Weaving Practices – An Exploration into the Materials, Techniques and Design of Fabrics

Organizers: Laurence Douny and Bastian Beyer

Weaving is an ancient practice that is found across cultures. It commonly designates a technique of making surfaces by interlacing two sets of materials that cross each other at a right angle. However, weaving as a manual, mechanical or digital technique of entanglement applies to a broad variety of vegetal, animal or synthetic materialities brought together to form a fabric by use of a frame such as a loom. Furthermore, weaving practices may also introduce hybrid techniques such as knitting, plaiting and braiding. This one-day, practice-based, interdisciplinary workshop brings together specialists who will highlight concepts and practices of weaving from various angles by emphasizing specific techniques, technologies, materials, patterns and design.

As the practices originate from a particular cultural region and community of weavers, they illustrate a technological development or a creative practice of textile production. Therefore, stemming from specific historical and socio-cultural contexts, each talk will highlight distinctive methods of analysis of weaving practices that will be explored under an embodied, cognitive and conservation approach and by focusing on one or several aspects of the properties and qualities of the materials and the design. This historical and anthropological angle forms the basis for contemporary textile practices where digital design and manufacturing methods offer new materiality and design languages. Utilizing contemporary technology as analytical and generative tools enables us not only to advance the field of textiles, but also to sharpen our understanding of ancient techniques. Finally, grounded into a practical experience and hands-on approach to technologies and materials or an archaeological/historical reconstruction of weaving, these contributions will provide material and technical descriptions as a means to advance the characterization of woven structures, patterns and materialities. The talks will serve as a basis for discussing, interpreting, and conceptualizing cultures of weaving.

Zoom Link

https://hu-berlin.zoom.us/j/64861128431?pwd=ajJ1dUhES2p2RTdsVVkzVjMrTS96dz09
Meeting ID: 648 6112 8431
Password: 059405

Speakers

Sophie Desrosiers (EHESS) & Maria Elena del Solar (Consultant, Lima)

Annapurna Mamidipudi (Penelope Project, Deutsches Museum)

Wuthigrai Siriphon (Thammasat University)

Magda Buchczyk (CARMAH, HU)

Bastian Beyer (MoA/HU, UCL) & Daniel Suarez (UdK)

Myriem Naji (UCL)

Lucie Smolderen (ULB)

Annabel Vallard (CNRS, CASE)

Moderators

Ellen Harlizius-Klück (Deutsches Museum)

Yoonha Kim (MoA, HU)

Aurélie Mossé (EnsAD)

Jessica Farmer (Weißensee/HU)

Registration

Please register by sending an email to Laurence Douny or Bastian Beyer.

Program

9.10–9.30 Welcome by Wolfgang Schäffner and Introduction by the Organizer

Session I: Cultural Techniques

Moderator: Ellen Harlizius-Klück (Deutsches Museum)

9.30–9.50 Annabel Vallard (CNRS, Centre Asie du Sud-Est, UMR 8170 – Paris)

Worlds of SilkS – a Southeast Asian Perspective (Thailand, RDP Lao)

9.50–10.10 Q&A

10.10–10.30 Lucie Smolderen (ULB)

Spinning the Thread of Women’s History. A Technical and Historical Approach to Women’s Textile Activities in the Dendi (Northern Benin)

10.30–10.50 Q&A

10.50–11.00 Coffee break

Session II: Textile Production

Moderator: Yoonha Kim (MoA, HU)

11.00–11.20 Magda Buchczyk (CARMAH, HU)

Ever-changing and Traditional – Field Reflections on Weaving in Poland and Romania

11.20–11.40 Q&A

11.40–12.00 Myriem Naji (UCL)

The Manufacturing of the Akhnif, a Woven-to-shape Hooded Cloak

12.00–12.20 Q&A

12.20–13.00 Lunch Break

Session III: The Design Angle

Moderator: Aurélie Mossé (EnsAD)

13.00–13.20 Bastian Beyer (MoA/HU, UCL) & Daniel Suarez (UdK)

The Column project: Augmented Knitted Composites in Architectural Design

13.20–13.40 Q&A

13.40–14.00 Wuthigrai Siriphon (Thammasat University)

Understanding Thai Traditional Weaving from a Designer’s Perspective

14.00–14.20 Q&A

14.20–14.40 Coffee break

Session IV: Technologies and Patterns

Moderator: Jessica Farmer (Weißensee/HU)

14.40-15.00 Sophie Desrosiers (EHESS) & Maria Elena del Solar (consultant & practioner, Lima)

How Did Inca Weave?

