How do I know a textile?

How do I know a textile?

A research explores various ways of understanding textile knowing.making using the drawing method exploring.wrinkling. movement.action. emotion.body. connecting.drawing

This research was carried out by Ceren Okumuş under the supervision of Prof.

Sybil Kohl at the Institute of Arts, Faculty of Architecture, University of Stuttgart within the scope of the Istanbul Technical University Doctoral Erasmus Programme in the Winter and Spring semesters of 2022-2023. This booklet contains the outputs of the research: exhibition, written text and drawings.

Ceren Okumuş

Exhibition Research Unformed Forms Concepts of Commonalities Experiments How does a textile wrinkle?

Decoding of the movement Multiplexing the drawing Drawing commonalities

content

knowing.making exploring.wrinkling. movement.action. emotion.body. connecting.drawing

exhibition University of Stuttgart A Design Research PhD Project Erasmus Exchange Program 2022-2023 Winter/Summer Semester Institute of Arts - IDG Advisor// Prof. Sybil Kohl

This research explores various ways of understanding textile using the drawing method. It also seeks to uncover methods for capturing the sensation of wrinkling as an action.

While both the tactile experience of wrinkling and the actual textile wrinkling are used as initial reference points in the research, drawing serves as a means to intimately acquaint oneself with the material. This process highlights the shared characteristics between the material and the individual engaging in the drawing.

Consequently, drawing transforms into a representation of the dynamic interplay between the material and the person sketching. Instances of formless forms stand out as examples where this interaction becomes apparent. The research conducted at the University of Stuttgart centered around the techniques for generating formless forms, delving into how these techniques manifest across various scales of bodily movement. At the end of the semester, an exhibition in the Institute took place.

exhibition

introduction

This research started with thinking that I could understand myself while trying to know a material. The wrinkle I felt in my body was a feeling that I could describe as an action, and various materials were also bearing traces of this action. The textile was one of these materials. I also noticed from my previous experience that knowing something went through getting to know it, and the act of recognition was possible by doing it in my reality. So I created a research that produced ways to know a material and I could know the feeling in my body.

Since this knowledge was experiencebased information, it produced an open-ended, restricted, nonpropositional knowledge. “Unformed forms” were exposed in research as a representation of information produced by non-propositional experience. Besides it produced a common ground with my body and the textile.

research At the beginning of this research, I was thinking of investigating specific things that have distinct forms. These things included rocks, textiles, skin, bark, and a naked ivy on a building facade. The common characteristic of these materials was that they all had wrinkles, which somehow left an impression on me. This is why I began my investigation to understand why I was so impressed by them.

Considering wrinkles, which I see as a common feature among the aforementioned things, as a form, I can describe it as an organic form. Organic forms are non-geometric forms found in nature. They possess irregularity and lack organization in their appearance, and even if they repeat, they are never exactly the same as each other. On the other hand, abstract forms are non-representational forms that do not refer to specific objects or examples. What fascinated me was the potential of wrinkled objects to transform into abstract forms.

unformed forms

Organic elements found in nature allow different artists to create abstractions. The main focus of these abstractions is often the exploration of the invisible forces underlying organic things. In the 20th century art scene, a new question emerged, asking if it is possible to depict not only organisms but also vital forces. Artists like Hilma af Klint, Kandinsky, and Mondrian aimed to understand the forces behind life on Earth (Voss, 2019). This was an attempt to break free from reality and discover a spiritual reality without representational forms.

This quest to comprehend invisible forces went beyond abstraction; it was also a new way of experiencing things.

It aimed to reveal the inner dynamics of objects. According to Kandinsky, abstraction in art does not involve stripping a work of its meaning to create a mere outline or geometric form. Instead, it requires removing representational elements that only depict the external aspects of things,

such as their appearances, in order to reveal their intrinsic essence or “inner necessity.” This essence represents the vital energy that breathes life into both the artwork and ourselves, allowing us to connect with it and experience its emotional impact and rhythmic vibrations from within.

To me, the abstract organic forms still retained their appearance, but they carried a shared sense of dynamics with me. I had an intuition that if I could truly understand them, I would gain more knowledge about myself.

Following this intuition, I began to draw a rock that I found in front of a shop (Image 1; Drawing 1, 2).

