Main description (English)

We live in an age where new technologies enable materials and techniques, hitherto unconventional for this field, to start being applied in the design of surfaces and textiles. One such technique is cutting. As a technique for the creation of works with high artistic value, the manual cutting of paper has been developed to the level of an autonomous art form: kirigami - the Japanese art of cutting paper. One particularity of cutting is that it enables the creation of three-dimensional structures out of two dimensional sheet materials with minimal manipulation. This can only be achieved via strategically positioned cuts, thus enabling the already cut material to “unfold”. The surfaces having been thus manipulated can attain sculptural features, become adaptive and much more. Inspired by the technique of kirigami, designers and artists today continue to create two- and three-dimensional surfaces and artworks through patterns of cuts in a wide variety of materials such as textiles, polymer foils, wood, metal and others. These cuts can be made by hand, or cut by machine, using technologies such as laser cutting. Novel technologies and materials open the way for an innovative expansion of the characteristics, functions and the aesthetic value of the textiles and surfaces created through these processes. The in-depth study and calculation of the geometry of such patterns of cuts also plays an important role in the scientific research of "smart" surfaces, as well as of surfaces which have the capability to morph from a two-dimensional structure into a three dimensional one and vice versa. The current research has as its aim to survey how contemporary designers study and develop cutting techniques in unconventional ways, such as creating three-dimensional structures using minimal manipulation, engineering the properties of surfaces and finding alternative ways of constructing objects. The role of the geometry of patterns of cuts used for the creation of innovative textiles and surfaces will be taken into consideration in this report, and the connection between structure, function and aesthetics and the technologies and materials used will be analysed to determine prevalent tendencies in the field. Keywords: textile design, surface design, kirigami, cutting