12 Surface Design Journal

On Target: Trends in Textiles and Technologyb y D e b o r a h C o r s i n i

Silicon Valley—nicknamed for the geographic region stretching

from San Jose, California, north to San Francisco—extends far

beyond its small peninsula to the entire planet. More a state of

continual technological innovation and development than a geographic

location, the advancements and excitement of high tech are influencing

evolution in every aspect of society, business, science, and the arts.

JANICE LESSMAN-MOSS #432 Cotton, wool, digital jacquard, woven on an industrial power loom, 75" x 67", 2012. Photo by the artist.

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Recognizing that technology isactively changing the way many fiberartists are engaging with their practices,the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles(SJMQT) launched its signature exhibitionthe International TECHstyle Art Biennial(ITAB) in 2010. It was conceived to reflectthe museum’s prime location in SiliconValley and to provide an opportunity toshowcase developing trends by textileartists who use technology in their process,content, or materials. The exhibit has nowhad its third incarnation. Similar to otherinternational textile exhibits (notablyFiberart International in Pennsylvania andQuilt National in Ohio), the SJMQT chose todesign a juried show with one clear focus.Thematic juried exhibitions like ITAB createa platform for trends in the fiber-art field tobe curatorially investigated. They offerartists a channel to share and consider themerits of new work while encouraginggreater experimentation that expands thedefinition of contemporary textile and fiberart.

Tuning into TechnologyJacquard-woven pieces, digitally embroideredworks, and digitally printed works using computer design programs were expectedentries. But in what other ways were fiber artistsusing technology to challenge their practice?

In ITAB’s history, about 20 percent of theoverall entries were jacquard woven, done byhand on a Dobby or TC-1 loom or at a commer-cial weaving mill. The images ranged fromabstract to landscapes and incorporated materi-als such as reflective yarns that glow in the light,hand-cut and folded aluminum foil, or LED lights.

Janice Lessman-Moss’s jacquard weav-ings are graphically complex with intertwinedlayers of pattern. Composed on the computerand then woven at a commercial mill, these visu-ally stunning pieces are the epitome of what ispossible in the hands of a savvy designer. Herdesigns build on the relationship between thepixels on the computer screen and the threadson the loom. She explains that these “composi-tions are created using networks of geometricforms that engage the iterative capabilitiesinherent to both tools.” A hand-felted blanketbacks each piece and extends beyond as a supplementary border, creating a perfect frame.The complementary contrast of dense woolmaterial to the multi-patterned woven design

poses a fascinating pairing of both high- andlow-tech processes.

Of the many computer-generated anddigitally printed works, Our Sons by MelissaEnglish Campbell is an optical and visual tourde force. Created using decommissioned textbooks, this foot-high stack of 2,640 digitallyprinted layers of cotton sateen reveals a boy’sface on all sides. Amazingly, the image on thefrayed side of the cube reads just as clearly to the eye.

Teddy Milder’s Berkeley Rumble 2literally shines. Printed on recycled metal cans,her original composited photographs of thedestruction of a building being torn down are an unsettling reminder of the fragility of earth-quake-prone California. The sculptural aspect of curving cans and metallic shimmer, pairedwith the ruinous imagery of rubble, make this apowerful work. Viewing the piece from differentperspectives, as gallery lights cast reflections and shadows, creates an added dimension of disquieting beauty.

MELISSA ENGLISH CAMPBELL Our SonsCotton sateen, decommissioned text books, glue, 2,640 layers of

digitally printed fabric and book pages, 12.5" x 12.5" x 12.5", 2014.Photo by the artist.

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TEDDY MILDER BerkeleyRumble 2 Composited original photography, metalcans, metallic thread, steelplate, composited imagesdigitally printed with archivalpigment ink on recycledmetal cans, piecing and handstitching, mounted on steelplate, 24" x 24", 2013. Photo by the artist.

NORA LIGORANO AND MARSHALL

REESE 50 Different Minds(Homage to Josef & AnniAlbers) Plexiglas, RGB LEDs,MAC Minicomputer, Internetconnection, handwoven fiber optic thread, customelectronics and software, 48" x 48" x 3", 2010. Photo: Nora Ligorano.

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Power!Over the course of the three ITAB exhibits, therehave been many works that needed electricityand incorporated LED lights as an aspect of thework, either static or on a circuit. Artists designedtheir own circuitry and embedded them into tra-ditional kimono-shaped garments, sculpturalworks, and various netted knotted pieces. A vari-ety of videos have been exhibited, ranging fromprojections onto a floating fabric screen, to small-er animations of jacquard weaving, and aweaver’s blog in a breathless onslaught of textileimagery.

Perhaps the ultimate andmost seductively mesmerizing piecein ITAB’s history was 50 DifferentMinds (Homage to Josef & AnniAlbers) by the collaborative duoNora Ligorano and Marshall Reese.

This piece, inspired by Josef Albers’ famousHomage to the Square series (of paintings, draw-ings, prints, and tapestries), looks like a glowingAmish quilt in a simple nine-patch configuration.The ever-changing colors that undulate from oneblock to the next in subtly shifting patterns aretransfixing. Ligorano and Reese write, “It has beena challenging project, to imagine developing anartwork bound by tradition (weaving) on the onehand, yet to be a totally new invention on theother.” Woven of fiber optic threads with customelectronics and software, the piece maps patternsand luminosity by scraping data culled fromTwitter and air traffic dispatches to create anima-tions of color. While this piece was on display dur-ing the first ITAB in 2010, a computer was set up

in the gallery for viewers to “tweet” a colorsequence, such as red, green, violet, blue, yellow,etc. Depending upon how many tweets were inthe cue, one would see the piece change colorthrough crowd sourcing.