Drawing 1, 2 : Rock drawing trials in front of a shop

research In the beginning, my drawings were simply an exploration of how to depict a rock. I questioned what kind of line or mark I should use— whether a line or even a dot. Through several attempts, I came to realize something while drawing. I wasn’t merely capturing the rock’s outward appearance; instead, I was capturing the inner movement of the subject I was observing. It became a means of establishing a connection between my eyes, body, and the material—a way of discovering the inner forces at play.

The rock exhibited wrinkles, the result of the passage of time and the accumulation of layers (Drawing 3). Drawing, for me, transcended mere representation; it became an expression of these inner forces, allowing me to connect with the subject.

Tim Ingold in his book Making, quotes John Ruskin to explain the connection of drawing with the inner forces of the things. When we go to the “Elements of Drawing” Ruskin explains; “I call it vital truth, because these chief lines are always expressive of the past history and present action of the thing.

They show in a mountain, first, how it was built or heaped up; and secondly, how it is now being worn away, and from what quarter the wildest storms strike.

In a tree, they show what kind of fortune it has had to endure from its childhood: how troublesome trees have come in its way, and pushed it aside, and tried to strangle or starve it; where and when

Drawing 3 : Rock drawing

Image 1 : Rock

kind trees have sheltered it, and grown up lovingly together with it, bending as it bent; what winds torment it most; what boughs of it behave best, and bear most fruit; and so on... Try always, whenever you look at a form, to see the lines in it which have had power over its past fate and will have power over its futurity (Ruskin, 1906, p.91).

Ruskin does not explain the way he draws as an abstraction, but he refers the vital truth and inner forces like Kandinsky. This inner forces do not only belong today but rather they work like a temporal explanation in the drawing. The chief lines in the drawing connects past, now and the future at the same time which can be described as abstraction of motion on temporal scale. They give me the impression of constant becoming.

Unformed forms are in-between forms. They are the forms are endless possibilities because they started yet not finished, still in the state of becoming. This state of becoming phase allows them to have the potential of becoming everything.

According to Deleuze “virtual forms are not opposite of real, but opposed to “actual”, whereas “real” is opposed to “possible”(Deleuze, 1997)”. Possibility is always there in unformed formes.

research Choosing wrinkling materials was not a coincides, rather it was a decision that I took because of an emotion that I feel: Wrinkling emotion. Wrinkling was an emotion in me but at the same, time it is a movement. To understand this phenomena, I started to investige the relation between movements and emotions. Spinoza argued that emotions are changes or movements within the individual’s body and mind, arising from the interactions between the individual and external factors. He viewed emotions as expressions of the body’s capacity to be affected by external influences and interpreted affective experiences as transformations or movements of the body’s power (Deleuze, 2000).

According to Spinoza, to the only way to know myself was interaction with

concept of commonalities

other bodies and observations what changes do they made. It is based on outside impressions; “...Spinoza will underline with great strength and insistence that we can know ourselves and the bodies outside, or bodies only and only through the emotions that our external bodies leave on our body.

I will never know anything but the mixture of bodies, and I will never know myself except by the action of other bodies on mine and the mixtures they make. (Deleuze, 2000)” However; hardest part is if a person always be effected from the outside it creates a passive way of living, and passive emotions. His question regarding to this subject was “how can we get out of affect (emotion) ideas; how can we get out of passive emotions based on an increase or

decrease in our power to act; How do we get out of the world of inadequate ideas? (Deleuze, 2000)” Inadequate ideas are concepts, I find similarities between Kandinsky’s abstraction here. If we are able to dive into more active emotions, then we are more able to take part to create them.

When I reflect on my initial experiences, I realize that I was sensing something in my body that I interpreted as a sensation of wrinkling. However, this sensation was actually a form of movement.

By understanding this movement of wrinkling, I believed I could better recognize and understand my own emotions. Similarly, by studying the material that exhibited this wrinkling movement, I believed I could gain a deeper understanding of myself.

As a result, I began to observe the various states of wrinkling in textiles.

However, this process of observation was dynamic and time-bound.

Through this temporal gaze, I was able to perceive the movements that occurred at different points in time.

In the following section, I will delve into four experiments that can be described as methods of recognition or experimental approaches.

research

experiments how does a textile wrinkle?

