BA1 CLASS READING - INTRODUCTION TO TEXTILES AND CULTURE  - CLOTH AS COMMUNICATION (MEANING, MESSAGES AND BEAUTY) GROUP SEMINAR PRESENTATION - this reading is extracts (...) from the set text.

EXPRESSING MEANING, MESSAGES, AND BEAUTY

Threads that communicate

The telegraph cable that was laid across the Atlantic in the mid-nineteenth century made it possible to deliver a message from Europe to North America in a matter of minutes ... Today, similar messages are being sent over long distances through optical fiber filaments ...

Cutting edge technology is not necessary, however, for fiber-based communication systems. By the 9th century, the pre-Columbian Andean peoples had developed a sophisticated information storage system using knotted cords or sting - the khipu ... One khipu device consisted of anywhere from a few to several hundred hanging cords, which were attached to a horizontal holding cord. Each pendent element contained sequences of knots that might be tied in a number of different ways: some were tied right over left, and others left over right; some were looser than others; some were single and others double. Spaces between the knots, and cord colour and composition also varied, and there might be added-in tufts of finer or ornamental 'knobs'. These were all data 'bits', variables that encoded different kinds of information and could be readily understood by those familiar with the system.

Khipu were the means by which the complex Inka state was able to keep track of its huge administrative system ...

As the population became more attuned to writing systems, however, khipu 'competence' gradually faded. A complete understanding of the 'language' seems to have been lost during the 19th century. Even so, native communities treasured the cords that had been handed down in their villages, and still use them regularly in ritual activities ...

It makes sense that the recording system used by these pre-Columbian people would have involved fibre, since they valued cloth so highly; it was for them not only a marker of status, but of sacredness as well. (Gordon, 2013, pp.203-4).

Giving a voice to the silenced

The communicative power of textiles was recognised by Sophocles, who in a play that has now been lost, coined the phrase 'the voice of the shuttle'. He was recounting the story of Philomela, a young woman who was savagely raped and mutilated by her brother-in-law. To prevent her from telling what he had done, he cut out her tongue. Unable to express herself verbally, Philomela subsequently wove scenes of her violation into tapestry. Her sister was able to interpret the weaving, and took revenge upon her husband ...

In the 1990s in Bihar, India, women who had witnessed the horrors of female infanticide and wife-burning stitched images of their experiences into embroideries made from old saris. The textiles were exhibited in art galleries in North America and Europe, bringing the Bihari women's situation into the public eye ...

... unemployed women who had suffered through the injustices of South African apartheid were also encouraged to tell their stories through embroidery. Their 'memory cloths' helped ease the pain by illustrating some of the most difficult aspects of their 'journey to freedom'. (Gordon, 2013, pp.209-12).

Messages on textiles

Words and symbols have certainly been written on or in textiles for millennia. Silk was chosen as a medium for written documents in China as long ago as 770BCE. It was considered a superior writing surface to the stiffer alternative, bamboo, and once it was marked, the messages were permanent. The fabric was also lightweight and could be folded into small, transportable parcels. Text was literally made part of cloth through weaving, embroidery, and once the technology allowed, printing. The messages might be didactic. Many people of medieval Europe learned Bible stories from the huge tapestries textiles hung in churches and draped on public streets during religious processions. The stories were first shown primarily through images, but text soon appeared at the bottom. With their pomp and sumptuous imagery, these hangings reinforced Christian precepts and ideology. As literacy increased by the 17th century, European girls learned the alphabet long with moral values as they fashioned needlework samplers. Girls as young as seven were often made to stitch lugubrious verses about mortality, virtue, and family piety ...


Since the 1970s, 'message' T-shirts have become relatively ubiquitous, proclaiming everything from personal or political opinion to advertisements for specific designers or branded products. Increasingly, the shirts are printed for one-time, temporal events ...


T-shirts are also commonly purchased as souvenirs of travel ... The travel T-shirt is such a trope, in fact, that some years ago it generated a whole genre of souvenirs printed with the ironic comment. 'My folks [or fill in the relationship] went to [fill in the destination] and all I got was this lousy T-shirt' (Gordon, 2013, pp.216-23).


Aesthetic expression


It is in some ways perhaps superfluous to talk about the aesthetic importance of doth, since there is an aesthetic dimension to almost everything we have discussed. Arpilleras and Hmong story cloths are worked in intensely coloured threads, so that even if the story they reveal is a painful one, the textiles are cheerful enough for collectors to  hang them in their homes as decorative souvenirs ... The patterns in Qing dynasty dragon robes and rank badges were exquisitely worked with brightly dyes silk and shimmering gold thread, and embellished with lustrous materials like pearls and coral; beyond helping to maintain cosmic order, they were beautiful to behold.


In many areas of the world where the physical environment is particularly dry, dusty or colourless, people add visual stimulation and excitement through bright, energetic textiles. In the arid desert region of northwest India, for example, Rabari and Kutch women routinely dress in intense oranges and reds, and stitch mirrors into their cloth. (Gordon, 2013, pp.230-1).

REFERENCE

Gordon, B. (2013 [2011] ) Textiles. The whole story - uses, meaning, significance. London: Thames and Hudson.