Symposium Review: Coded Communications: Digital Weaving as Artistic Technology

by: Anie Toole, Student/New Professional Award Recipient

Coded Communications: Digital Weaving as Artistic Technology was one of the concurrent sessions on the first day of the 17th Textile Society of America biennial symposium. This session was organized by Assistant Professors Gabrielle Duggan (East Carolina University) and Janie Woodbridge (North Carolina State University), who presented their work, along with Associate Professor Robin Haller (East Carolina University) and Assistant Professor Kate Nartker (North Carolina State University).

The first speaker, Gabrielle Duggan, presented “Glitched Metaphors: Dysfunction in Hand-Woven Digital Jacquard.” The talk was a poetic account of fabrics hand-made on a neglected TC1 loom. Their work explored the limits of a cloth that barely manages to hold together.

Janie Woodbridge’s “Giving a Shape to the Invisible” explained how counting and checking are methods for controlling anxiety and how weaving is an activity perfectly suited to such a temperament. One of her recent projects materialized brain functions and the slow healing process from a concussion.

Robin Haller’s “Translations of Human Experience” presented a body of work inspired by personal history and current events. These digital weavings of hand-dyed warps and wefts bring forth emotions linked to family, heritage, time, and memory. 

Kate Nartker’s “Textiles: The Original Cinematic Medium” was the last of the artist talks. Nartker elucidated the common narrative capacity shared by tapestry and film. The artist discussed her process of creation, working back and forth between weaving and video technologies as a way to introduce movement to weavings.

The main theme of the session was weaving technology, but it was interesting how each artist’s work had a special relation to a temporal element. Line by line, sometimes with a slow loom, these works are constructed. Duggan’s work explores time over a decade with a particular loom and through decay while much of Woodbridge’s and Nartker’s works are precise visual time lapses. Complementing the group, Haller’s work showcases textiles that commemorate various events. 

The Q&A and chat were active and revealed familiar names of legendary jacquard weavers among the attendees. Some attendees are now very interested in finding an opportunity to weave on a digital single thread-controlled loom. The artists and attendees via the chat suggested possible locations and further contacts. Questions were diverse, ranging from how to get started on a loom, to questions about digital loom make and model specifics, and whether it was ever okay to use sparkly fiber. More questions were asked about the planning process, the interaction with the loom, the pixel-to-human hand relationship, and the proper distance to take from the cloth after it is woven, both literately and metaphorically.

All four artists are educators in North Carolina textile programs. One attendee asked if they recommended doing an MFA. The unanimous answer was yes—with recommendations of applying to grants and scholarships. Overall, they agreed that the MFA opened doors, expanded their networks, and both built a foundation for and advanced their studio art practices. 

If you aren’t familiar with the work of these four artists, I suggest visiting their websites to learn more about their work. They are all prolific and likely have current or upcoming exhibits near you.

To Learn More About the Artists:

Gabrielle Duggan: http://www.gabrielleduggan.com/

Janie Woodbridge: http://janiewoodbridge.com/

Kate Nartker: https://www.katenartker.com/

Robin Haller: http://www.robinhallerart.com/

Anie Toole has been a member of TSA since 2017 and is a second-year MFA Studio student at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Anie was thrilled to attend the virtual symposium with her MFA cohort as part of their Seminar II class.