KT Doyle
Artist > Designer > Maker, Australia

Craft articulating Culture

Unlike Zierdt’s interest between machine and consciousness, the Digital Rug and Textile Sample series explore the computer as a tool, rather than an entity. It is used in the design process, becoming the medium for fabrication. Myerson (1997) refers to designer, Guy Dyas’ suggestion that the computer is a tool used in the design process and the real skill in utilising that tool is derived from traditional design knowledge. This defines the role of the computer in the author’s work, as a tool that can, in conjunction with well-refined design knowledge, effect the production of resolved artwork.

Figure 19

Just as Sag’s virtual loom becomes a site for depositing fragments in the search for meaning, the Digital Rug and Textile Sample series are constructed from many disparate sources including personal experience, cultural (hi)stories, contemporary issues and aesthetic sensibilities. Below, Table 1 provides a brief insight into these references:

Table 1

The exploration of these sources has allowed the digital work to become a repository for information. Rebuilt in the new context of the Digital Rug and Textile Sample series, the meanings of original motifs and symbolism have changed and evolved into new ideas and points of reference. Whilst a number of visual devices in the Digital Rug and Textile Sample series were chosen both for their symbolic and stylistic relevance, they are not conclusive of any one interpretation or experience of the work.

It is hoped, however, that this blurring of traditional textile practice through both conceptual and visual referencing and the use of the computer as a design tool have added further validity to the encounter between craft and design. By creating works on paper that allude to the physicality of textiles (without trying to imitate them), the Digital Rug and Textile Sample series engage in the forum that challenges traditional notions of craft.

CONCLUSION

Textiles have been granted a privileged place in society in terms of their functionality, aesthetic and sensory appeal and as the carriers of secret and shared meaning. Computers and other forms of electronic technology have become part of many areas of textile practice, not only in production but also in design, as in the case of this work. Besides the technical advantages of making the weaving process more cost and time efficient, technology has helped to create a fissure in our definitions of craft and design and how they are intertwined.

The relationship between technology and textiles is as closely interwoven today as it was at the inception of the Jacquard loom. The work of contemporary artists is testament to the continuing exploration of this relationship. The Digital Rug and Textile Sample series are intended to work as a visual commentary on the physicality of textiles and their potential to act as carriers of meaning and personal (hi)stories.