Crafting Textiles in the Digital Age

Description

In an era of increasingly available digital resources, many textile designers and makers find themselves at an interesting juncture between traditional craft processes and newer digital technologies. Highly specialized craft/design practitioners may now elect to make use of digital processes in their work, but often choose not to abandon craft skills fundamental to their practice, and aim to balance the complex connection between craft and digital processes. The essays collected here consider this transition from the viewpoint of aesthetic opportunity arising in the textile designer's hands-on experimentation with material and digital technologies available in the present. Craft provides the foundations for thinking within the design and production of textiles, and as such may provide some clues in the transition to creative and thoughtful use of current and future digital technologies. Within the framework of current challenges relating to sustainable development, globalization, and economic constraints it is important to interrogate and question how we might go about using established and emerging technologies in textiles in a positive manner.

Nithikul Nimkulrat is the Professor and Head of Department of Textile Design at the Estonian Academy of Art, Estonia. Faith Kane is Associate Professor and Major Co-ordinator of Textiles in the School of Design, at the College of Creative Arts, Massey University, New Zealand. Kerry Walton is Programme Director for Textiles: Innovation and Design at the School of the Arts, Loughborough University, UK.

Crafting Textiles in the Digital Age is a timely debate on the concept and role of craft in textile creation and digital technology. The book's contributors address various issues, reflecting on aesthetic, social, economic, and environmental point of views, making it a valuable think tank for researchers, practitioners, and makers within textiles. * Hitoshi Ujiie, Director of the Center for Excellence in Surface Imaging, Philadelphia University, USA * This book offers an overview of the current context and approach being taken to the making and crafting of contemporary digital textiles. It clearly defines the field of digital craft and outlines many key practitioners involved in pushing the boundaries of process, method, and materials. The book clearly demonstrates new and innovative thinking as well as the new visual language which emerges from crafting textiles through digital methods. * Amanda Briggs-Goode, Nottingham Trent University, UK *