1. STATE OF THE ART

As long as i can remember, lam collecting. I am a collector of things: Animal bones, insects, sand from all over the world & old funiture... I like it when objects have a story to tell. But there always has to be a balance between new & old. rich in details & modest. Most of my inspiration comes from nature. I like to give arte-facts another dimensions & put them in a new context.

REFERENCES & INSPIRATION

INSPIRING ARTISTS

NERI OXMAN

Neri Oxman inspires me through her visionary fusion of design, biology, and technology. Her work challenges the boundaries between nature & creation, showing how materials & systems can grow rather than be made. especially her project The Ark, which embody interdisciplinary collaboration between art, science & nature.

CECILIA RASPANTI & ISTA BOSZHARD

TEXTILE LAB AMSTERDAM

After ending my internship at Iris van Herpen in 2018, entering the Waag for the first time felt like stepping into a new world.

The TextileLab Amsterdam — & especially the exchange with Cecilia Raspanti & Ista Boszhard, who together co-founded the lab (part of Waag Society / Waag Futurelab) — deeply influenced how I see design, learning, & collaboration today.

Cecilia leads the creative research & technological development of textiles & fashion at Waag Futurelab. She is also a co-founder of the Fabricademy program, which connects digital fabrication, textile innovation, & open knowledge sharing. Her vision of design as an open, collaborative, & sustainable practice shows how creativity, technology, & community can come together to build new ways of learning & making.

Ista, co-founder of the TextileLab Amsterdam, explores the intersection of textiles, education, & innovation. With her background in fashion education & concept development, she creates experimental learning environments that connect design, culture, & technology. She also teaches at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, focusing on fashion education, design research, & innovative learning practices. Her work inspires me to see design as an evolving process of dialogue & transformation.

INSPIRING FABRICADEMY PARTICIPANTS

During my internship at Iris van Herpen, I met Stephanie Santos, who introduced me to the TextileLab Amsterdam and invited me for a guided tour. Stephanie now runs her own studio, Santos 3D Studio, where she explores the intersection of digital fabrication, materiality, & fashion — creating 3D wearable couture and unique luxury 3D-printed lingerie & jewelry art.

When I later started my internship at the TextileLab Amsterdam, the Fabricademy participants were in the final phase of their projects. There, I met Irene Caretti (now a mother of 2) ieayeahyeah

& Maud Bausier, founder of Domingo Club, who was the intern at the connected FabLab.

During my Bachelor’s thesis, “Shoes with an Expiration Date — Compostable Sneaker Set made from Regional Materials”, Shoes with an Expiration Date (IF DESIGN TALENT AWARD 2022) I was in close exchange with Felipe Fiallo, Creative Director of @fiallo_official, who was also exploring active & biodegradable materials for footwear in his graduation project.

Later, during my internship at Nomena in Barcelona, I met Maud again, She introduced me to the Mycelium Club I was also introduced to Dinesh Kumar, with whom I collaborated on the project ReLine. Fashion and Textile Designer Studio: houseofwearableart

INSPIRING FABRICADEMY PARTICIPANTS DOCUMENTATIONES

Raúl Babines

INSPIRING EXHIBITIONS

• DDW Dutch Design Week | Eindhoven, Netherlands
• Ars Electronica Center | Linz, Austria
• NORD ART | Büdelsdorf, Germany

INSPIRING MOVIES / SERIES

• “When Björk Met Attenborough”
• I Origins – Im Auge des Ursprungs
• Abstract: The Art of Design | Netflix
• Chef’s Table | Netflix
• Most Extraordinary Homes | Netflix
• making the cut | Amazon Prime Video

INSPIRING BOOKS

• CHEMARTS Cookbook – Aalto University CHEMARTS
• WILD COLOR - The Complete Guide to Making and Using Natural dyes: Jenny Dean/ Karen Diadick Casselman
• HAPTIC VISUALS – "Oberfläche und Struktur, Farbe und ihre Beziehung zur Tastwahrnehmung“: Timo Rieke.