Image 2 : Textile is wrinkling by folding

The feeling of wrinkling that I had was a feeling that I had experienced before, but which I could not place in conventional emotions. In order to understand what this feeling was, I tried to produce different states of wrinkling. The multiplication of the state of wrinkling would allow me to understand what kind of a feeling of wrinkling I was experiencing.

Thus, I started to discover how the white, loosely woven fabric I had in my hand could be wrinkle. After a few attempts, the wrinkled states of the textile turned into a state that constantly produced the new. These states are as follows;

Wrinkling

by folding (Image 2) by pulling the threads (Image 3) by opening up holes (Image 4) by reflecting light (Image 5)

wrinkle pile up extend to become shady

All these states could be categorized as a movement. At the same time, in order to see the changes, they were states that I designed not as a singular result but as series.

research Photographing the wrinkling state of textile has revealed to me an intuitive connection with unformed forms.

Photographs of textile’s wrinkling states provide a foundation for unlimited possibilities, as they do not adhere to definite shapes and bridge the realms of reality and imagination.

Additionally, through the repetition of this process, I have been able to explore various phases of wrinkling.

However, while the outcomes of this photographic process have offered valuable insights for my research, they have failed to establish a connection between myself and textile due to a lack of synchronicity. The temporal gap between the material transformation and the production of the image hindered the convergence of action and vision. Besides, during the photographic image creation, camera works as a main translator and conveyor and it does not allow me to trace the conversion process. What was happening from going one state to another state? What is happening in the gap between the momentary images? As a result, I made the decision to utilize drawing which I think will complete these deficiencies.

Image 3, 4, 5 : Textile is wrinkling by pulling the threads Textile is wrinkling by opening up holes Textile is wrinkling by reflecting lignt

research

experiments decoding of the movement

So I started to draw what happened between the images. These drawings used the photographs as a starting point and utilised the spaces between the photographs as a creative mechanism. In fact, this creative mechanism was also a visualisation of what happened between me and the wrinked textile. For this reason, it could also be called a decoding of the movement. The drawing of the movement was at the same time mixing with those belonging to the imagination and memory and producing unformed forms.

For me, drawing the invisible was also related to understanding how what is drawn is formed. For this reason, I analysed the drawings of Jorinde Voigt, one of the artists working with a similar question. Voigt said that she was not just looking at their outward appearance, but trying to understand what their structure is and that she produced her drawings in this way. At the same time, she explained that even if she works with a certain algorithm, spontaneous decisions are also present in her drawings, so she can create drawings that she does not know how they will look. Thus, the drawings were becoming a combination of the definite and the indeterminate (Voigt, 2011).

Drawing 3: The drawing produced by Image 5 series. the photographs, drawed their actual and imaginary appearances.

I placed y

Drawing 4: Another trial of Image 5 serie. This time I imagined how I made the textile wrinked and added green movement traces.

research

Drawing 5, 6, 7: First attempts to draw the action of wrinkling the textile.

Representation of the forces applied to the textile were black, imaginary forces were colorful..

This section will be expanded in the following stages of the research.

research

experiments multiplexing the drawing

After the drawings of the determined and the non-determined, I produced another way of producing unformed forms, which was to get closer to the changes that appear as a difference in the drawing and have the potential to produce unformed forms and to try to multiply them (Drawing 8, 9).

Drawing 8, 9 : The drawings produced by multiplexin with the actional character of the drawing and catal these actions.

ng Drawing 3 were named logues were produced from

research

Drawing 10 : Staining; Surfac

This multiplexing allowed me to produce drawings associated with actions, and from these actions I produced catalogues of drawings that enabled me to understand how formless forms are produced. The catalogues are named with actions and include attempts to produce intermediate forms of points, lines and surfaces.(Drawing 10, 11, 12, 13).

ces, Lines

Drawing 11 : Scattering; Points, Lines

research

Drawing 12 : Expension; Surfa

aces, Lİnes

Drawing 13 : Overlapping; Lines, Surfaces

research

experiments drawing commonalities

After the research on unformed forms, I went back to drawing the material again. At the beginning of this research, when I was doing trial drawings of a rock, it helped me to realize that when I draw the material, I could understand the way I draw it.

