Proceedings from the IOTA 2024 Futuring Craft: The Value Of Craft,Indian Ocean Craft Triennial Australia, 2024
This practice-based paper will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of designing with digital... more This practice-based paper will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of designing with digital CAD and AI technology in relation to artisan handloom weaving in India. The aim is to open a dialogue on how digital technologies can be explored to enhance rather than replace or exploit artisan practice. To do this, the paper disseminates a cross-cultural design sponsorship between an artisan weave studio, Kullu Karishma, and a Fashion and Textile program at the University of Technology Sydney. The generous sponsorship awards thirty-five metres of handloom- weave for a final-year fashion collection. In mentoring students, the author has observed a process translation gap between digital designing and handloom production. Tensions initially occur when CAD designs are not attuned to the capabilities and material character of the weave, such as structure, scale and colour. A more innovative outcome emerges when hand (tacit knowledge) and technology work together, pushing creative boundaries. Educating emerging designers on how to work with artisan practice and communities is critical to bridging this existing gap in a fashion system removed from artisan and material making. In doing so, this can potentially foster more engaging and sustainable relationshipsfor future artisan crafts in the Indo-Pacific region.
Removing the educational silos : Models of interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary education., 2022
The field of fashion and textiles is interdisciplinary by nature, requiring designers to work col... more The field of fashion and textiles is interdisciplinary by nature, requiring designers to work collaboratively across a range of specialisations, including patternmaking, construction, textile design, graphics, styling, photography and film. At the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), students learn such skills by responding to a design brief, a document outlining a series of creative tasks linked to specific learning outcomes the students must complete during their degree. Through these briefs, students build skills and expertise that they draw on throughout their future careers and transfer this knowledge to other disciplines. The studios have opened students learning and given them a broader understanding of global production systems which by nature are multidisciplinary. This has enabled graduating students to have the confidence to move into multidisciplinary areas such as marketing, business, journalism, media, brand and event management, social enterprise and sustainable practice both locally and internationally. As educators, we are interested in how o-site education settings such as professional design environments can contribute to the acquisition of tacit knowledge in professional design practice. Our teaching has revealed a gap between the high levels of skills the students acquire in their studies and their ability and confidence to translate skills in a professional setting.
Over the last decade interdisciplinary engagement with lace as a contemporary design source has o... more Over the last decade interdisciplinary engagement with lace as a contemporary design source has opened up a new emerging space for designers to explore unconventional approaches to traditional technologies and materials. This can be evidenced through International Contemporary Lace exhibitions over recent years, whereby artists outside the discipline of textiles have been invited to explore material innovation as a means to open up new definitions of lace (Radical Lace USA, 2007; Lost in Lace UK, 2011; Love Lace Australia, 2011–13).1 This review is an overview of my own contemporary lace practice during this time. I view my work as a practice made up of iterations of the one intent – that is to explore notions of making as an embodied response to the materials and places that I work and live in. Traditionally lace could be read as a place marker and came to represent the family and region where they were made through the materials and patterns employed to make them. Drawn to the technical complexity that this allusive textile holds I am interested in demonstrating how making knowledges move between generations. Historically embroidered laces for example are known as ‘punto en aire’ (‘stitches in the air’). This prompts me to question how new notions of stitches in the air can be re-imagined as a modern-day place marker. The motivation behind my lace works is to create original work that reflect back a unique recognition of place. It is in the experience of recognition itself that enables us to view our environment in a new light.
Over the last decade interdisciplinary engagement with lace has opened up an emerging space for d... more Over the last decade interdisciplinary engagement with lace has opened up an emerging space for designers to explore new materials and technologies that question conventional forms of textile making and meaning. The focus of this article is to present contemporary approaches to lacemaking as a creative exploratory response to a local environment. The article will present a textile installation created for the Museum Central de Textile in Lódź, Poland in 2013. Here historical embroidered laces known as punto en aire (translation: 'stitches in the air') will be reimagined as a modern-day place marker. Philosophies of striated and smooth space (Deleuze & Guattari 1988) will explore metaphor through the relationship between language and material structures as a means to move beyond the surface reading of a textile. This article seeks to find original research methodologies for place making in textiles and in doing so present an expanded view of the field.
