Unraveling roles through robotic fashion
Weekly thoughts on human-AI relations
Watching this short documentary “The secret robot that will disrupt fashion” on a new way of clothing production made me think about different lenses on generative things; the theme we have developed for TH/NGS 2024 conference is all about formulating questions about things that become like co-performing partners. They are starting conversations with us to generate new and possibly unexpected output.
The Vega factory portrayed in the documentary is creating a way to weave yarns into clothing pieces that are much more efficient and custom-made. Sometimes, it is like taking out the middle machines that we need and going directly from demand to production.
One thought is what the role of design will be in this case. Will we have a form of co-design where the order of design and making is shifted? Will the designer partner with the consumer to create the garment directly, but with the help of a designer who has special capabilities? Reversed co-design?
Another thought here is how generative AI will find its place. It will not only translate the human body into a readable protocol for the machine to print the garment you use but also become like that designer creating new variations and new combinations. Will the machine based on hidden possibilities create a new form of clothing? Will it create a jumpsuit instead of different pieces in a suit, or a different separation from bottom pieces (jeans) to tops, going left and right parts?
We see that there is a different relation with the machine. And a different deconstruction of tasks done by machines and humans. What if there is a production line in every city, instead of a shop for clothing, there is a machine that you can send orders to? Will there be workshops organized to create your personal clothing together with others and professional designers? Does that workshop replace the shopping? And of course, there will still be variations on what we see. We will have runways and fashion designers who inspire with different design methods. There will be fashion trends. This is a kind of immersive layer that is not made tangible before we create the custom “printed” piece.
Troy Nachtigall is researching the relation of robotic machines for garment production is topic of research at Wearble Data Lab by Troy Nachtigall. Is this happening already and how far is this developed? What is the impact of new generative AI on a market system like fashion?
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About the author; Iskander is particularly interested in digital-physical interactions and a focus on human-tech intelligence co-performance. He chairs the Cities of Things foundation and is one of the organizers of ThingsCon. Target is New is his “practice for making sense of unpredictable futures in human-AI partnerships”.