Lingxiao Luo (CN): Behaving Knit

Lingxiao Luo is a knitwear designer, material researcher, and PhD student, committed to interdisciplinary work. During her one-month residency at Ars Electronica’s Futurelab in October 2023, she expanded upon the central themes of her PhD research, Behaving Knit: Exploring the Integrative Solution for Shape-changing Wearables by Knitting Technologies. 

Having artists and researchers from all over the globe collaborating with and taking residencies at the Ars Electronica Futurelab is of great importance to the laboratory and atelier for future systems. New forms of artistic expression serve the Futurelab as food for social thought, as an impetus to consider emerging issues, and as an opportunity to take a more multifaceted look at things.

Luo is part of the Soft Matters research group at EnsadLab, Ecole des Arts Décoratifs – PSL, and within the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions-funded SOFTWEAR doctoral network, which has an interdisciplinary initiative focus on soft actuators for wearables. In addition, and in line with their scientific work, Luo also founded Radical Fibre Lab. 

This secondment at Futurelab, in collaboration with Matthew Gardiner’s Oribotics, significantly influenced Luo’s exploration of actuated knitwear. Inspired by Oribotic’s merging of robotic origami with art and science, Luo developed wearables capable of dynamic shape, colour, and texture changes. Through this secondment, she created knitted textiles that respond to stimuli, contracting and expanding to reveal intricate textures and vibrant hues. 

At the Ars Electronica Festival 2024, Luo presented Behave-Knit, an interactive piece of knitwear that exemplifies how the clothing can move, contract, and ‘hug’ the wearer in response to their body’s condition. The project combines knitting technologies with embedded pneumatic actuators to create lifelike movements. This knitwear was designed to challenge conventional ideas of clothing by transforming it into a dynamic, responsive entity with carefully designed behaviours. The prototypes displayed at the festival triggered discussions about the future of fashion, where garments are no longer static objects but responsive, evolving participants in daily life. By pushing the boundaries of wearable technology, Behave-Knit opens new possibilities for interactive fashion that engages emotionally with the wearer and redefines our relationship with clothing. 

Read more on the Ars Electronica Blog: Rethinking clothing with knitting, origami, and Magic Girls

This project was part of the Open Futurelab at the Ars Electronica Festival 2024.