Fabpublic

from A Reader TECHSTYLE Series 2.1: Fabpublic! -Talking about Textile, Community and Public Space

Foreword

Fabpublic! Talking about Textile, Community and Public Space

Takahashi Mizuki

From academics, scientists, designers, artists, craftivists, engineers, vendors, to end-users, textile culture consists of many different communities.

Interestingly, however, these communities rarely seem to mingle and communicate about their interests even though they often have many common agendas, including: the extinction of traditional craftsmanship, the overflow of garment wastes, environmental pollution, labourer’s wages, and the balance of costs. Is this because they are too cloistered and focussed within their own spheres or, perhaps just an individual and/or collective indifference to the challenges of others?

One of the reasons possibly because the fragmented and subdivided processes of textile production have rendered invisible an entire whole picture of a production process that consists of a myriad of highly specific commitments by many different professionals.

One of the goals of the TECHSTYLE Series is to fuse the borders where art, design, craft, technology and business overlap by building a platform on which to gather the many different people who engage with textile, its techniques and technology through their practices in any form.

From clothing to furnishing, textile and its techniques are ubiquitous in our everyday life. This very embracing nature makes textile per se, perhaps one of the most important commodities in human society. Giorgio Riello, historian and author of Cotton: The Fabric that Made the Modern World, claims in his book that cotton has become the most common material and global commodity because of not only the Industrial Revolution in England, but also due to multiple other factors, including: the expansion of cotton cultivation beyond Eurasia, mercantile competition between traders and markets in Europe, local adaptations of patterns and designs of cotton fabrics from India, etc (Cambridge University Press, 2015).

Referencing this long historical journey that this humble material – cotton – has passed through, the TECHSTYLE Series intends to interweave knowledge and wisdom acquired from diverse experiences by various thinkers and practitioners on the subject of textile culture. Our organisational methodology for this discussion forum is intentionally looser than the usual academic or institutional symposium format; we expect and hope to see serendipitous and inspirational moments through this gathering of people who would not ordinarily encounter each other without this unique platform. To achieve this outcome, we have endeavoured to accumulate different case studies by various practitioners, in order to discern common threads amongst individual approaches and presentations.

The term “Fabpublic” was created from the combination of the words “fabric”, “fabulous” and “public”. With 17 speakers and moderators from Hong Kong and overseas in this edition, the 2 days of discussions offered many distinctive insights and stimulated many debates, and generated many thoughtful questions from the various audiences.

Unfortunately, due to publication limits, we have been unable to publish all of the many individual presentations in this book. Here,

Fig. 1 Bluecoat, Liverpool / 2008 Courtesy of Bluecoat / Photo credit: Ian Lawson

I would like to briefly introduce individual presentations that do not appear in the book.

Textile is fabricated by communities and rooted in communities, as well as helping to build communities. Before entering the discussion of textile interventions in communities, we need to pose some questions: why does community matter and what is the function of community in contemporary society? Due to social structural changes, such as the aging of residents, a process of depopulation, and changing social and cultural patterns, a significant number of traditional textile-based communities have been forced to dismantle or reconstruct their traditional social forms. At times, the traditional community as a rigid social unit has been criticized because it sacrifices the community member’s individual unique voice in favour of maintaining a community’s social norms. In today’s world, where the status of community is highly luid, what and where does the agency of art and culture organisations lie? F o r t h e s e s s i o n e n t i t l e d “ I s c o m m u n i ty generated or fabricated?”, Marie-Anne McQuay, director of The Bluecoat, Liverpool, and Nguyen Nhu Huy, co-artistic director of ZeroStation, Ho Chi Minh City, were invited to present on their organisations and activities. Each cultural organisation cannot be isolated from the community it is situated within; rather it is expected to both contribute to the community, as well as create its own community through the engaging of participants and the building of audiences. The Bluecoat is a non-profit art centre located in a UNESCO heritage building in Liverpool, with diverse facilities including a printing workshop, a studio, café, local craft shops, and a restaurant (Fig. 1). The Bluecoat was founded as a school in 1717. It was turned into an independent art school and society in 1907, and local artists groups started using the building for their studios and workshops; 20 years later, the space was opened to the public. As a public institution, today’s The Bluecoat is renowned as a creative hub for multiple

