Techtile #3, an exhibition-slash-installation held at Gallery K in Tokyo a little earlier this year comprised of over two hundred different textures, collected in the city itself.

A project by Nosigner, the exhibition presented research of advanced tactile technology - not designed by someone, but designed by the collective intelligence of participants.

More than 20 people between the age of 10 and 40 were asked to copy real textures of their environment, such as surfaces and materials by hand-casting aluminum foils; thereby memorising the diverse relief of the city.

In other words, the space of the Techtile #3 exhibition was spontaneously formed by participants after Nosigner set a few rules for the design. As a result, the individual textures that the people collected were very varied and unexpected, including oddities such as the emblem of a police car and even piano keys.

The exhibition space was created by using elementary rules and the most radical nature of tactile experiences that everybody understands. Textures that were hidden for the eye became visible through the use of aluminum foils.

The exhibition brought to the fore the tactile experience for participants and guests and helps to memorise tactile experiences through the textures of aluminum foils. (On a slightly related note; is 'memorising' in aluminum foil a new design trend in Japan? We're noticing it quite a bit at the moment...)

"We aimed for visualising the invisible. For designing activities that create a big movement by editing the creativity of many people including researchers. Consequently, design becomes tangible and intangible. I feel that this is the true goal of design" say Nosigner, continuing:

"Things that we can do as individuals are very limited. We live with a vast amount of anxiety, however we can comprehend most of the things surrounding us, because there has been a big change in the value structure of society. Everyone can sense that we have to change this situation.

The society expects unconsciously an edit capability that we call design. Nevertheless the potential of one designer is only little in contrast to the united strength of many people. Therefore I do believe the design activities to change; no longer the designer is needed to provide answers to questions, but to develop questions that entrust many people with multifarious answers."