COP3 practical experiments

The beginnings of an idea - trying to  recreate a weaving in collage, using a mixture of textured painted paper and flat colours. Something quite interesting here, as the use of collage simultaneously complicates (the textural sheen of the painted paper) and simplifies (more defined block shapes) the design. 

When I  made this pattern, I was considering only how the shapes and colours sat together. However, looking at this pattern through the lens of my project, I think it's interesting to see a pattern that usually exits as fabric rendered in architectural paper craft.

Could this be a complete cycle: Fabric pattern -> paper structure -> reprinted onto fabric ?

Different opportunities for tactile processes: paper craft, mono printing rather than digital.
At what point does it cease to be an image and become an object?

Image to quilt

The artwork for The Decemberists' album What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World (Carson Ellis) rendered in quilting.

What is gained in transformation from visual object to tactile one? Are they the same thing? 

COP3 Hannah Waldron

A thought-provoking article about weaver Hannah Waldron, in which she discusses her processes. Nice reference to weaving as an 'alternate story telling medium'. 

"Looking at artefacts across the ages you begin to observe a universal language of patterns and forms that has an ability to tell narratives without words"

Very interested in this idea of a "universal language" in relation to textiles. Patterns and shapes are loaded with significance, be this about culture, history, experience, etc. 

"I do think I have become interested in other ways of presenting stories outside of the traditional book form. In particular how you can present a story in one picture, like tapestries, quilts and maps of the past, your eye must move around the picture and piece together the narrative"

How is presenting ideas or stories through textile mediums difference to page-based narrative? How can it be more subtle? More nuanced? More abstracted? How would reactions toward a certain pattern or image or idea differ if it was presented as a printed textile, or weaving, rather than a digitally rendered flat image?

"I see the weavings as objects because they are built from scratch rather than applied"

Does the tactile process, or the 'built from scratch'-ness of work as an object rather than an applied image, carry meaning in itself?  

COP3 research

• Finding research interesting, but thus far research has been rooted in physiological/psychological understanding of textures. Useful information, but I need to start examining wider theory.

• Need to solidify my ideas of what texture means in the context of visual language

• Interested in emotional-tactile synesthesia; if texture can prove so evocative, what potential does it have for visual story telling? < - Look at tapestries, both historic and contemporary. Could story telling via material be 'repurposed' 

COP3 - texture

• I know that I want to place 'Texture' at the centre of my project
• Interested in the emotions and expectations attached to textures, and how our reactions to images/artefacts change as texture is transformed/displaced/removed
• Need to clarify the distinction between visual and tactile textures 
• 'Texture' is broad, so perhaps will focus just on materials and textiles. I'm really keen to do more work with textiles, this also gives me lots of freedom to explore pattern