Concept & planning: Prairie Interfaces¶

Above is the original slideshow from early Dcember 2025, Implications and Applications (week 13).

What¶

Prairie Interfaces is an interactive e-textile installation that narrates and educates about the past and future of the Texas Blackland Prairie; a lost landscape with less than 1% of it’s original ecosystem intact. Tufted pile conductive sensors invite touch, care, and connection with a physical landscape. Interaction with the sensors also produces a visual output, where users’ touch nurtures and fills a digital landscape with flora native to the region.

Why¶

This project is one small way of addressing the gap of knowledge about and access to natural, ecologically intact space in the region. Most of this land has been transformed by urban development, suburban sprawl, and agricultural use. I hope to uplift conservation efforts, foster a deeper sense of agency and care for the prairie remnants, and share this project with local creative and environmental education spaces.

Who¶

This project stems from personal reflection, a perspective shift, and the interactions I had with my community as an environmental educator in the city of Dallas. The transition away from indigenous land management methods coupled with widespread development beginning in the nineteenth century rapidly and drastically altered the landscape.

When and Where¶

The content of this project spans past, present, and future. It is made in the 2nd phase of Fabricademy, January - April, 2026.The support and mentorship of Fabricademy and Waag Futurelab is essential to this work, so while it is about the Texas Blackland Prairie, it will be made and first exhibited in Amsterdam. I get to take it back to Texas with me and share it with my network and beyond. This project is the basis for future research and exploration of the place and new media that inspire me.

How¶

With further research and ideation, my goals for input, output, and interaction have clarified. This is helping me to develop questions and seek support in the areas where I feel I need it most -- especially regarding the electronics, hardware, and programming.

Including initial ideas, visual thinking/planning here. A very simplified and idealistic version of what I hope to achieve with the making of this project. During the break, I tested how I was articulating my ideas with ChatGPT, to see if it could visualize what I was describing.

After seeing this, I developed some visuals using canva + the stock graphics that come with it. Here's what I have been thinking before any in-depth meeting and planning with mentors.

And here's how I imagine the tapestry/sensor to output setup may look (again, very simplified). It feels uninformed, except that I did use a touch sensor to control my embroidered speaker in Wearables week, which is why this setup is designed similarly. My next goal is to work out exactly how this functions as a circuit.

References¶

Books¶

Web¶

Matt Donaldson's interactive map, Finding Remnants of the Blackland Prairie
The Dallas Morning News

Papers¶

Projects¶

Felted Terrain by Yihyun Lim
Tapis Magique: Machine-knitted Electronic Textile Carpet for Interactive Choreomusical Performance and Immersive Environments from MIT Media Lab
Tapest[o]ry: An Interactive Tapestry to Raise Awareness of Marine Noise Pollution. by Laura Santos, Pedro Campos, and Mara Dionisio
E-Textile Sensor Experiments: Tufting With Conductive Thread from Wearable Media

Fabricademy Final Projects¶

My dive into previous projects brought inspiration from many different types of project: investigations into textile traditions, interactive e-textiles, and thoughtful programming that imagines the future of fiber crafts.

Al-Zahra’a Al-Omari - Silence Tapestry
Ray Formilli - Happy Apocalpyse
Jessica Stanley - Stitch Synth
Elena Rotaru - Touch of the Sound
Riley Cox - Two Threads Meet

Moodboard: Visual Inspiration¶

Prairie Paintbrush and Bluebonnet wildflowers; photo by Jason Merlo
Not a Flower; Saehan Park
Witches Still; Lorna Mills
Tapestry; Olivia Babel
8-bits kleed; Dorith Sjardijn)
Go with the flora; Amber Lauder
VERTEX af (how to puncture?); Ei Arakawa and Sarah Chow
Manticore Fur; Renilde de Peuter
Map of Texas Eco-regions; Native Prairies Association of Texas
Interactive Wallpaper using Conductive Paint; Kirk Mueller
Synthetic Polleniser; Michael Candy
Title Unknown; Refik Anadol