Fig. 2 Nguyễ n Thu Giang, Ph.D on Media studies, lecturer at Vietnam National University, gave talk at ZeroStation during the Southeast Asian Art Criticism workshop “Translation: Understanding Difference and Distance in Contemporary Art across Asia”, which was co-organised by Asia Center, Japan Foundation and ZeroStation, April, 2017 / Courtesy of ZeroStation

experimental artistic practices, mediating between, and stimulating discussions with, the public and many contemporary artists, designers and musicians. Whilst The Bluecoat is taking the initiative to foster arts and culture within local communities, ZeroStation is more self-defined and organic in its form. Privately-run Zero Station was established in Ho Chi Minh City in 2010. ZeroStation aims to become a place where unplanned encounters between people are expected, but where no one is compelled to stay, considering ZeroStation as a place to play without rigid regulations and relying on individuals to voluntarily participate (Fig. 2). This loose non-institutional operation can be considered a tactic to establish the autonomy and independence of the organisation and minimise, or avoid altogether, interference from political authorities. Opening their organisations to their respective publics, The Bluecoat and ZeroStation show how respective socio-political cultures can spontaneously influence the balance between organisational processes and results, obligations, and freedoms in such organisations. These many factors, define, in many ways, the agency of such organisations within their communities. Textiles are everywhere in our everyday environment. Spatially, furnishings in private living rooms, to theatre curtains, to plush carpeting in public halls, textiles always affect our functional, psychological, and aesthetic perceptions of spaces. Both Aura Luz Melis, from distinctive landscape design firm Inside Outside in Amsterdam and Sylvie Krüger, designer and author of Textile Architecture (Jovis Verlag GmbH 2009), from Germany, often use fabric for their spatial designs, taking advantage of fabric’s many physical attributes (such as texture), and extreme flexibility in size, volume, pattern, print and colour. Melis presented Inside Outside’s challenge to make the borders between spatial interiors and exteriors seamless with different materials including mirrors and glass, as well as, fabric (Fig. 3), while Krüger illustrated diverse usages of textile furnishings, including curtains, carpets, canopies and partitions, using examples from paintings in the middle age, and contextualised her own practice in historical textile architecture (Fig. 4). Thanks to their flexibility in utility, size and function, textiles can be used to foreground overlooked architectural features and highlight ignored

Fig. 3 Radial View, deSingel, Antwerp / 2008 Courtesy of Inside Outside

Fig. 4 Textile intervention in public space. Theresienwiese, Munich, Germany. Credit: Sylvie Krüger

Fig. 5 Plaiting basketry technique used by the Eperara-Siapidara artisans 2012 Courtesy of PET Lamp

possibilities in using a space. Both Inside Outside and Krüger expand the traditional usages of textiles in order to transform spaces and embrace audiences.

Textile techniques have been inherited for generations in traditional communities – with perhaps weaving as the most often inherited traditional textile technique among others. The PET Lamp team, led by Alvaro Catelan de Ocon, has conducted research on weaving techniques in different regions, and applied them to his PET Lamp project, integrating local traditional weaving techniques into PET plastic bottle waste to create beautiful lampshades. These PET lampshades serve the twin goals of both supporting local handicraft industry and local economies, as well as working towards solving the global problem of plastic waste (Figs. 5 and 6). Starting in Colombia in 2012, the PET Lamp project has collaborated with people in Chile, Ethiopia, Japan, and Australia, aiming to create a constant demand for their products.

Traditional forms of community are often forced to change due to, and attune further with, global capitalism, and it seems impossible to resist this process. However, despite the complex networks of invisible fibres that connect us in on-line space beyond physical restrictions, producing countless virtual communities, physically tangible yarn and fabric, together with analogue textile manufacture techniques retain a potency to manifest strong human connections, often based on compassion and care.