Besides, the way I draw was the inner features of the material. I made several rock drawings (Drawing 1,2) and they help me to understand the inner act of the rock; that is accumulating. Rock had an inner act of accumulation and I could know this act when I drew it.

This state of knowing pushed me to get to know it more closely. It can also be explained as to be in the same situation, to be integrated, to show a characteristic of togetherness. But I had no idea how it happened. For this reason, I started to investigate how the act of drawing could offer me the possibility of discovering the similarities between us.

I can say that I have some associations with a textile. For example, while the textile has a weight, I also have a weight. If the textile falls when it is thrown in the air, so do I. Or more specific example, if the textile can perform a swinging movement, so can I. So, the act of drawing, to the extent that I noticed it when I was drawing the rock, allowed me to notice some

of the properties of the material itself.

These properties were more about the movement of the material than its visual properties. Drawing how the material is rather than what it is can help us to see the material in a different way. Patricia Cain’s quote from Milner that Milner’s method of drawing is a way of drawing that pays more attention to the aspects of objects that one’s interested in. For example, when Miler is interested in a chair, the important thing is that it is underneath the person, ready to support the person’s weight. It is as if one’s mind might want to express feelings that come from the sense of touch and muscle movement rather than the sense of sight. One can understand that one might want a kind of relationship with objects in which one is much more intimate than this (Cain, 2010; Milner 1971: 9- 10).

Since I thought that a more intimate relationship could be defined as a step towards discovering similarities with the material, I started to draw in order to understand the different characteristics of the material. And, so I started to draw the textile that I put on the floor.

I started drawing from any point on the textile. The textile on the floor had taken this shape by overlapping

different pieces, falling on top of each other, folding, and curling. Thanks to its transparent structure, I could see the layers underneath, and I could incorporate these layers into my drawing. The layers appeared to converge and diverge on a small scale, gathering in some places. After a while, I realized that as I drew the lines continuously with the sliding movement of my hand, I was creating folds. These folds were not only actions I was performing, but also actions of the textile itself. Gradually, the act of drawing made me sense the movement of the material I was drawing, even though the material itself was motionless, similar to drawing rocks. Folding was one of the observed states of the textile’s being, and at the same time, this state of being became visible on the paper as one of my states of being. Eventually, I began incorporating the traces of my body’s folds into the drawing, so that the random lines produced by the folds and the repetitive imprints of my body folds became visible in the drawing (see Drawing 14).

Drawing 14

research

Drawing the draw

Drawing 16

As I delved into researching to better understand this act of drawing, I discovered that the drawing I was engaging in could be associated with “gesture drawing.” Gesture drawing is an artistic technique used to capture the essence, energy, and movement of a subject in a brief and expressive manner. It focuses on conveying the feeling of movement rather than meticulously rendering the form with light and shadow (Nicolaides, 2013).

Gesture drawing allowed me to unveil the movement characteristics of the textile, rather than simply depicting its form. Consequently, I swiftly created 15 sketches of the textile at hand (see Drawing 16). These drawings yielded two main outcomes:

g 17: Exploring the body movement’s effects on wing

Firstly, when I depicted the definitive contours of the textile, the resulting image appeared closed and did not invite exploration of new connections.

However, when I incorporated movement lines, the image became more open and invited connections due to its ambiguity. Secondly, during the sketching process, I became aware of the various properties of the textile: overlapping, appearing, disappearing, dispersing, expanding, repeating, and folding. Some of these properties were more related to the material’s formal aspects, while others were associated with its dynamic aspects. In the subsequent stages of my research, I intend to focus on the initial findings because of the question I posed at the beginning of this section.

research In Drawing 14, the definitive contours of the material were evident. Although I discovered the connection to folding, the lines I drew acted as boundaries that restricted the openness of the drawing. Tim Ingold explains this as a distinction between making and not making a statement about something.

“Drawings comprised of non-gestural lines serve as propositions, making statements about what is or has been made. In contrast, drawings made up of gestural lines are nonpropositional. They originate from things, including bodies, rather than making statements about them. Such drawings are commonly referred to as sketches, which communicate in both senses. They demand close and attuned observation and trace paths

that others can follow. Sketching, as Juhani Pallasmaa notes, is a haptic exercise: “As I sketch a contour of an object, human figure, or landscape,” he writes (2009: 89), ‘I actually touch and feel the surface’ (p. 126).” While Image 1 revealed the connection to folding, it still belonged to the realm of proposition. I was still preserving the form of the textile, which prevented me from experiencing different aspects of material. It remained a definitive image connected to the material itself, and thus, the similarities were not yet manifested on the paper. If I could create non-propositional drawings, it would be open enough to embrace other new connections in the drawing.

