Contribution short abstract:

Focusing on textile crafts in higher arts education this papers presents specific examples and exercises in the workshop, where digital tools and strategies intersect with analog drawing, manual tools and materials.

Contribution long abstract:

Focusing on textile crafts in higher arts education this papers presents specific examples and exercises in the workshop, where digital tools and strategies intersect with analog drawing, manual tools and materials.

The fundamental principles on which many textile techniques rely, have remained largely unchanged since prehistoric times. In weaving, for example, high-tech digital jacquard looms work according to the same principles that also apply to the earliest looms such as warp-weigthed looms and back strap looms. Complex fabrics were made on these early looms - which are also still used today - but production was more labour intense and therefor slower. The main incentive for technological innovation in weaving, according to Anni Albers, was speed.

Exploring this phylogenesis of the loom and doing so hands on not only creates an embodied understanding of the technique but also helps to position yourself as a contemporary weaver within a craft and production practice which spans millennia. It is taking a slow path, were you start with unruly threads and thankfully investigate les gestes and tools handed down to you from weavers in different times and places before moving on to pixels, automated drafting software and high-tech looms.

Special attention is devoted to the exercise as a place where the discovery of something new is repeated again and again. Not only as a way to understand the complex procedures involved in the making of textiles but also as a way to carry them forward.