Amie Tian ’25 has received a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, which provides graduating seniors from any discipline with funding for a year of international travel to support an original research project. A media arts and sciences and music double major, Tian’s project, “Interactive Textiles: Weaving Tradition and Technology,” combines her interests in textile design, music, and technology.
Tian will travel to China, Germany, Hungary, Kenya, and the Netherlands. She hopes to learn from local artists, designers, and technologists who create textiles that respond to human input, like touch, pressure, or motion, with music or visual feedback. “These interactive textiles are embedded with sensors, conductive threads, and microcontrollers, allowing them to function as expressive tools that engage multiple senses at once,” she says.
She will explore how different cultures are blending traditional textile techniques with emerging technologies, paying close attention to the influence of local materials, aesthetics, and musical traditions on the design and function of interactive textiles. As her research methodology is rooted in observation and practice, she also plans to experiment with making her own interactive textiles.
Tian first learned about interactive music systems in her music technology courses at Wellesley and MIT, where she worked with sensors, soft circuits, and textile-based interfaces to create sounds in unconventional ways. While studying textile design in Denmark in fall 2023, she thought about how textiles can evoke music and movement. “This shifted how I viewed textiles from purely visual objects to multisensory vessels for storytelling,” she says. “Patterns became rhythms, textures became timbres, and designing textiles felt like composing a score.”
“More than anything, I want his journey to deepen my ability to create work that is both technically innovative and emotionally resonant…”
Last summer, Tian interned at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston and encountered the work of multidisciplinary artist Igshaan Adams, whose tapestries and immersive textile installations examine forms of care, survival, and resistance in post-apartheid South Africa. His work showed her that textiles can make cultural narratives visible. She became interested in creating textiles that could respond musically and visually to human input, and that would serve not only as a form of artistic expression but as a tool for preserving communal memories and cultural narratives.
The combination of her coursework, semester abroad, and internship motivated her to apply for the Watson Fellowship. She also credits Rinako Sonobe ’22, a former Watson Fellow, who visited Tian’s printmaking class in spring 2024 to share her experience.
“During my four years at Wellesley, I’ve had the chance to explore a range of creative mediums, but the rhythm of college often felt like this: I’d discover something that sparked my curiosity, dive into it with excitement, and just as I was getting into the flow, the class would end,” Tian says. “I often found myself wishing for more time to follow an idea at my own pace without being swept into the next semester. The Watson Fellowship felt like the perfect space to do exactly that and fully immerse myself in a passion that I didn’t get to explore as deeply as I wanted during my time here.”
During her fellowship year, Tian hopes to develop her artistic voice, push the boundaries of her creativity, and connect with artists, designers, and technologists around the world. “More than anything, I want his journey to deepen my ability to create work that is both technically innovative and emotionally resonant—work that weaves together diverse influences into a cohesive, evolving language,” she says.
For more information about applying for the Watson Fellowship and other grants, click here.