Crafting Textiles in the Digital Age

by Nithikul Nimkulrat (Editor), Faith Kane (Editor), Kerry Walton (Editor)

Overview

In an era of increasingly available digital resources, many textile designers and makers find themselves at an interesting juncture between traditional craft processes and newer digital technologies. Highly specialized craft/design practitioners may now elect to make use of digital processes in their work, but often choose not to abandon craft skills fundamental to their practice, and aim to balance the complex connection between craft and digital processes. The essays collected here consider this transition from the viewpoint of aesthetic opportunity arising in the textile designer's hands-on experimentation with material and digital technologies available in the present.

Craft provides the foundations for thinking within the design and production of textiles, and as such may provide some clues in the transition to creative and thoughtful use of current and future digital technologies. Within the framework of current challenges relating to sustainable development, globalization, and economic constraints it is important to interrogate and question how we might go about using established and emerging technologies in textiles in a positive manner.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781474286206
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	09/08/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
File size:	10 MB

About the Author

Nithikul Nimkulrat is the Professor and Head of Department of Textile Design at the Estonian Academy of Art, Estonia.

Faith Kane is a Lecturer in Textiles and Leader of the Textile Design Research Group at the School of the Arts, Loughborough University, UK.

Kerry Walton is the Programme Director for Textiles: Innovation and Design at the School of the Arts, Loughborough University, UK.
Nithikul Nimkulrat is the Professor and Head of Department of Textile Design at the Estonian Academy of Art, Estonia. Previously a Lecturer in Textiles and a member of the Textile Research Group (TRG) at the Loughborough University, she is also a practicing textile artist and designer. Her research interest is rooted in her textile practice, reaching across conceptual issues in art and design, especially the role of creative practice in academic research and the immateriality of physical materials in creative processes.
Faith Kane is Associate Professor and Major Co-ordinator of Textiles in the School of Design, at the College of Creative Arts, Massey University, New Zealand. After gaining her PhD, Designing Nonwovens: Industrial and Craft Perspectives, she taught constructed textiles at De Montfort University in Leicester, leaving in 2008 to take up her current position at Loughborough. Her current interests revolve around sustainable materials design and in particular the role and value of craft knowledge within this area. She is involved in her own practice-led research as well as the development of collaborative research projects and events. Current projects include 'Laser Enhanced Biotechnology for Textile Design' and 'Textile Thinking for Sustainable Materials'.
Kerry Walton is the Programme Director for Textiles: Innovation and Design, School of the Arts, Loughborough University. Kerry completed a Master's degree at the Royal College of Art in 1981 and worked for a number of years as a free-lance woven textile designer and maker, exhibiting and selling through trade shows and galleries in Europe and the USA. Research interests include practice based design influenced by research on new materials and innovations in Textiles, and she has produced design collections for exhibition at the Indigo Trade Fair in Paris. Recent Research Activity includes a Materials and Design Exchange (Technology Strategy Board funded) SPARK award in collaboration with Heritage Cashmere (Halifax) manufacturer of cashmere products for a global market, for the development of innovative laser-processed designs.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
List of Contributors

Foreword
J.R. Campbell, Kent State University, USA

Introduction
Faith Kane, Loughborough University, UK, Nithikul Nimkulrat, Estonian Academy of Art, Estonia, and Kerry Walton, Loughborough University, UK

Part One: Digital Technologies Informing Craft

Crafting Textiles in the Digital Age: Printed Textiles
Cathy Treadaway, Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK

Digital Embroidery Practice
Tina Downes, Nottingham Trent University, UK, Tessa Acti, Independent Artist, UK, and Donna Rumble-Smith, Independent Artist, UK

Textile Illusions – Patterns of Light and the Woven White Screen
Anne Louise Bang, Kolding School of Design, Denmark, Helle Trolle, Kolding School of Design, Denmark, and Anne Mette Larsen, Independent Researcher, Denmark

The Intelligence of the Hand
Monika Auch, Visual Artist, The Netherlands

Part Two: Craft Intervention in Digital Process

The Digital Print Room – A Bespoke Approach to Print Technology
Helen Ryall, University of Huddersfield, UK and Penny Macbeth, Manchester School of Art, UK

Maintaining the Human Touch – Exploring 'Crafted Control' within an Advanced Textile Production Interface
Martin Woolley, Coventry University, UK and Rob Huddleston, Birmingham City University, UK

Garment ID: Textile Patterning Techniques for Hybrid Functional Clothing
Kerri Akiwowo, Loughborough University, UK

Processes within Digitally Printed Textile Design
Susan Carden, Northumbria University, UK

Part Three: Craft Thinking in a Digital Age

Hand-Knitting in a Digital Era
Josephine Steed, Robert Gordon University, UK

Hidden Values and Human Inconsistencies in Hand-Stitching Processes
Emma Shercliff, Arts University Bournemouth, UK

Perspectives on Making and Viewing: Generating Meaning through Textiles
Sonja Andrews, University of Manchester, UK

Closely Held Secrets: Embodied Knowledge in Digitally Crafted Textiles
Katherine Townsend, Nottingham Trent University, UK

Index

Editorial Reviews

Crafting Textiles in the Digital Age is a timely debate on the concept and role of craft in textile creation and digital technology. The book's contributors address various issues, reflecting on aesthetic, social, economic, and environmental point of views, making it a valuable think tank for researchers, practitioners, and makers within textiles.” —Hitoshi Ujiie, Director of the Center for Excellence in Surface Imaging, Philadelphia University, USA

“This book offers an overview of the current context and approach being taken to the making and crafting of contemporary digital textiles. It clearly defines the field of digital craft and outlines many key practitioners involved in pushing the boundaries of process, method, and materials. The book clearly demonstrates new and innovative thinking as well as the new visual language which emerges from crafting textiles through digital methods.” —Amanda Briggs-Goode, Nottingham Trent University, UK

From the Publisher