We consider that these technologies are not opposite entities but, indeed, complementary. In this regard, we can redefine the concept of “techstyle” – it is not merely sophisticated fashionable designs or contemporary life styles employing advanced technology simply for efficiency, but also an ethical attitude to utilising textile materials, techniques and technology in the hope of correcting social inequality to some degree, as well as enhancing the quality of life in many communities. From global capitalism to obsolete textile industrial legacies, several unique challenges and approaches by forum contributors are presented in the following pages. We hope you will find inspiration in the significant potential of this familiar material in our everyday life – and realise that anyone can engage in the shaping of our “techstyle” future!

Fig. 6 Emerita Chirimio, Eperara-Siapidara artisan from Colombia / 2012 Courtesy of PET Lamp

Fabpublic! — 關於紡織、社區和公共空間

高橋瑞木

紡織文化的面向十分廣泛，不僅有學者、科學家、設計師、藝術家、手藝家、工程師，也包括供應商和用戶。

儘管他們都關注傳統工藝的消失、服裝廢料氾濫、環境污染、工資水準、成本均衡等問題，這些群體卻很少聚集在一起交流討論，這是因為大家都習慣於封閉在自己的研究領域，還是對他人所面臨的困難漠不關心？

我想其中一個原因是，紡織工業由多項細碎而分散的工序組成，每個環節均由不同的專才掌控，旁人難以窺一斑而知全豹。

新經緯系列的目標之一，就是試圖建立一個平台，將這些多少與紡織有關的群體聚集起來，交流各自實踐的方法和技巧，打破藝術、設計、手藝、技術、商業之間的邊界。

紡織品的用途廣泛，從遮蓋身體到裝飾房間，在生活中可算無處不在，是人類社會最重要的日用品之一。歷史學家 Giorgio Riello 曾在著作《Cotton: The Fabric that Made the Modern World》中寫道：英國工業革命，以及超越歐亞大陸的棉花種植產業、歐洲貿易市場之間的競爭、印度布料在進口國的演化等其他因素，都使棉花成為全球化最具代表性的商品（劍橋大學出版社，2015）。

新經緯系列旨在聚集各方經驗智慧，促進紡織文化知識的交流，從棉花這看似最不起眼物料的漫長歷史作起點，我們不會像一般的學術論壇或研討會般嚴肅，而是創造機會，將平時不可能碰頭的紡織文化之學術和實踐人員聚集起來，碰撞出令人期待的火花。為了實現這個目標，我們邀請跨領域的實踐者分享經驗，並試圖從這些演講中找出共同點。

「Fabpublic」這個題目，實際融合了三個單詞：「紡織品」、「精彩的」、「公眾」。在兩天的研討會期間，17 位來自海外及香港的演講嘉賓和主持人，分享了獨特的見解，並與在場觀眾互動交流，令人深受啟發。

然而，由於篇幅所限，本書不能羅列每位嘉賓之精彩演講，因此我將在下文介紹本書未能收錄的研討會內容。

紡織品是紮根於社區並由社區生產出來，同時也塑造了社區本身。在討論紡織品如何介入社區之前，我想必須先提出一個問題，社區為何重要？在當代社會中社區具有怎樣的功能？由於居民老化、人口遷移、社會文化模式轉變等社會結構性變化，許多傳統社區被迫走向解構和重建，以至有人批判傳統社區實為僵化的社會組織，以犧牲社區成員的獨特性來維持區內的社會規範。現今社區定義不斷改變，文化藝術機構的媒介到底是什麼？