This paper presents how a contemporary lace practice explored the medium of animation as a digita... more This paper presents how a contemporary lace practice explored the medium of animation as a digital tool for craft research. Research is practice based and theoretically framed around notions of smooth and striated space as a means to articulate how a designer engages in textile thinking to reimagine new expressions for (p)lace in a digital age. The author sought to test out if animation could capture and disseminate an ephemeral lace process. This led to a curious convergence between two disciplines. What was initially to be a tool for efficiency and speed unexpectedly turned out to be a method for abstracting an allusive lace making process. Learning about the idiosyncrasies of another discipline opened new aesthetic opportunities for a contemporary lace practice and introduced novel methods to disseminate future material research.
This paper presents a hybrid model of teaching and learning that proposes new possibilities for e... more This paper presents a hybrid model of teaching and learning that proposes new possibilities for exchanging tangible and intangible cross-cultural knowledge in textile craft education. The paper aims to demonstrate how online platforms can be used creatively to disseminate traditional craft knowledge and skills in new ways. The discussion centres on a unique virtual global studio between fashion and textile undergraduate students at the University of Technology Sydney and on an artisanal woodblock print studio, Tharangini, based in Bengaluru (Bangalore), India. The hybrid workshop was an adaptation of the studio in response to travel restrictions caused by the pandemic. The author argues that while the internet cannot replace the immersive cultural experience of studying in another country, digital platforms have a place alongside teaching to offer otherwise impossible opportunities. This paper explores a methodology for disseminating craft knowledge and skills across cultures throu...
As a textile lecturer and designer I am interested in the intersection between emerging technolog... more As a textile lecturer and designer I am interested in the intersection between emerging technologies and traditional textile practice. Exploring the structural properties of a fabric and creating potentially new geometries or systems in cloth and pattern are a key interest. Embedding electronics into fabric surfaces has great potential for collaboration and pervasive textile artworks. I would like to apply to participate in The Pervasive Workshop in order to present my own ongoing research collaborations and to open discussions on integrating textiles with display technology. I have little technical experience in electronics however I can contribute to discussions in terms of textile experience. Out of these dialogues potential collaborations and future new works have the potential to arise. Key Words
This Open Access ebook is part of a hybrid publication designed by Zoë Sadokierski, to communicat... more This Open Access ebook is part of a hybrid publication designed by Zoë Sadokierski, to communicate Cecilia Heffer's innovative lace-making practice. The publication is the result of a two-year collaboration which unfolded through multiple discussions in Heffer's studio, searching her archives to conceive ways to visually communicate her tacit design process. To understand Heffer's practice we need to observe her creative process, to hear / read her critical reflections and to handle the textiles. To achieve this, the complete publication includes: -a seven-minute video documenting Heffer's lace-making process; -a limited edition of ten books which include six lace samples bound into the pages titled Lace Narratives: A monograph 2005 -2015; -an unlimited print-on-demand edition (without the lace samples) and an open access PDF (this edition) of the book, both available via UTS ePress. This hybrid publication model provides a complex account of Heffer's practice that could not be achieved through a single publication. The limited edition of Lace Narratives is made available to the public through library collections. Check where the books are located: mediaobject.net/ eSSay: 'Laced Messages', Professor Kees Dorst eSSay: 'Laced: An historical context, Rosemary Shepherd To Furnish a Future, 2007
This paper presents how a contemporary lace practice explored the medium of animation as a digita... more This paper presents how a contemporary lace practice explored the medium of animation as a digital tool for craft research. Research is practice based and theoretically framed around notions of smooth and striated space as a means to articulate how a designer engages in textile thinking to reimagine new expressions for (p)lace in a digital age. The author sought to test out if animation could capture and disseminate an ephemeral lace process. This led to a curious convergence between two disciplines. What was initially to be a tool for efficiency and speed unexpectedly turned out to be a method for abstracting an allusive lace making process. Learning about the idiosyncrasies of another discipline opened new aesthetic opportunities for a contemporary lace practice and introduced novel methods to disseminate future material research.
Proceedings from the IOTA 2024 Futuring Craft: The Value Of Craft,Indian Ocean Craft Triennial Australia, 2024
This practice-based paper will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of designing with digital... more This practice-based paper will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of designing with digital CAD and AI technology in relation to artisan handloom weaving in India. The aim is to open a dialogue on how digital technologies can be explored to enhance rather than replace or exploit artisan practice. To do this, the paper disseminates a cross-cultural design sponsorship between an artisan weave studio, Kullu Karishma, and a Fashion and Textile program at the University of Technology Sydney. The generous sponsorship awards thirty-five metres of handloom- weave for a final-year fashion collection. In mentoring students, the author has observed a process translation gap between digital designing and handloom production. Tensions initially occur when CAD designs are not attuned to the capabilities and material character of the weave, such as structure, scale and colour. A more innovative outcome emerges when hand (tacit knowledge) and technology work together, pushing creative boundaries. Educating emerging designers on how to work with artisan practice and communities is critical to bridging this existing gap in a fashion system removed from artisan and material making. In doing so, this can potentially foster more engaging and sustainable relationshipsfor future artisan crafts in the Indo-Pacific region.
