'The Weaver's Laboratory. Gunta Stölzl's Sample Cards as Materialities of Research' (original) (raw)

Understanding Textiles - from Artist to Spectator

The appearance of textiles, which by common perception is their main attribute, is shaped by many different factors, such as the raw material, ornamentation and structure, both as an external form and a manner of connecting fibers and other elements of textiles. It is not always realised by contemporary artists and designers that the same factors also determine the durability, conservation and storage methods. The paper briefly describes the main factors constituting textiles, showing how important the awareness of their role is to all who deal with textiles, from artists and designers, conservators and critics, to visitors to a gallery and museum exhibitions. It also shows that historical textiles, contemporary textile art and industrial textile products only appear to constitute separate independent worlds and in fact influence each other

Experimentation and Invention in Weaving at the Bauhaus

Material Modernity: Innovations in Art, Design, and Architecture in the Weimar Republic, ed. by Deborah Ascher Barnstone and Maria Makela, 2022

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The Hand of the Maker:The Importance of Understanding Textiles from the “Inside Out”

2002

This is a position paper of sorts, arguing that the experience of making a textile is an important component of understanding it, and we should be encouraging textile researchers to include hands-on experiments as part of their investigation. Some TSA members will take this idea for granted because they have first-hand experience with textile making, and may find it overly obvious. The point is hardly new, and archeologist Elizabeth Barber made a strong case for the value of textile "reconstruction" in her 1994 book, Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years. 1 Nevertheless, this is not a universally shared assumption, and it flies in the face of some of our dominant cultural paradigms. Many who study textiles come from disciplines where the "making" component is undervalued, and it is left out of many textile history programs. The issue of technical competency is generally not part of professional dialogue-I don't think I have ever heard it discussed at a professional conference, for example. I happily take the risk of seeming obvious by addressing it here. I document ways that the bias against hands-on investigation is embedded in our culture, and offer examples of the critical insights that emerge from trying to reproduce historic textiles or experience how they were made.

Instructional work in textile craft : Studies of interaction, embodiment and the making of objects

2012

First of all I would like to thank the teachers and students who allowed me permission to study and report from their activities in craft education. They have all been incredibly generous to me and I very much enjoyed taking part in their activities. Throughout the work with this thesis, I have had wonderful support from my supervisors Oskar Lindwall and Lars Lindström. Oskar has invested an enormous amount of time and energy discussing ideas and reading my texts and our collaboration has been invaluable for the development of my academic skills. Lars has always been ready to share his great experience of research and his wit and creativity has been a true inspiration to meboth academically and on a more general level. For the first years, I also had the pleasure to be guided by an additional supervisor, Anna-Lena Kempe, from whom I have learnt greatly. This thesis is part of the research project Communication and Learning in Sloyd Practices (KOMOLÄR) financed by The Swedish Research Council. The project has been directed by Lars Lindström and included Kajsa Borg, Peter Hasselskog, Viveca Lindberg, Oskar Lindwall and Marléne Johansson. Peter has been my fellow doctoral student in the project and our discussions about sloyd, research, gardening and food have been both valuable and pleasant. As senior researchers in sloyd, Kajsa and Marléne have guided me through the winding paths of sloyd tradition and contemporary developments; without their unique competences I would probably have got lost right from the start. Viveca's genuinely caring engagement in my work all along has meant a lot to me.

Materialising weaving: embedding a narrative of construction time within experimental woven textiles

Synergy - DRS International Conference 2020, 2020

This paper responds to the theme of processes, and poses the question: what methods and tools of design could be utilised in order to connect the user to textile making processes, in particular, the time involved in hand weaving? I share insights that I have gained from my own creative practice and postgraduate research and draw on diverse literature including the work of Bauhaus designer and weaver Anni Albers. I reflect on how by attempting to aesthetically capture my own processes in cloth, the weaving act is revealed as a sometimes-flawed marker of time. The potential outcome of this research is the development of a framework for textile designers and weavers that privileges cloth as a conduit for temporal connections between maker and user. I posit that amplifying traces of time through the design of textiles may connect the eventual user/wearer to the ‘pulse’ of (a) weaving.