The artistic team of Rob Gonsalves andAnna Kristina Goransson created the playfulinteractive piece Swarming. Thirteen red andorange wall-mounted, hand-felted “pods” arehome to flocks of animated boids—or lights. Theanimation comes to life as visitors approach thesculptures. The light boids dart around the sculp-

ture, exhibiting behaviors reminiscent of flockingand feeding. A computer rigged with a MicrosoftKinect interface (programmed by Gonsalves)monitors the motion of human visitors, whichthen controls the video projection and immersivesoundscape.

The Internet as MuseEverything from confessional blogs to download-ed images from NASA has been transformed invarious ways by artists. Patti Shaw’s Spam Scamis inspired by the thousands of outrageous scamletters that clog our email in-boxes. In this case,an actual spam letter from her collection hasbeen carefully hand-embroidered—with typosincluded—and preserved like a 21st century

ROB GONSALVES AND ANNA KRISTINA GORANSSON SwarmingWool, computer with custom software, Kinect interface, projector,speakers, hand felting, dyeing, computer animation programming,

sound design, motion sensing, 77" x 102" x 4", 2014. With detail. Photos: Rob Gonsalves.

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PATTI SHAW Spam Scam Cotton fabric hand-dyed using coffee as dye, textile paint, embroidery floss, hand-embroidered text, hand-painted symbols, hand quilting, 42.5" x 82", 2009. Photo: Art & Soul.

sampler. The comparison of the time it took Shawto embroider this urgently unscrupulous appealvs. the speed of typing a letter and sending it outto the world via the Internet is not lost on theaudience, making an intriguing commentary onthe pace of modern life.

QR (Quick Response) codes—those per-vasive black and white squares of patterneddots—have been reinterpreted in woven, hand-embroidered, printed, and quilted textiles. Theloveliest ITAB example is Barbara Nephom’s FineArt High Technology, rendered in Korean bojagicloth. The graphic black and white hand-stitchedsquares, paired with the translucency of the silk,create an ethereal view of thisfamiliar symbol. The scannedQR code links viewers to theartist’s website.

Alternative MaterialsMany artists find inspiration inthe materials from tech pro-duction. Eszter Bornemiszaembeds keyboard buttons,wires, and plugs into hand-made paper in her map-likework Technopolis, which juxta-poses cultural history withcontemporary highway gridsand maps of her home city ofBudapest. Discarded CD’s com-bined with dried leaves anddischarged fabrics in Regina

Benson’s Evolutionary Designmake a gorgeousiridescent wall hanging that speaks of data stor-age, both digitally and biologically. Shiny blackVCR tape is twisted and coiled into a refinedsmall basket, Elegance by Alicia Woods. Certainlya conscious decision by these artists and anadded benefit is that in their choice of raw mate-rials—recycling and upcycling—they are alsodiverting all of this refuse from the high techwaste stream and landfill.

High and LowAs an expansive curatorial endeavor, ITAB is astudy of contrasts. Some artists use the computer,

digital photography, 3D render-ing filters, animation software,and manipulated images todesign and create traditionaltapestries, quilts, or even hand-made Hawaiian kappa barkcloth. Wendeanne Ke'akaStitt’s Niho Manō II: To You, Año Nuevo Great White wasdesigned from a digital photoof an earlier piece and trans-formed on the computer with a rendering filter to create asphere from a flat image. Kappa is a laborious process,and this piece is an especiallyprovocative marriage of tradi-tional methods with modern technology.

WENDEANNE KE'AKA STITT Niho Manō II: To You, Año Nuevo Great White Artist-made

Hawaiian kapa (bark cloth), California black walnuthull dye, hili kukui, Kaua`i red dirt, 34" x 34", 2012.

Photo: Thomas Burke and others.

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Other artists use hand embroidery ofcode, sequences, or circuits to create works thatspeak of information overload. The slow handwork of these textile processes is a stark oppositeto the rapid speeds of technology, and possiblyan appealing antidote for the need to be contin-ually connected to the Internet and social media.

Fast ForwardTechnology is intertwined with our contemporaryworld. The anticipation is that artists will continueto embrace, experiment, refine, and remain fascinated with it in imaginative ways. These ITAB exhibits have established a baseline for avariety of connections between technology andartistic expression. Undoubtedly, many moreadventurous achievements lie ahead.

The next International TECHstyle Art Biennial is sched-uled for the fall of 2016 at the San Jose Museum ofQuilts & Textiles; www.sjquiltmuseum.org.

—Deborah Corsini is the former curator of the SanJose Museum of Quilts & Textiles. She is an internation-ally exhibiting tapestry weaver.www.deborahcorsini.com

ESZTER BORNEMISZA TechnopolisVilene (nonwoven fabric), glue, paper pulp of rush and sedge, key-board buttons, wires, plugs, thread, organza, glueing, paper casting,burning, machine sewing, 63" x 35", 2014. Photo: Tihanyi & Bakos.

REGINA BENSON Evolutionary DesignDiscarded CDs, dried leaves, seeds, garden grasses, weeds, hand-dyedand discharged cotton, silk, rayon fabrics, embroidery floss, monofila-ment line, aluminum slat, polymer coatings, paint, heat-press lamina-

tion, hand embroidery, braiding, knotting, soldering, and painting,114" x 47" x 6", 2012. Photo: John Bonath.

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