Removing the educational silos : Models of interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary education., 2022
The field of fashion and textiles is interdisciplinary by nature, requiring designers to work col... more The field of fashion and textiles is interdisciplinary by nature, requiring designers to work collaboratively across a range of specialisations, including patternmaking, construction, textile design, graphics, styling, photography and film. At the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), students learn such skills by responding to a design brief, a document outlining a series of creative tasks linked to specific learning outcomes the students must complete during their degree. Through these briefs, students build skills and expertise that they draw on throughout their future careers and transfer this knowledge to other disciplines. The studios have opened students learning and given them a broader understanding of global production systems which by nature are multidisciplinary. This has enabled graduating students to have the confidence to move into multidisciplinary areas such as marketing, business, journalism, media, brand and event management, social enterprise and sustainable practice both locally and internationally. As educators, we are interested in how o-site education settings such as professional design environments can contribute to the acquisition of tacit knowledge in professional design practice. Our teaching has revealed a gap between the high levels of skills the students acquire in their studies and their ability and confidence to translate skills in a professional setting.
Over the last decade interdisciplinary engagement with lace as a contemporary design source has o... more Over the last decade interdisciplinary engagement with lace as a contemporary design source has opened up a new emerging space for designers to explore unconventional approaches to traditional technologies and materials. This can be evidenced through International Contemporary Lace exhibitions over recent years, whereby artists outside the discipline of textiles have been invited to explore material innovation as a means to open up new definitions of lace (Radical Lace USA, 2007; Lost in Lace UK, 2011; Love Lace Australia, 2011–13).1 This review is an overview of my own contemporary lace practice during this time. I view my work as a practice made up of iterations of the one intent – that is to explore notions of making as an embodied response to the materials and places that I work and live in. Traditionally lace could be read as a place marker and came to represent the family and region where they were made through the materials and patterns employed to make them. Drawn to the technical complexity that this allusive textile holds I am interested in demonstrating how making knowledges move between generations. Historically embroidered laces for example are known as ‘punto en aire’ (‘stitches in the air’). This prompts me to question how new notions of stitches in the air can be re-imagined as a modern-day place marker. The motivation behind my lace works is to create original work that reflect back a unique recognition of place. It is in the experience of recognition itself that enables us to view our environment in a new light.
Over the last decade interdisciplinary engagement with lace has opened up an emerging space for d... more Over the last decade interdisciplinary engagement with lace has opened up an emerging space for designers to explore new materials and technologies that question conventional forms of textile making and meaning. The focus of this article is to present contemporary approaches to lacemaking as a creative exploratory response to a local environment. The article will present a textile installation created for the Museum Central de Textile in Lódź, Poland in 2013. Here historical embroidered laces known as punto en aire (translation: 'stitches in the air') will be reimagined as a modern-day place marker. Philosophies of striated and smooth space (Deleuze & Guattari 1988) will explore metaphor through the relationship between language and material structures as a means to move beyond the surface reading of a textile. This article seeks to find original research methodologies for place making in textiles and in doing so present an expanded view of the field.
This paper presents how a contemporary lace practice explored the medium of animation as a digita... more This paper presents how a contemporary lace practice explored the medium of animation as a digital tool for craft research. Research is practice based and theoretically framed around notions of smooth and striated space as a means to articulate how a designer engages in textile thinking to reimagine new expressions for (p)lace in a digital age. The author sought to test out if animation could capture and disseminate an ephemeral lace process. This led to a curious convergence between two disciplines. What was initially to be a tool for efficiency and speed unexpectedly turned out to be a method for abstracting an allusive lace making process. Learning about the idiosyncrasies of another discipline opened new aesthetic opportunities for a contemporary lace practice and introduced novel methods to disseminate future material research.
