Work by Rachel Yoon Bang
About Fashioning Circuits Founded in 2011, Fashioning Circuits is a place where we engage with the rich histories and practices of computational craft, domestic technologies, soft activism, and so forth. These practices, often hyper-feminized and located within homes or community collectives, are an important and often unacknowledged pre-history of what is today referred to as “maker culture.” We both study and engage in these practices in our scholarship, creative practice, and community partnerships.
Work by Mohammed M. Rashid
Our Philosophy In Fashioning Circuits “fashion” functions not just as a noun to describe cultural trends, but also as a verb, “to fashion,” to indicate the experiential and problem based learning strategies of the project as well as the potential for a diverse range of students to fashion new histories and to fashion themselves as members of the publics and counterpublics of the future.
We are inspired by the possibilities of: Learning new techniques Decolonizing and recovering histories Working in collaboration in an inclusive space Developing strategies of expression that engage with broader cultural contexts
Work by Fiona K. Haborak
Black Ribbon for Mourning Black Ribbon for Mourning is an installation piece that showed as part of the HASTAC Possible Worlds of Digital Humanities Conference of 2017. This wearable technology participatory installation connects the logics of the 17th century transatlantic slave economy with police killings of black citizens in 2016.
Faculty Credits: Kim Knight, Jessica Murphy, Dale MacDonald Stitching Support: Elwyn Crawford, Letícia F. Souza, Morgan Grasham, Juan Llamas-Rodriguez, Josef Nguyen, Hong-An Wu
Work by Yvonne Hong Yu
Community Workshops One of the goals of Fashioning Circuits is to work with community partners to introduce beginners to making and coding through wearable media. Past partners have included Girls Scouts of North Texas, Plano Public Libraries, Girl Scouting in the School Day, and various STEM or STEAM camps held at UT Dallas.
Work by Luke Hernandez
Words Matter Words Matter is a collaborative installation comprised of several component projects that each foregrounds a specific word or set of words in order to explore the many ways that words themselves matter in our social worlds. Words Matter 2019 was exhibited at the HASTAC (Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory) conference hosted by the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada in May 2019.
Faculty Credits: Kim Knight, Josef Nguyen, Juan Llamas-Rodriguez Collaborators: Atanur Andic, Emma Delight, Touc Nguyen, Maedeh Asgharpour, Mohammed M. Rashid, Michelle D. Angel, Cenk Koknar
Work by Kasif Rahman
The Personal (Protective Equipment) is Political The Personal (Protective Equipment) is Political arose out of the emergency situation in Spring 2020 when masks were in short supply. Fashioning Circuits collaborators sewed over 100 masks to distribute to members of our communities. The title is a reference to the feminist rallying cry, "the personal is political" which perfectly encapsulates the connection between the domestic and larger social systems which was activated in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Faculty Credits: Kim Knight Collaborators: Cynthia O'Neill, Mohammed M. Rashid, Maedeh Asgharpour, Cameron Irby, CJ Parreno
Migrant Steps The Migrant Steps Project is a mobile application, website, and installation that connects data produced by users’ fitness tracking devices to narratives about migration between Central America and the United States. It seeks to connect individuals to a sense of kinship with others and to counter alarmist media rhetoric about “hordes” of migrants that draws upon implicit racial and xenophobic bias.
Faculty Credits: Kim Knight, Juan Llamas-Rodriguez Collaborators: Atanur Andic, Mohammed M. Rashid, Nusrat Z. Chowdhury, Luke Hernandez, Kasif Rahman, Samantha Welwood, Talia Devanadero, Hamida Khatri, Nishanshi Shukla, Angelica Martinez, Cynthia O’Neill
Handwashing Karaoke Handwashing Karaoke is a project that aims to encourage good hygiene through listening to and singing popular karaoke songs while handwashing. Early in the pandemic much was made of singing "happy birthday" twice in order to time 20 seconds. This takes that idea, combines it with the acoustics of the bathroom, and brings a bit of joy to hygiene practices.
Faculty Credits: Kim Knight Collaborators: Atanur Andic, Yueh-Jung Lee
Stitch n’ Glitch: Teetering on the “/” In honor of Ada Lovelace Day 2018, Fashioning Circuits, Studio for Mediating Play, SP&CE Media, and the Feminist MakerSpace conducted a “Stitch n’ Glitch.” This performative embroidery event moves between the kitchen table and the studio, inviting participants to contribute stitches to a monstrous embroidery project that reflects on the ways in which feminist media artists glitch dominant systems.
Faculty Credits: Kim Knight, Hong-An Wu, Wendy Sung, Juan Llamas-Rodriguez Stitching Support: Atanur Andic, Tuoc Nguyen, Mohammed M. Rashid, Emma Delight
Learn more.
Halloween Celebrations Each year, ATEC holds a Halloween decorating contest. This has become an important activity for Fashioning Ciruicts that focuses on collaboration, making, and imagination. Fashioning Circuits has won the contest in 2018, 2019, and 2021, making them the ones to beat!
2019, Undead Dinner Party
2018, Maker’s Coven
2021, Spoopy High School
Project Head Dr. Kim Knight
Project Assistant Atanur Andic
instagram @fashioningcircuits
twitter @fashioncircuits
website www.fashioningcircuits.com Work by Cameron Irby
Active Collaborators Faculty
Student
Dr. Olivia Banner Dr. Josef Nguyen Dr. Juan Llamas-Rodriguez Dr. Hong-An Wu
Rachel Yoon Bang Nusrat Chowdhury Talia Devanadero Rinaldo Del Gallo Fiona K. Haborak Luke Hernandez Cameron Irby
Hamida Khatri Yueh-Jung Lee Kasif Rahman Mohammed M. Rashid Nishanshi Shukla Samantha Welwood Yvonne Hong Yu
Cover Credits Logo: Lauren Shafer 10th Anniversary Logo: Atanur Andic Cover Artwork: Nusrat Z. Chowdhury
Work by Talia Devanadero
Work by Rinaldo Del Gallo
The artworks throughout the zine are drawn from a workshop in which participants were asked to make a zine page in response to the prompt, "What does Fashioning Circuits mean to you?"