Touch Textiles | open09 turtle

Crafting a social world.

By Fiona Candy | Published: September 29, 2009

Hybrid developments in psychology, linguistics and neuroscience, have allowed cognitive scientists to propose that our experiences of spatial awareness, bodily movement and the way we touch, manipulate and use things, provide the fundamental pattern for how we reason about the world. “To touch is also to be touched” and so our perceptions of substance, solidity, weight, density and texture reveal to us what it means to be a discrete entity in the world, as we cannot physically be where something else already is. Perhaps more than the other senses, touch stimulates our feelings of self and conveys material reality.

How do things feel real?

(images from ‘Huff and Puff’, Candy, 2006)

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Textiles: an ancient technology, so what’s new?

By Fiona Candy | Published: September 29, 2009

^White linen,hand embroidered, gentleman’s waistcoat. British, c.1740. Courtesy of The Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston.

The textile industry has always been at the forefront of new technology. We are also mindful that in the early nineteenth century, the Luddites were a social movement of British textile artisans who protested, often by destroying mechanized looms, against the changes produced by the Industrial Revolution, which they felt were leaving them without work and changing their entire way of life. A century later, the Arts and Crafts Movement and its proponents, such as John Ruskin, William Morris, Edwin Lutyens, Charles Rennie Macintosh, Frank Lloyd Wright, again challenged the “soulless” machine-made production that was aided by a further technological revolution, one which stepped up both the local and global influence of machines.

Another hundred years down the line, how have things progressed? Are there any concerns that a digital future world will promote a disembodied, virtual reality that may radically alter our sense of being in touch? To be accused of being a ‘luddite’ today, is a mis-reference to the complexity of social history, but is there now an exciting opportunity for another arts and crafts movement to shape creativity and manufacturing in the 21st Century?

The ancient material craft of textiles has centuries of sensory understanding to bring to the digital medium. The textile domain engages mind and body, where a synthesis of sensual aesthetic systems inform and direct innovation. What new qualities or methods can the digital medium bring to surface design, or textile design and manufacture?

Take a look at some beautiful felt work from Norway by May Bente Aronsen:

http://www.maybentearonsen.no

Here is a link to a voice generated knitting pattern (thanks for the link, Glennis)

http://www.trikoton.com/generator.php

Can you connect us with other projects?

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What is lost and what is gained when communicating textile qualities via digital technology?

By Fiona Candy | Published: September 29, 2009

MA Textiles students at Uclan discuss the pros and cons of using digital images of their work on the blog:

merino wool felted round

^Glennis: Is it a dried or a fresh flower? What size is it, tall, small, large or huge? Is it soft to touch, will it crumble or will it snap and break? Are the hollowed tunnels, deep or shallow? Could this be paper, crisps or crackers? What does it smell like? Could it be eaten? (Hand made felt by Glennis Hulme, 2009. 100% merino wool fibres, diameter, 50 cms, depth 20 cms)

^Julie: This image of a knitted felted flower was taken using just day light. The floor boards give a sense of scale, and perhaps you get the feeling, like I do, of a triffid like flower, stranded on a floor. I like this idea, of it having life and potential movement. I think you get a sense of softness, a fluffy feel, from the image. You can see the thinner felted edges of the petal edges. This contrasts with the embroidered parts that look harder and bumpy. But I know how the petals feel, so I’m assuming this. I think it’s actually quite difficult to see the work a new, as a digital image, as I have prior knowledge, and I already understand it in a tactile and visual capacity. This makes me think how important it is to capture a really good digital version of your work, that conveys its essence. (Felted, knit textile, Julie James-Turner, 2009. 80 cms x 40 cms)

Katie1

katie bowker 2009

^ Katie: These digital image interpretations of my work successfully demonstrate depth and form through the effects of light and shadow upon the surfaces. However, much is lost through the restriction of sensual relationships with the piece. The digital image presents an ambiguity, leaving it open to interpretation on many levels. This has a negative effect in terms of the textural, material qualities, however the composition within the frame of the images does create an intriguing representation. (Folded, constructed textile. Katie Bowker, 2009. 50 cms x 70 cms)

design on fabric. Sarah Hargreaves 2009

print design

Sarah: I’ve attached 2 images, one is of the original design (in Photoshop), and one a photograph of it printed on to fabric. The image enables me to enjoy how the nature of the fabric changes the design’s quality: it becomes more real and exciting. The shapes and lines become distorted, giving the design more depth, movement and life. (Print design and digital inkjet on silk. Sarah Hargreaves, 2009)

pitt rivers 2

pitt rivers 1

Lucy: These images show a piece of my work which is made up of a photocopy of human skeleton transferred onto calico surrounded by embroidered moths and flies. In reality, the piece has alot of texture and depth, due to the use of differing embellishing techniques, but which I feel are totally lost when shown as a digital image. The embroidery used to create the bugs almost brings them to life with the busy intensity of the stitching, while the reflective nature of the cotton adds a three dimensional element. To me, none of this is evident and the piece loses alot of its charm and appeal when shown as a digital image. I’m going to experiment with ways to photograph my work- to see how I can better convey its qualities. (Mixed media textile, Lucy Caswell, 2009. 30cms x 50 cms)

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Can you touch it?

By Fiona Candy | Published: September 29, 2009

For centuries, textiles have operated as a medium of communication, connecting peoples, their histories and value systems from all over the globe, through the wearing of cloth on our bodies, or by creating comfort and identity in the ‘dressing’ of our homes.

We want to contribute to the discussions at OPEN 09 from a textiles perspective and sensibility. We believe that insight into the emotional, social, cultural and cognitive value of textiles and craft, and especially the communicative potential of our sense of touch, will have much to bring to a creative, digital future. The blog format may not immediately seem sensitive to our topic, as the properties of touch are not easy to convey via an information medium that has grown out of text based communication. But because of this, as much as inspite of it, we want to collect tactile knowledge and accounts of textile experience in whatever form they can be relayed here, in the hope that this challenge will stimulate innovative and relevant approaches to developing themes for this conference. Are there any concerns that a digital future world will promote a disembodied, virtual reality that may radically alter our sense of being in touch? Can differing textile qualities be successfully communicated via digital imagery, or haptic technologies; or be translated into novel combinations of digital sound and movement data, for example? Will a better understanding of the powerful emotional affect of touch, encourage the textile and fashion industries to explore innovative methods, in response to the growing imperative for recycling and sustainability?

We’d particularly like to connect with people who design, make or sell products or artifacts, where creativity and the sensuality of materials are core values. This includes designers, artists, craftspeople and commercial manfacturers of textiles, and textile retailers on the high street or on the internet. But also furniture, jewellery, ceramics, product designers, who are using traditional, ancient, ‘analogue’ and/or digital processes. Games designers, interaction designers, digital sculptors; haptic researchers; textile historians and curators; Anthropologists, psychologists, phenomenologists, medics, and others who study the senses, materiality or new media. So, please get in touch!