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Soft Systems

Guwanyue Zhang

Guwanyue Zhang is a textile designer based in London. She is a multi-disciplinary designer who enjoys developing her project through the use of colors, materials, patterns, interactions, etc.

During her MA in Soft System at the Royal College of Art, she began to explore the emotional expression and interaction of virtual materials. She aims to provide new ideas for future textile design through the form of generative design.

Show Location: Battersea campus: Studio Building, Third floor

Guwanyue Zhang-statement

In today's era of energy shortages, the rapid development of artificial intelligence poses challenges to the future development of art and textile. Does the randomness of AI bring more possibilities for future textile development? Can it bring us a new sensory experience?


I leverage the natural dyes, extracted from waste plants, to make a kind of bio-textile.By recycling discarded flowers and turning them into environmentally friendly materials, flowers are freed from their artificial abstraction and transformed into a long-lasting materials. Its original abstraction has been deconstructed and expanded into more realistic biological textiles from nature. 


I have created a unique virtual material library. The system allows people to experience materials or design different synthesised materials through image and data. This system allows you to discover the infinite possibilities of textiles, you can explore materials with your hands and experience the blurring of boundaries between physical and virtual materials. The combination of the material library and an interactive hand gesture system make this unique, we explore the interaction between digital textiles and humans through hand gestures.

She demonstrates that different colors can be extracted from recycled waste flowers. Through bio-fermentation processing, this waste can be made into transparent, flexible, and textured materials.
She demonstrates that different colors can be extracted from recycled waste flowers. Through bio-fermentation processing, this waste can be made into transparent, flexible, and textured materials.
Painting-
Painting-Through the pigment of the flowers, made these bio-materials rich in color.
Bio-Materials & Traditional Materials, media item 1
She used a variety of ways to add texture to bio-materials to bring them to life. The term "flower" is a concept created by people, It has no name After becoming a textile, People begin to feel its pr
She used a variety of ways to add texture to bio-materials to bring them to life. The term "flower" is a concept created by people, It has no name After becoming a textile, People begin to feel its properties, the color, texture, pattern, and smell.
Generative Bio-textile, media item 1
Based on Ai machine learning generated.
Interactive visualization-Image generation process from coarse to fine
Existing material libraries are all in a kind of physical space. You can access them online, but then you can't interact with materials or pick them up. While I build a system by extracting pigments from waste and developing biodegradable materials, and the AI technique is used to generate virtual material.
Samples of AI Outputs
Samples of AI Outputs
Hand gesture interactive system—— This is a bio-material-based gesture interaction system, where we explore the interaction between digital textiles and human through hand gesture.
Virtual Touch, media item 2