This paper presents a hybrid model of teaching and learning that proposes new possibilities for e... more This paper presents a hybrid model of teaching and learning that proposes new possibilities for exchanging tangible and intangible cross-cultural knowledge in textile craft education. The paper aims to demonstrate how online platforms can be used creatively to disseminate traditional craft knowledge and skills in new ways. The discussion centres on a unique virtual global studio between fashion and textile undergraduate students at the University of Technology Sydney and on an artisanal woodblock print studio, Tharangini, based in Bengaluru (Bangalore), India. The hybrid workshop was an adaptation of the studio in response to travel restrictions caused by the pandemic. The author argues that while the internet cannot replace the immersive cultural experience of studying in another country, digital platforms have a place alongside teaching to offer otherwise impossible opportunities. This paper explores a methodology for disseminating craft knowledge and skills across cultures throu...
As a textile lecturer and designer I am interested in the intersection between emerging technolog... more As a textile lecturer and designer I am interested in the intersection between emerging technologies and traditional textile practice. Exploring the structural properties of a fabric and creating potentially new geometries or systems in cloth and pattern are a key interest. Embedding electronics into fabric surfaces has great potential for collaboration and pervasive textile artworks. I would like to apply to participate in The Pervasive Workshop in order to present my own ongoing research collaborations and to open discussions on integrating textiles with display technology. I have little technical experience in electronics however I can contribute to discussions in terms of textile experience. Out of these dialogues potential collaborations and future new works have the potential to arise. Key Words
This Open Access ebook is part of a hybrid publication designed by Zoë Sadokierski, to communicat... more This Open Access ebook is part of a hybrid publication designed by Zoë Sadokierski, to communicate Cecilia Heffer's innovative lace-making practice. The publication is the result of a two-year collaboration which unfolded through multiple discussions in Heffer's studio, searching her archives to conceive ways to visually communicate her tacit design process. To understand Heffer's practice we need to observe her creative process, to hear / read her critical reflections and to handle the textiles. To achieve this, the complete publication includes: -a seven-minute video documenting Heffer's lace-making process; -a limited edition of ten books which include six lace samples bound into the pages titled Lace Narratives: A monograph 2005 -2015; -an unlimited print-on-demand edition (without the lace samples) and an open access PDF (this edition) of the book, both available via UTS ePress. This hybrid publication model provides a complex account of Heffer's practice that could not be achieved through a single publication. The limited edition of Lace Narratives is made available to the public through library collections. Check where the books are located: mediaobject.net/ eSSay: 'Laced Messages', Professor Kees Dorst eSSay: 'Laced: An historical context, Rosemary Shepherd To Furnish a Future, 2007
This paper presents how a contemporary lace practice explored the medium of animation as a digita... more This paper presents how a contemporary lace practice explored the medium of animation as a digital tool for craft research. Research is practice based and theoretically framed around notions of smooth and striated space as a means to articulate how a designer engages in textile thinking to reimagine new expressions for (p)lace in a digital age. The author sought to test out if animation could capture and disseminate an ephemeral lace process. This led to a curious convergence between two disciplines. What was initially to be a tool for efficiency and speed unexpectedly turned out to be a method for abstracting an allusive lace making process. Learning about the idiosyncrasies of another discipline opened new aesthetic opportunities for a contemporary lace practice and introduced novel methods to disseminate future material research.
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Papers by cecilia heffer
as an embodied response to the materials and places that I work and live in. Traditionally lace could be read as a place marker and came to represent the family and region where they were made through the materials and patterns employed to make them. Drawn to the technical complexity that this allusive textile holds I am interested in demonstrating how making knowledges move between generations. Historically embroidered laces for example are known as ‘punto en aire’ (‘stitches in the air’). This prompts me to question how new notions of stitches in the air can be re-imagined as a modern-day place marker. The motivation behind my lace works is to create original work that reflect back a unique recognition of place. It is in the experience of recognition itself that enables us to view our environment in a new light.
as an embodied response to the materials and places that I work and live in. Traditionally lace could be read as a place marker and came to represent the family and region where they were made through the materials and patterns employed to make them. Drawn to the technical complexity that this allusive textile holds I am interested in demonstrating how making knowledges move between generations. Historically embroidered laces for example are known as ‘punto en aire’ (‘stitches in the air’). This prompts me to question how new notions of stitches in the air can be re-imagined as a modern-day place marker. The motivation behind my lace works is to create original work that reflect back a unique recognition of place. It is in the experience of recognition itself that enables us to view our environment in a new light.