15.00-15.20 Q&A

15.20-15.40 Annapurna Mamidipudi (Penelope Project, Deutsches Museum)

The Indian Handloom Weaving: Socio-technology and Design Practice (Provisional title)

15.40-16.00 Q&A

16.00-16.10 Break

16.10-16.30 Wrap-up and general discussion: Laurence Douny and Bastian Beyer

Abstracts

Sophie Desrosiers (EHESS) and Maria Elena del Solar (Consultant, Lima)

How did Inca Weave?

Inca weavers were excellent at tapestry weaving, but they were even better at complementary warp-faced weaving. An Inca belt, a late 16th-century manuscript, and a deep understanding of present highland weaving principles and practices had already been demonstrated in 1984 regarding the weave, design, and colors of the belt worn by the Inca Coyas (queens) on the days of the corn festival. Many years later, thanks to dedicated weavers, the loom used by the Inca is also accessible in all its complexity as well as the possible context in which the manuscript had been written. The longue durée is valuable to compare artifacts and follow the journey of some weaving communities of practice. It is also favorable to research when it brings unhoped new clues to refine past reconstructions.

Sophie Desrosiers is an anthropologist at the High School for Social Sciences in Paris (EHESS), in the Center for Historical Research (CRH), and the Medieval Archaeology Groups (GAM). She works on the circulation of cloth, techniques and ideas in the longue durée both in a geographical area – the Central Andes –, and on a much-prized material – silks, domestic and wild – between China and the West until the 16th century.

María Elena del Solar is an anthropologist who studied at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Lima, Peru. An independent consultant, she has worked for several research and development projects in the field of textile production both in the Andes and in Amazonía, with private and public funding. She is currently studying extremely fine woven native cotton cloth woven on the Andean loom in the Peruvian north-central region.

Annapurna Mamidipudi (Penelope Project, Deutsches Museum)

The Indian Handloom Weaving: Socio-technology and Design Practice (Provisional title)

Abstract to follow

Annapurna Mamidipudi is a post-doctoral researcher on the ERC project PENELOPE, which explores weaving as a technical mode of existence. She completed her PhD in the study of Science, Technology and modern culture in Maastricht University, supervised by Wiebe Bijker, in 2016. Using concepts from the history of technology as well as traditional Indian music, she explored how innovation and creativity in science and art follow similar cognitive processes, drawing from her experience in both craft development and training in the classical arts of South India. Using the thesis as a base, she co-organized a seminar on Craft and innovation at Kalakshetra, the premier institution for music and dance in Chennai in 2016, and a large conference bringing together more than 500 weavers and international historians of technology in Chirala in 2018. From 1992 to 2008, she set up and worked for the NGO Dastkar Andhra to conserve traditional craft livelihoods in South India. She was an awardee of the Global Social Business Incubator program of Santa Clara University in 2009. Her research interests include the study of how craftspeople innovate their material practices and how they make knowledge claims to build recognition in contemporary society. As a visiting post-doctoral scholar at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, she co-edited a volume along with material historian Dagmar Schäfer on »Ownership of Knowledge« that seeks to look at knowledge ownership beyond IP frameworks. Her recent publications include, with W. Bijker, »Innovation in Indian Handloom Weaving« in Technology and Culture (2018), and »Constructing Common Worlds: Design Practice for Social Change in Craft Livelihoods in India« in Design Issues (2018).

Magdalena Buchczyk (CARMAH, HU)

Ever-changing and Traditional – Field Reflections on Weaving in Poland and Romania

Weaving practice is embedded in a range of personal and social values, entangled with multiple political agendas. This paper considers the complex transformation of traditional weaving in two rural sites in Poland and Romania. It explores the shifting weaving cultures and ways in which dramatic social and historical change inflected practice, skill, designs and patterns. The paper draws on ethnographic studies of museum textile collections from London and Berlin, exploring post-acquisition textile practice in the community.

Based on a collection of domestic fabrics in central Romania, the first case represents an erosion of weaving culture as part of rapid change in the countryside and changing notions of gender and material culture. Set against economic and political transition, this case highlights local understandings of weaving as value-based labor, while constituting tactical practice. The second case, drawing on a collection of textiles from north-east Poland, probes ideas of continuity of weaving in the light of the post-war reconstruction of traditional craft. It points to the different creative and political forces that pushed and pulled weaving in different directions, as well as affecting the lives of communities.

