Soft Play: E-textiles for Storytelling

Figure 1. Completed e-textiles felt-based board.

This e-textiles project was created for my Advanced Topics class on the subject. I followed an autoethnographic methodology to develop a tool for interactive storytelling.

Demo video: https://mediaspace.carleton.ca/media/t/1_0bcc3gya

Felt or flannel boards are a way of engaging others (especially children) through storytelling. E-textiles enable digital components to be embedded into fabrics, which can offer more opportunities for interactions. Having grown up with my mother telling me fairytales and her own made-up stories by creating scenes using felt pieces on a board, I was inspired to elevate this traditional storytelling method with technology.

In a time where computers and new digital media hold the greater population’s attention, storytelling feels less personal in terms of interpretation and expressiveness in retelling. We can easily watch a film to learn a story, but a tangible medium enables a participatory social experience that is more interactive and memorable. I aimed to incorporate e-textiles in developing a felt-based board for storytelling using modular pieces with conductive elements to connect circuitry and light up LEDs.

Figure 2. Diagram of circuit and props.

The completed project can be used to assemble a decorative piece or reused to tell various stories. By creating this e-textile artifact, groups of people can interact with it simultaneously and share their unique perspectives on the story while being physically engaged in social collaborative play.

Figure 3. Construction process.