Thermobonded Fabrics

In 2009 Avella created a series of innovative fabrics for the Yves St Laurent (YSL) collection, deploying techniques from vehicle engineering to generate new materials for a range of garments. Studying the bonding of layers of material in ceramic plate thermobonding technology, Avella conducted a series of experiments with textiles such as flannel, silk and synthetics, and material such as leather, layered with polyamide foam and textile substrate to create new, textured and insulating fabrics with beautiful surfaces and interesting forms. The lightweight properties of the foam enabled the maximum insulation/weight ratio, and the panel moulding technology brought new forms of draping prêt-a-porter fashion design. Exclusive to YSL, this technique was patented and then shown at the Premiere Vision textiles trade fair in 2010. Much documented in specialist journals this innovation also breached the trade-culture barrier and was reported and documented in mainstream newspapers (New York Herald Tribune). Avella’s background in textile workshop studio experimentation at the RCA brought to YSL textiles research for manufacture, the innovative collaboration between fashion couture and engineering laboratory experiments from vehicle design.

Jaquard Laquer

In 2010 Avella worked with the Yves St Laurent (YSL) textiles research team to find elements for a coating that could be applied to weave surfaces in the form of a ‘laquer’ finish. Working with industrial chemists, Avella designed a Jaquard weave pattern to function as substrate for this laquer coating. Successfully used to make womenswear with a high gloss finish, this textile was patented before being displayed in 2010 and much imitated in other collections. Continuing this research for the following collection Avella pursued experiments in laboratory-based industrial chemistry to find a liquid coating that could, like ‘laquer’, be applied as a surface finish to textiles. The resulting metallic iridescent surface was first used in the 20?? Collection (Intellectual Property YSL). Whilst the culture of neophilia in Womenswear fashion at YSL demands permanent innovation for stylistic rather than functional reasons, the innovations in the surface coatings of textiles has potential instrumentality which Avella brings to the resources of the RCA Materials For Living Research Hub and its Inspiring Matter Biennial Conference (2012). Cross disciplinary knowledge transfer between design practices is fundamental to research as process in the School of Material, and textile, as medium, has particularly conformable properties which are especially valuable to this. Anthropologist Susanne Kuechler describes woven textiles as having ’profound meaning as agents of boundary creation’, and Avella’s textiles innovations explore the complexity of the garment as boundary between ‘inside’ and ‘outside’.

Exploring Perceptual Matters: A Textile-Based Approach

This research takes a practice-based approach to exploring perceptual matters that often go unnoticed in the context of everyday lived experience. My approach focuses on the experiential possibilities of knowledge emerging through artistic enquiry, and uses a variety of modes (like textiles, sound, physical computing, programming, video and text) to be conducted and communicated. It examines scholarship in line with the ecological theory of perception, and is particularly informed by neurobiological research on sensory integration as well as by cultural theories that examine the role of sensory appreciation in perception. Different processes contributing to our perceptual experience are examined through the development of a touch-sensitive, sound-generating rug and its application in an experimental context. Participants’ interaction with the rug and its sonic output allows an insight into how they make sense of multisensory information via observation of how they physically respond to it. In creating possibilities for observing the two ends of the perceptual process (sensory input and behavioural output), the rug provides a platform for the study of what is intangible to the observer (perceptual activity) through what can actually be observed (physical activity). My analysis focuses on video recordings of the experimental process and data reports obtained from the software used for the sound generating performance of the rug. Its findings suggest that attentional focus, active exploration, and past experience actively affect the ability to integrate multisensory information and are crucial parameters for the formation of a meaningful percept upon which to act. Although relational to the set experimental conditions and the specificities of the experimental group, these findings are in resonance with current cross-disciplinary discourse on perception, and indicate that art research can be incorporated into the wider arena of neurophysiological and behavioural research to expand its span of resources and methods.