Therefore, I created another drawing to foster connections (see Drawing 18)

In this drawing (Drawing 18), I began with gesture lines. According to Cain, “gestural lines were meant to express the movements that generated them, whereas with non-gestural lines, any such expression was merely a side effect, incidental to their primary purpose of specification” (Cain 2010: 126). In this experiment, I made the decision to work with drawings that involved not just my hands, but my entire body. To establish a sense of commonality, I recognized that if the drawing represented the textile, my body should also be incorporated into it. Consequently, I placed the traces of my body’s movement in the drawing by using brushes that were attached to strings, allowing them to move freely.

These unrestricted traces formed the foundational structure of the drawing.

Additionally, with a drawing tool in hand, I attempted to capture the traces of my constantly moving body on the paper. These traces were not mere outlines of my body; instead, they represented the continuous movements that intersected the paper at specific moments.

While following these traces, I realized that the lines were no longer limitations but could serve as starting points. In Drawing 14, where the lines acted as boundaries, the production of a non- propositional and open image was hindered. Conversely, in Drawing 18, by using the lines as starting points, I was able to create open-ended compositions. Each line I used as a starting point eventually merged with the fluid movement of my body and, over time, left its mark on the paper as it was during the drawing process. Drawing became a practice of generating spontaneous decisions. As a result, the interwoven lines became visible in a space where they began to behave according to their own inclination. The lines transformed from constraints into possibilities.

Another noteworthy aspect is the points within the drawing that I found to be particularly potent. By “potent,” I mean that they evoked a sense of internal affinity. Upon reflection, I realized that these points consisted of lines that extended in different directions, not confined to just two axes. They produced various layers of interplay along multiple axes. Thus, I discovered another element to include in the section of unformed forms.

research Drawing 18

research Drawing 19: Lines are not borders, rather starting points which creates unformed formes

research

References Cain, P. (2010). Drawing: The Enactive Evolution of the Practitioner, Intellect Books Ltd. ProQuest Ebook Central, http:// ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/itup/detail. action?docID=584349.

Deleuze, G. (2000). Spinoza Üzerine Onbir Ders. (Çev: Ulus Baker) (Original name: Deleuze’s Seminar on Spinoza). Ankara: Öteki Yayınevi.

Deleuze, G. (1997). The Actual and the Virtual.

ANY: Architecture New York. 19/20, 19.6–19.7.

Gansterer, N. (2019). Drawing As Thinking In Action, Nikolaus Gansterer, solo show at Drawing Lab Paris, France, 21 March - 15 June 2019, Curated by Jeanette Pacher https://www. gansterer.org/drawing-as-thinking-in-action/ Ingold, T. (2013). Making: Anthropology, archaeology, art and architecture. Routledge. (p.126).

Kandinsky, W.(1946). On the spiritual in art. New York: Guggenheim Foundation.

Nicolaides, K. (2013). The Natural Way to Draw: A Working Plan for Art Study (English Edition) Kindle Edition, Morison Press, Ruskin, J. (1904). The elements of drawing in three letters to beginners. The Complete Works of John Ruskin. Ed. Cook, Wedderburn. London. (p. 91).

Voigt. J. (2011, Aug 22). Jorinde Voigt in her Berlin studio. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=5duZvRer30s&ab_channel=cranetvart Voss, J. (2019, June 25). The first abstract artist?

(And it’s not Kandinsky)Focus: Hilma Af Klint.

Tate ETC. https://www.tate.org.uk/tate-etc/ issue-27-spring-2013/first-abstract-artist-andits-not-kandinsky

References (Additional) Merleau-Ponty, M. (2010). Algılanan Dünya: Sohbetler (Çev. Ömer Aygün), (The World of Perception), İstanbul: Metis Yayınları.

Kodalak, G. (2020). Spinoza and Architecture.

A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Ceren Okumuş Architect / Researcher 1991 / Turkey