Cecilia Heffer

This paper presents a novel cross-disciplinary project that explores lace structures as graphic scores, drawings and sound. A research fellowship at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia (2023), facilitated the project. Lace is framed as a spatial drawing inquiry through the theories of anthropologist Tim Ingold and philosophers Giles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. The research is situated in a community of artistic practice exploring installation sound works. Examples include artist Danica Maier and music composer Martin Scheuregger, whose research draws from the Nottingham Lace Archive and artists Stine Janvin and Cory Arcangel’s translation of traditional Norwegian knit patterns into conceptual music scores. Perforated holes in punch cards and lace prickings conceptually inform the inquiry. The patterns of space in a lace, much like silence in music, are a linking device influencing the textural sound of a recording. The graphic scores reference dots in punch cards to mark notes for vocal harmonies; the spaces (silence) between these notes reflect the tension of the lace structure. This paper aims to contribute to the field by sharing novel relationships that emerged when translating lace structures (drawing) into choral harmonies. The lace scores pay homage to the histories of women lace workers overlooked in producing this complex, delicate textile.

This paper presents a hybrid model of teaching and learning that proposes new possibilities for exchang­ing tangible and intangible cross-cultural knowledge in textile craft education. The paper aims to demonstrate how online platforms can be used creatively to disseminate traditional craft knowledge and skills in new ways. The discussion centres on a unique virtual global studio between fashion and textile undergraduate students at the University of Technology Sydney and on an artisanal woodblock print studio, Tharangini, based in Bengaluru (Bangalore), India. The hybrid workshop was an adaptation of the studio in response to travel restrictions caused by the pandemic. The author argues that while the internet cannot replace the immersive cultural experience of studying in another country, digital platforms have a place alongside teaching to offer otherwise impossible opportunities. This paper explores a methodology for disseminating craft knowledge and skills across cultures through a combination of online and in-house practicum. Classes were structured around weekly Zoom sessions with Director Padmini Govind, where sustainable approaches to print production were disseminated through a suite of commissioned films and hand-carved woodblocks to explore on campus. The results show how this unique adaptation allowed students to interact with the artisan craft of woodblock printing in rich and varied ways, and it proposes that this novel hybrid model can be creatively adapted to future craft education in the 2020s.

The Arts Track at TEI 2015 explored sensory connections among people and the world around them. An international jury of artists, designers, and educators selected evocative, thought-provoking, and experientially rich pieces ranging from full-room installations to wearables and performance-based art. The pieces selected for the exhibit demonstrate not only technological novelty but also formal sophistication, conceptual creativity, and engagement with issues of active concern to the fields of interactive art. Here, we present a small sample demonstrating the breadth of the exhibition. Please see http://www.tei-conf.org/15/artists/ for the full list. Elizabeth Goodman and Younghui Kim, TEI'15 Arts Track Chairs