Fluid Materialities: Physical and digital modes of textile making

Abstract

New processes of textile making that involve both physical and digital dimensions, and the conceptual implications of these new materialities, are the focus of the research discussed in this paper. Through a consideration of recent theoretical framings, technological infrastructures and experimental processes of making, contemporary textile design is addressed in terms of materiality, mediation and embodiment and their social and aesthetic implications. The relationships between new textile surfaces, new frameworks and the new sensibilities produced through these technological infrastructures (Thrift 2005) are explored in light of the transformative potential of materials within which technology is embedded (Küchler 2008).