INSPIRING QUOTES

• CECILIA RASPANTI: "I don’t believe in waste."
• TIMO RIEKE: "Color & tactile perception are more than just two aspects of reality. Skillfully combined, they can enhance the perception of a message through their interaction."
• & „Creativity is curiosity.“

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

& DOCUMENTATION

As part of the first assignment, we created our personal documentation page on class.textile-academy.org. This served as both an introduction & the foundation for documenting our future work.

Learning Outcomes & Implementation

Documentation Website Setup

• We built our personal pages, introducing ourselves, our design background, & motivations for joining the Textile Academy.

Portfolio & Research Integration

• We included previous projects & examples of our work, as well as first explorations into artists &themes in textile innovation.

Platform Familiarization

• We learned to use GitLab & Markdown to manage & publish content, including how to upload images & videos.

Fab Lab Introduction

• We received an overview of Fab Lab procedures: booking system, machine usage, safety rules, & available tools.

Customization & Design Adjustments

• Initial visual customization (colors, layout, structure) was implemented & documented as part of the assignment.

Documentation is essential in all areas — personal, academic, or professional — as it ensures that knowledge is preserved, decisions are better informed, & work becomes more efficient.

Documenting as a Tool for Reflection & Progress

Knowledge Preservation

It helps capture & retain information, processes, & insights, making them accessible for others & future use — & prevents valuable knowledge from being lost.

Informed Decision-Making

Well-structured documentation supports decisions based on facts & clarity, reducing misunderstandings & errors in both academic & professional settings.

Efficiency & Productivity

By outlining clear methods, procedures, & best practices, documentation reduces repeated work & allows faster access to reliable information — saving time & effort.

Organization

To organize my work for the Fabricademy, I set up a clear structure from the beginning. I started with a large blank notebook for sketches, notes, & ideas, & created a main folder on my laptop with subfolders for each week, task, & related documents.

To get oriented, I explored the pages of previous students to understand different approaches & visual structures.

I also revisited some of my earlier projects that could serve as a foundation or inspiration for new developments.

In addition, I created a Miroboard where I collected references, images, texts, & links — a visual space to map my thoughts & structure my workflow before I fully transitioned to documenting everything on the website.

The Tools

MATTERMOST - For communication

GITLAB PLATFORM - For Repository

The Website

Getting Started with Editing the Page

MkDocs

Being new to MkDocs, I reviewed the sites & code of past/other participants for orientation. I drew inspiration from layouts & used them as a guide to build my page. like: - Johanna Schründer

It takes me a few tries to get used to the different platforms.

Plan → Edit → Preview → Stage → Commit → Push → Check → Merge → Publish

Workflow

https://gitlab.fabcloud.org/

Plan

→ Before starting, I define what I want to update — new content, weekly tasks, or layout adjustments.

Edit

→ I work directly on my files, adding text, images, & structure to my documentation.

Preview

→ I use mkdocs serve to review my page locally & check if everything appears as intended.

Stage

→ Once I’m happy with the changes, I add the edited files to the staging area (git add).

Commit

→ I save my progress with a short note describing the update (git commit -m "...").

Push

→ I upload my work to GitLab (git push) so the online version stays up to date.

Check (Pipeline)

→ I wait for the pipeline to build successfully & make sure there are no errors.

Merge

→ When everything looks good, I merge my branch with the main one to finalize the update.

Publish

→ My page is live & I can review my new content directly on the Fabricademy website.

After logging into my GitLab account, I was directed to the main dashboard, which shows login activity & recent updates related to my site.

To begin customizing the template, I clicked on "CODE" -> “Edit Web IDE” — this opened the integrated code editor, where I could start adjusting the content & layout of my documentation page.

The website is automatically built & published with GitLab CI whenever files in the docs folder are edited. The Markdown content is transformed into a website using MkDocs. I made my first changes by selecting the mkdocs.yml file — this is where the core configuration of the site is defined.

Here, I modified the site name, adapted the navigation structure, & experimented with color themes to reflect my personal visual identity. By editing this file, we can further customize theme options, fonts, layouts, & metadata — making the documentation space both functional & uniquely personal.

