OXT. Ganxet Digital.

OXT is a research project that seeks to critically challenge the boundaries of craft by asking what place crochet holds in a contemporary context. Traditionally associated with the domestic and feminine sphere, has often been relegated to the status of household handiwork and undervalued within dominant cultural and design discourses.

This project blends traditional crochet, passed down through generations, with a new technological paradigm: augmented reality. Through a process of iterative experimentation leading to design, the know-how of crochet has been translated into a digital environment, where manual gestures are adapted to the direction and flow of the virtual thread.

Digital crochet challenges the material constraints of its physical counterpart, eliminating properties such as gravity and yarn tension, while offering new affordances through parameter control and editability. These capabilities expand the aesthetic and formal possibilities of the medium. 

Once digitally constructed, the crochet structures are brought into physical form using 3D printing technology, a process aligned with industrial design methodologies.The combination of these two seemingly opposite practices, handcrafted crochet and 3D printing, creates a material symbiosis that leverages the unique qualities of each technique: the flexibility and malleability of textiles alongside the structure and rigidity of additive manufacturing.

This proposal opens the door to further explore the digital potential of crochet and its future applications.

Above all, OXT is an experiment born from a deep love for handcraft and a desire to honor and critically reevaluate artisanal heritage within contemporary design contexts.