我們邀請了英國利物浦當代藝術中心 Bluecoat 的項目總監瑪麗安·麥奎（Marie-Anne McQuay）、越南胡志明市當代藝術項目空間 ZeroStation 的創辦人阮如輝（Nguyen Nhu Huy），介紹其機構的活動，共同討論「社區是衍生還是編造出來的？」這個議題。任何一個文化機構都不能獨立於它所處的社區而存在；相反，它們不是服務於當前的社區，就是通過創新活動將參與者和觀眾聚起來，創造一個新型社區。非牟利藝術中心 Bluecoat 原為1717年成立的學校，坐落於聯合國教科文組織遺產建築之中，1907年它成為獨立的藝術學校和社團，隨後當地藝術家團體開始租用該處，成立工作室並舉辦活動，最終於二十年後向公眾開放。如今， Bluecoat 擁有印刷活動室、工作室、咖啡館、本地手工藝品商店、餐廳等多種設施，獲譽為多元化藝術實踐的創意中心（Fig. 1）。阮如輝負責的 ZeroStation，擔當聯繫公眾與當代藝術家、設計師、音樂家的中間人，不斷推動他們之間的對話，激發靈感和創意的產生。它與 Bluecoat 主動在社區中推動藝術文化發展有所不同，更像是一個自主而有機發展的組織。2010年該私人機構成立於胡志明市，目標是建立一個不經策劃的聯誼場所，這是一個自願參與和玩樂的地方，觀眾在此將毫無壓力（Fig. 2）。這看似鬆散的組織，其實是一種避免政權干擾的策略，以建立自主獨立。Bluecoat、ZeroStation 都向觀眾表明，各自的社會政治文化如何影響過程與結果、義務與自由之間的平衡，又如何定義這些組織於社區的媒介角色。

從起居裝飾品到劇院幕布，再到公眾大堂的地毯，紡織品的多元化功能，足以影響我們對空間的功能、心理學、審美各方面的感知。來自荷蘭阿姆斯特丹著名景觀設計公司 Inside Outside 的奧拉·梅利斯（Aura Luz Melis）、《Textile Architecture》（Jovis Verlag GmbH 2009）的作者、德國設計師希薇·古嘉（Sylvie Krüger），都善於在空間設計中使用紡織品，利用其獨特的質感，以及尺寸、體積、圖案、印刷、色彩各方面的靈活性，創造多用途空間。通過梅利斯的演講，我們看到 Inside Outside 如何利用鏡子、玻璃、紡織品，衝破內外空間的界限（Fig. 3）。而古嘉則結合自己應用紡織品於歷史建築的實踐，講述了紡織品的多種用途，包括窗簾、地毯、頂篷、中世紀繪畫中間隔使用等（Fig. 4）。兩位設計師巧妙地運用了紡織品在用途、尺寸、功能的靈活和彈性，將易被忽略的建築特色，或可能被埋沒的空間用途重新發掘出來。Inside Outside、古嘉均開拓了紡織品的傳統用途，使之成為改變空間、容納公眾的媒介。

在傳統社區，紡織工藝世代沿襲，其中編織應是運用最廣泛的技藝。PET Lamp 創辦人艾華璐· 德奧康（Alvaro Catelan de Ocon）精挑世界各地的傳統紡織技術，將PET塑膠瓶循環利用，製成精美的手造燈罩。不僅支持了當地手工業經濟發展，也試圖解決塑膠垃圾這個全球環境問題（Figs. 5-6）。從2012年與哥倫比亞居民的合作為起點，PET Lamp 先後與智利、埃塞俄比亞、日本、澳洲多國合作，不斷為他們的產品注入新鮮地區元素，創造市場。

綜上所述，傳統社區因全球資本主義的發展被迫轉型，發生不可逆轉的變化。儘管數以萬計突破物理限制的虛擬社區在網絡時代應運而生，但是那些可觸摸的紗線、布料，還有相關的紡織工藝，對於人類而言仍舊具有強大的聯結力量，它們喚起了社會中的人文關懷。

虛擬與現實世界並不是互相衝突的，相反它們可以互為補充。從這個意義上講，「新經緯」不僅指高級時尚設計，以及提高當代生活質量、效率的先進技術，更指用道德的態度，以紡織材料、技術、科技為媒介，去消除社會不公、改善生活質素。以下文章的作者將針對全球資本主義，以至紡織工業遺產，論述所遇到的獨特挑戰。希望讀者可以從中看到紡織品這最熟悉日常材料的巨大潛力，並前來參與，與我們共建「新經緯」未來。

Fig. 1 英國利物浦 Bluecoat / 2008 鳴謝：Bluecoat / 攝影：Ian Lawson

Fig. 2 媒體研究博士、越南國立大學講師 Nguyễn Thu Giang 於 2017 年 4 月東南亞藝術評論工作坊《Translation: Understanding Difference and Distance in Contemporary Art across Asia》發言。項目由日本國際交流基金會亞洲中心、 ZeroStation 合辦。鳴謝：ZeroStation