PROJECT LAYOUT

mkdocs.yml    # site configuration file.
docs/         # All site content/files
    index.md  # The homepage.
    files/    # files 
    images/   # images 
    ...       # Other markdown pages & folders

FRONT PAGE

GENERAL SETTINGS

i wanted to create a minimalistic & clean layout. so I changed a few general settings in my mkdocs.yml file.

1. Changed the font to: OPEN SANS
2. Changed the site name
3. Changed the theme color to: palette:
4. primary: white
5. accent: blue grey

GITLAB DOCS

PLACING IMAGES

Adding Images to the Documentation

To integrate visual material into my documentation, I uploaded all images to the dedicated docs/images/ folder within my GitLab repository.

I kept each week organized in its own subfolder (e.g. week01, week02) to maintain a clear file structure.

After uploading, I used GitLab’s version control tools to describe each update with a short commit message such as “added week01 image”. This way, every change becomes part of the version history & can be tracked easily.

Images are then embedded directly into the Markdown pages to illustrate the process steps & results. I make sure to keep the image file sizes optimized (around 100 KB) to ensure smooth loading performance & clean presentation.

Adding Videos to the Documentation

Whenever I include videos in my documentation, I use them to visualize key steps or capture dynamic parts of the process that images alone cannot show — such as material reactions, machine movement, or experiments in progress.

Videos are embedded directly into the page using HTML within Markdown.

I ensure that all videos are correctly linked & display properly, so that viewers can follow the workflow without broken links or missing media.

How I changed the assignment menu

To organize my assignments visually, I customized the layout of the assignment menu by using image-based links. Each thumbnail connects to a specific weekly page, creating a clear and intuitive navigation structure.

Links

I learned how to insert hyperlinks directly in Markdown using basic HTML tags. This allows me to connect my documentation to external sources, references, or related projects in a clean and consistent way.

TEXT to identify the link

Tables

To display information in a structured format, I used Markdown tables. They are especially useful for comparing tools, listing materials, or summarizing data in a clear and readable layout.

Title	Title	Title
Text align left	Text align center	Text align right

Finalizing & Publishing Your Edits

One of the most crucial steps in the entire editing process is saving & publishing your changes. This is done via the “Source Control” panel, where you can review the number of modifications you've made.

To apply these changes to your live documentation site, click the red “Commit & Push to main” button. This action pushes your updates to the main branch, triggering the website rebuild.

Note: It may take a few minutes until the updates appear online. You can monitor the progress in the GitLab main window. Once a green checkmark or arrow appears next to your latest commit, the build has been successfully completed & the new version is live.

How to Check if Your Commit is Running

After you commit your changes in GitLab, you can check if the build (pipeline) is running like this: Go to your project’s main page on GitLab. In the left sidebar, click “CI / CD” → “Pipelines”. You’ll see a list of recent commits and their pipeline status:

Running – your website is currently being built. Passed – the build was successful (your changes will appear online). Failed – something went wrong (click the pipeline to see the error).

Tip: You can also see a small status icon next to your latest commit on the project’s main page — hover over it to check the pipeline status quickly.

mkdocs-material/setuo

Fab Lab Introduction

Since I joined the Fab Lab at IDIT / IBERO Puebla, Mexico only in week 5, my introduction to the physical lab environment came a little later in the process.

Wehen I fianally arrived, I learned how to navigate the booking system, operate the machines safely, & prepare files for different fabrication processes.

Reflection & Conclusions

This first assignment was not only about setting up a website — it was about understanding documentation as a creative & analytical process.

Learning GitLab, MkDocs, & Markdown gave me a structured way to collect, organize, & share my work. It showed me how documentation can shape design thinking itself: by reflecting on what I do, I can see connections & decisions more clearly.

At the beginning, I struggled with the technical workflow — merging branches, fixing small Markdown errors, or understanding how the pipeline builds the site. But through repetition, I began to appreciate version control as a tool for progress tracking & collaboration.

What I found most valuable was how the act of documenting turns learning into something visible & shareable. It keeps my process transparent & allows others to learn from my experiments & also from my mistakes. Going forward, I want to refine the visual structure of my pages & explore more ways to connect narrative, design, & research — turning documentation into part of the design itself.