Collaborating with TARP Lab at Emily Carr University of Art & Design
Weaving with different materials and different tools.
Live Tapestry
SHAL
White Loom
An Abstract Rug / Summer Project
Practicing materiality
In the summer, I made a loom to do some experiments and explore the theory of EDD. The loom was an object for thinking and reflecting. One of the key aspects of my practice was exploring materiality. As a result of a place-based design practice, I came up with two specific experiments. The first experiment occurred on a beach on Alouette Lake in Vancouver. In this practice, I started weaving an abstract rug. My materials were yarns and stones. I was trying to not think rationally; instead, I was more curious to explore a different version of an existing object (the rug); In this practice, I was inspired by this notion of Stuart Walker (2011) that says: ‘Design’s contribution has to go further than analysis and rational methodologies because a large part of it is about creativity and expression. These intrinsic features of designing involve the imagination, emotion and aesthetic experience. Therefore, it is not only entirely appropriate that these aspects be embedded, their inclusion is absolutely vital for developing what might be termed a ‘designerly’ approach to research, sustainability and the making of meaningful material culture’ (pp. 83-84). I used stones as a sign of the intervention of nature as an actor in making my abstract rug. I put different sizes of natural stones on the woven threads and then I could touch a new experience of walking on a stony rug and feel the coldness of the permanent presence of stones in my rug. They acted as a stimulator of my consciousness of a different reality as an uncomfortable rug. This experiment helped me reflect more on the context of materiality and compare it with immateriality. So, after that, I decided to create a loom with an untouchable material.
Loom & Light
On a sunny afternoon, when the sun was shining and sunbeams were playing on the wall, I put my loom vertically on the floor of my house’s balcony. Sitting in front of that, I started looking at the loom. After moments of being silent, I felt a strange new state of thinking. I was drawn in the strong relationship between the environment and the object. The place, the sounds and the singing birds, the sunbeams and the clouds were all making a virtual context; I unwittingly explored how the light was playing on the loom surface and between the threads, and how this was a process of making an ephemeral pattern as an unpredictable context. ‘It is now space which plays freely between them, (here object and light) and becomes the universal function of their relationships and their values’ (Baudrillard, 1996, p. 21). Light in that specific moment was performing a magical dance through a series of fleeting glimpses as isolated shots in front of my eyes! It was the content of a concept. The concept of momentary changes. Lights and shadows behind the threads were weaving different patterns, different colors, and a variety of unknown feelings. I experienced minutes of stillness when nothing was absolutely still. I recorded minutes of thousands of moving light patterns. Thousands of different stories and possibilities.
