile design methods, materials, and technologies to enhance a sensory engagement via an internalised dialogue between the practitioner and her childhood imaginary friend. The practitioner has developed the material outcomes that are considered and contextualised based on the theories of embodied cognition and creativity. The use of colour and the theory of play has a significant effect on the engagement with interactive art. The significance of tactility and sensory engagement, to the imagination of both the creator/researcher and the audience, present a key focus of the project. While there is a body of technical research on the quantification of textile feel and tactility (the texture and handling of cloth), textile design research tends to focus on visual aesthetics. This project contributes to the articulation of textile expression through tactile and other sensory modes. The outcome of the research practice is realised through a series of sensory textile art installations that allow people to be able to engage with them as an experience that evokes the imagination, though touch and movement.