The paper critically engages with a notion of traditional weaving as originating from a particular cultural region, ethnographic area, or a community of practice. This notion, prevalent in museum studies and ethnological literature, continues to privilege certain forms of practice over others and overlook the fine socio-cultural detail of weaving. Magdalena argues the relevance of the twists and turns within textile production, including the social and technological developments that inform designs, materials, patterns and making. This can provide critical insight into the dominant valorization of weaving cultures and their perceived continuity.

Magdalena Buchczyk is an Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow working on the textile collections of the Museum of European Cultures (MEK) in Berlin. This research is an ethnographic investigation of the MEK objects, focusing on what they can tell us about the museum’s history and changing textile production in Europe.

Trained in anthropology and heritage studies, Magda is interested in interrogating diverse knowledge practices through studies of museum collections, learning and making. Her PhD (Goldsmiths) focused on the Horniman Museum fabric collections and combined an archival study of the collection’s Cold War history and ethnographic research with textile-makers in Romanian source communities. Her postdoctoral research in Bristol interrogated how the UNESCO Learning City program intersects with the city’s informal knowledge production ecology, such as textile groups for refugee and migrant practitioners. She is currently preparing a Weaving Europe monograph with Bloomsbury Academic. Magdalena has collaborated with a number of textile artists and curated several exhibitions, such as Forging Folklore, Disrupting Archives with Goldsmiths Textile Collection & Constance Howard Gallery. Her publications include »Making Certainty and Dwelling through Craft« in The Journal of American Folklore (2020) and »To Weave or Not to Weave: Vernacular Textiles and Historical Change in Romania« in Textile (2018).

Myriem Naji (UCL)

The Manufacturing of the Akhnif, a Woven-to-shape Hooded Cloak

The akhnif is a semi-circular black hooded cloak made by female weavers in the Sirwa, south of Morocco, and locally worn by all men, Muslim and Jews, adults and children, up until the 1940s. In this mountainous region, female weavers have perfected the skills in making woven-to-shape garments for their family members for centuries. The wealth of these Berber Tashelhit dwellers has traditionally consisted of large flocks of sheep, goats, and the production of textiles. The akhnif belongs to the classical Mediterranean tradition of weaving clothes to shape: the hood was woven as part of the whole cloak, and most of the finishing was done before cutting it from the loom. This is in contrast to most contemporary production where the norm for making hooded cloaks in Morocco consists of sewing pieces together cut from a length of cloth. This garment is now only very occasionally produced for the tourist market, as very few weavers still know how to make it. This paper is based on ethnographic observations, the filming of a commissioned akhnif in 2003, and the examination of historical pieces in European and Moroccan museums. First, the tools and materials used for making the akhnif will be described, and then the main steps and characteristics of the manufacturing of the akhnif will be analyzed.

Myriem Naji is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Department of Anthropology, University College London, where she earned her PhD in 2008. In 2011, she curated an exhibition at the Brunei Gallery, London: Weaving the Threads of Llivelihood: The Aesthetic and Embodied Knowledge of Sirwa Weavers. Her doctoral dissertation examines the lives and livelihoods of female weavers and their families in the Sirwa region. It explores embodied knowledge and craft production, with a theoretical emphasis on gender and value creation. She specializes in the anthropology of textiles, with special reference to the Maghreb. Her research interests include the anthropology of the body and techniques, material culture, and the production of value, trade, dress, and gender. Her research is based on extensive fieldwork in southern Morocco (including the Sirwa).

Bastian Beyer (HU) & Daniel Suarez (UdK)

The Column Project: Augmented Knitted Composites in Architectural Design

The column project explores augmented knitted composites based on traditional textile techniques in the context of architectural design. The approach mediates between a performance-driven digital design process and non-uniform manual material processing with the focus on generating distinct textiletectonics. Knitted fabrics depend on a combination of parameters, such as the geometry of the fabric, yarn material, and machine or hand dexterity, thus defining the behavior and performance of the resulting knitted structure. As industrial knitting machines struggle with processing very coarse or non-uniform yarns, the project aimed to extract the relevant geometric and material parameters to inform a hand-knitting process through digital design processes. The structural integrity of the generated structure is established through a calcite matrix, which is gradually deposited on fiber level by means of microbiologically induced calcite precipitation, creating a multi-hierarchical composite material. Most textiles possess a distinct microbiome, which tend to remain dormant in dry conditions. However, once environmental conditions change towards more humid conditions, the textile microbiome can start to proliferate and metabolize on fiber-level. Usually, this is an unwanted effect in the conventional textile industry as it may result in odor and hygiene issues. For this project, we tried to utilize this inherent property and colonize the textile with a specific microbiome, which, once activated, precipitates calcite through the biochemical interaction with its environment. This process establishes local microstructures which ultimately alter the material behavior macro level, transforming a soft textile into a load-bearing structure.