From Structure to Texture: The Change of Function in Textile Media Since the 1960s

Proceedings of the Second International Conference of the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade SmartArt – Art and Science in Application: "Experience and Vision", Универзитет уметности у Београду, Факултет примењених уметности eBooks, 2022

The paper deals with the positioning of textile as a medium, whose structural qualities enable it to be viewed within the dominant trends of the development of modern and postmodern art. Scrutinizing the changes in the function of textile art refers to the removing of its media utilitarianism for the sake of exploring its artistic and spatial possibilities. Starting from the premise that the structure of textile contains mathematical qualities, which basically reflect the structuralist conception of the work of art (dominant in the historiographical contextualization of the development of modern art), we explore the possibility of integrating textiles (fibre) in the context of mainstream line of the twentieth-century art. In order to do that, we rely on the formalist-structuralist tendency in the development of modern art, which announced the “death of painting”, confirmed in the post-war context by Clement Greenberg’s notion of “the crisis of the easel painting”. Application of the Greenbergian concepts to the very structure of the textile medium allows us to interpret high modernist premises as factors that led textile/fibre to become an independent art element. The topic is approached from an interdisciplinary perspective, although the basic methodology includes historiographical contextualization and structural analysis, which provides us with a framework for the revaluation of textile art seen through the nature of the material itself. The paper intends to show that the change of function in textile media can be explained by the internal dynamics of formalist reductionism and seen from the perspective of the deconstruction of painting and canvas.

CFP - Textile Materiality in the Early Modern Period

2024

PAPER PROPOSAL: 15 March | CONFERENCE: 25-26 September 2024. / Shimmering or matt, thick or thin, opaque or transparent, stretched or flexible, flat or pleated… They are but some of the many characteristics defining the sensory dimensions of textiles, inherently associated with their materiality. Whether worn by a prince or prelate, wrapped around precious objects, or covering walls and floors, textiles were ubiquitous in the material culture of the early modern period (15 th-18 th centuries). This omnipresence, from clothing to architectural adornment, has granted textiles a prominent status in the construction of social identities. Despite their importance, they have been neglected far too long in art history. Although recent studies have started tapping into the potential of this material, they are often focused on historical, iconographical or anthropological approaches, at the expense of its materiality and sensory experience. As it requires advanced technical knowledge, material studies have long been the prerogative of textile conservator-restorers and a few textile experts. The 'material turn' which has permeated the field of art history in recent years has however demonstrated the importance of a renewed focus on the material object by a larger community of art historians (as evidenced by the upcoming CIHA Congress devoted to Matter/Materiality). The aim of this two-day conference is therefore to bring these different approaches together by fostering a dialogue between researchers dedicated to (the history of) techniques and conservation, and those focusing on the medial properties and the meanings conveyed by textiles when displayed, worn, or manipulated. To do so, paper proposals can be structured around one of the three (non-exclusive) thematic aeras suggested : 1) History of techniques and conservation ; 2) Representation and reception ; 3) Imitation and illusion

A World of Looms: Weaving Technology and Textile Arts

2019

A World of Looms: Weaving Technology and Textile Arts Edited by Zhao Feng, Sandra Sardjono and Christopher Buckley Published by Zhejiang University Press, 2019. English language, large format, illustrated in color throughout, includes glossary. 300 pages. In 2018 a ground-breaking exhibition and conference took place at the National Silk Museum in Hangzhou, China. This event brought together scholars, looms and weavers from all over the world. More than a conference proceedings and more than just an exhibition catalog, the book includes 24 original essays by international scholars, as well as the perspectives of practising weavers, and images and diagrams of looms and their products. The material includes important new archaeological material and reconstructions from China, which reveal an early stage in patterned loom technology.