THE ENCHANTMENT OF TEXTILES 2014-2019
The purpose of The Enchantment of Textiles is to create garments and a textile-rich environment of objects that are wirelessly connected through unique textile antennas. The antennas, made of stitched silver threads, radiate electromagnetic fields that change with movement and orientation, triggering different sounds or LED events. Unlike traditional metal antennas, these “patches” feature unique, unusual forms and recognizable imagery. Preliminary research involved studying the techniques, materials and meanings embedded in historic textiles that contained gold and silver threads, usually reserved for ranks of nobility, clergy and military. Applied to contemporary cloth we also give consideration to the cultural implications related to privilege and access to technology today.
Collaborators : Janis Jefferies, Ahmed Kishk, Marc Andre Cosette Funding : Social science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, The Milieux Institute for Art, Culture & Technology at Concordia University,The Canadian Foundation for Innovation