Bastian Beyer is a Berlin-based architect and researcher. He holds a BA in architecture from the Munich University of Applied Sciences and an architectural engineering diploma from the Berlin University of the Arts. As a Marie Curie research fellow (2015–2019), he explored interdisciplinary design strategies between architecture, textiles, biotechnology at the royal college of art London and got awarded his Phd in 2019. He worked, amongst others, with Heatherwick Studio London on process and production design for parametric façade elements using local resources. For his research, he collaborated with the geoengineering company Soletanche Bachy (Paris) and the textile research institute EURECAT (Barcelona). His PhD project was awarded the 2018 Autodesk ACADIA Emerging Research Award in Mexico City. His work addresses and reflects the role of materials and manufacturing processes in the context of architecture and design. He focuses specifically on fiber-based composite structures and their distinct manufacturing, extending the notion of performance beyond mere quantitative engineering characteristics towards holistic and integrated material systems. His installations harness the aesthetic and performative momentum of manufacturing processes and material transitions, which become an integral and interactive part of the work. His research is centered around the design of textile microbiomes, allowing for biologically triggered material transitions on a micro-scale.

Bastian Beyer is currently a postdoctoral researcher at »Matters of Activity« and a lecturer at University College London.

Daniel Suarez is an architectural designer from Spain currently undertaking his PhD as an ArcInTexETN research fellow at the Berlin University of Arts (UdK). In his research project titled Augmented Textile Tectonics Through Real-Time Human Machine Collaboration, he investigates processes that focus on translating textile operations from the physical to the digital domain using live motion capture systems. The aim is to manipulate such textile digital tectonics in correspondence with the possibilities of design offered by CAD/CAM processes. Before joining ArcInTexETN, Daniel worked as a practitioner for more than 12 years. He graduated from Madrid Polytechnic University in 2004 with a MA in Architecture and Urban Planning, and has also been trained in CG Architecture and project management, where he gained professional experience working for various international architecture practices such as Toyo Ito Spain Associates Architects. In 2008, he founded the architectural visualization firm Bounced Light Studios. The main goal was to provide computer graphics services to other architectural and engineering firms. Daniel has also participated in various architectural competitions and international projects.

Wuthigrai Siriphon (Thammasat University)

Understanding Thai Traditional Weaving from a Designer’s Perspective

Handweaving is one of the areas for which the Thai government initiates design and development projects. In most cases, design is a profession that is called to create new designs and offer creative interventions. Designers use the knowledge and skills in design and making, mostly gained within formal education contexts. Weavers, on the other hand, utilize the knowledge from their largely domestic practice. The knowledge of the traditional weaving processes, material preparation and patterns of the textiles produced are passed down by means of learning through making. This takes place with close supervision, most commonly within the family, with female elders who teach the younger ones. This form of knowledge has remained predominantly local and tacit, which is difficult for others, including designers, to fully comprehend. Outsiders have not readily gained access to such learning processes until recently. Nowadays, the learning of handweaving has become more available, albeit on a small scale, due to government encouragement. This presentation will articulate and examine the process of learning traditional handweaving from the point of view of a qualified designer who apprenticed with a master weaver. The advantages, disadvantages, limitations and opportunities will be discussed in order to communicate the viewpoint of the nature of learning and knowing traditional craft. Also, suggestions about what design professions can gain from such processes of learning, particularly from a future design development perspective, will be put forward.

Wuthigrai Siriphon is Lecturer in Textiles Design at Thammasat University’s Department of Textile and Fashion Design in Bangkok. He received his PhD in Textiles from the RCA in 2018 for his research on traditional Thai manual weaving practice and collaborative textile design with a Thai weaving master. His thesis, Revealing Localised Design Practice in Thai Hand Weaving, won the 2018 Anglo-Thai Society Annual Educational Award for Excellence in the Arts. In 2019, he won a grant from the British Museum and Arcadia’s Endangered Material Knowledge Programme for his current research project, Wooden Reed Making of the Ethnic Lao Khrang in Thailand. He is currently a co-Investigator of Thai Textiles, a research project led by Dr. Peter Oakley and funded by the Royal College of Art’s quality-related (QR) Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) development fund.

Lucie Smolderen (ULB)

Spinning the Thread of Women’s History. A Technical and Historical Approach to Women’s Textile Activities in the Dendi (Northern Benin).

In the Dendi (Borgou, Northern Benin), textile handmade production came to a halt in the 1980s. Since then, textiles are no longer produced locally. However, the presence in the villages of former practitioners, all over 60 years old, allows the reconstitution of the various technical processes that formed it: cotton cultivation, spinning fibers into yarn, indigo dyeing and weaving of narrow strips for the production of cloths. Since the end of the 19th century, the production of handmade cloths occupied a large network of people with different occupations and statuses: cotton growers, spinners, dyers, weavers, and merchants. Within this chain of production, it is the crucial place of women that is the subject of this presentation. Spinning – a female activity par excellence – was practiced by all women without distinction. As a strategic stage of the whole textile production, spinning is a relevant entry point to question the history of women but also that of the region. In this presentation, I will stay as close as possible to cotton and women, their gestures and their objects, in order to reconstruct the trajectory of this handcraft production and to take a new look at the history of the Dendi.

Lucie Smolderen is the scientific collaborator at the International Carnival and Mask Museum (Binche, Belgium). She is also working on a PhD thesis (supervised by Olivier Gosselain, at Université Libre de Bruxelles) on the history of women in Northern Benin (Dendi, Borgou). This work is based on several months of fieldwork and focuses on past and present women’s technical activities, such as agriculture, cooking, religious and matrimonial practices. It is within this framework that she started working on artisanal textile production and, more particularly, handmade-spinning. This part of her research has been the subject of several publications, including »Textile Production in Dendi: An Ethnographic and Historical Study of a Chain of Production«, in A. Haour (ed.), Two Thousand Years in Dendi, Northern Benin. Archaeology, History and Memory (2018); with Olivier Gosselain, »Les fantômes du Dendi« in Techniques & Culture (2018).

Annabel Vallard (CNRS, Centre Asie du Sud-Est, UMR 8170 – Paris)

Worlds of SilkS – a Southeast Asian Perspective (Thailand, RDP Lao)

Silk owes its reputation as the queen of fibers within the textile industry to its luster and sheen. On worldwide markets, it is often praised and prized as a luxury material for its shimmering appearance, naturality (»eco-friendly«), comfort, and wearability. It is also sometimes – but more confidentially – attacked for its harm to animal welfare due to the killing of moths during the extraction of silk fibers from the cocoons. The kind of silk discussed here is produced by the Bombyx mori L., the so-called »domestic« silkworm, which has structured the global industry for centuries. However, silk actually covers a wide range of biomaterials, produced by different species, whose appearances and properties may differ radically. In this presentation, based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Thailand and the Lao PDR, I aim to map the silk fabrication from a Thai and Laotian perspective. These two countries are known as important textile producers not only for their participation in the ready-to-wear global industry, but also for their crafts production, which remains highly dynamic. Among all materials locally used, silk is often considered the most luxurious and valuable. Far from being only a local self-sufficiency production, silk as material is fabricated along large networks linking local practitioners, industrial structures, laboratory techniques, and national as well as international policies. This mapping will take into consideration not only the Bombyx mori L., but other species producing silk (such as Philosamia ricini) embedded in local representations, practices and techniques, from their breeding to the textiles they contribute to make and shape.

Annabel Vallard is a social anthropologist at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) working on human–material relationships from textile (mainly silk) and mineral (gems, archaeological artifacts) examples. Her research is based on ethnographies carried out in Southeast Asia (Thailand, Lao PDR) and in Japan. She coordinates the ANR WILDSILKS, an interdisciplinary team of 15 scholars working on the biochemistry, genetics, history, anthropology and art facets of various wild silks species, fibers and textiles in Asia, Europe and West Africa (https://wildsilks.hypotheses.org). Besides her own publications (see for example Des humains et des matériaux, 2013), or The Anthropology of Precious Minerals with E.E. Ferry and A. Walsh, 2019), she is the co-editor in chief of Techniques & Culture (https://journals.openedition.org/tc/).