WWW Artist Lectures

Cathryn Amidei

V-shaped space

Cathryn Amidei will kick off our morning lectures by discussing what she calls “V-shaped Space,” which is her developing philosophy on craft, connection, and direct access. Amidei’s work is a study of movement, trajectories, and change. For her, everything is in motion all the time, much like the weaver throwing shuttles that carry lines through space. 

Danielle Andress

Working in the Margins

This presentation by artist and educator Danielle Andress interweaves various histories surrounding Jacquard weaving, beginning with the inception of the  loom by Jean Marie Jacquard shortly after the French Revolution. Contextualizing various weaving practices into larger social movements and simultaneous technological advancements, this talk highlights seismic shifts that the complexities of Jacquard weaving irrevocably caused. This includes immediately destabilizing socio-economic systems and changing labor laws, resulting in the formation of secret societies, conspiracy theories, and the earliest examples of intellectual property heists. Together, we will consider the vast ripple effects the Jacquard loom continues to have on various fields including computing, bespoke design, and architecture. Presented with robust historical consideration, this artist talk will also discuss Andress’s own approach to weaving as she considers the legacy of this incredible machine.

Poppy DeltaDawn

Catching up: Weaving Without Instruction

Poppy DeltaDawn will discuss her recent research of European and Indian traditions in mechanical Jacquard weaving and design, how it informs artist handweaving on the TC-2, and why it matters to our agency, autonomy, and freedom. DeltaDawn will discuss her recent projects including her 2024 artist residency in Tuscany, where she learned to manually punch cards and hand weave silk velvet using mechanical Jacquard looms. DeltaDawn will also present her ongoing work involving lineages of weaving knowledge and how she is going to change the world through handweaving. Not to be discussed: Joseph Marie Jacquard.

Jovencio de la Paz

An Extension of Existing Memory: The Loom as Memory Storage Device 

Data and memory storage appear to be concerns of modern computing, the “cloud,” and other contemporary devices, but the project of storing memory extends to some of human’s most ancient technological advancements. Written language itself can be seen as a method of capturing, recording, revisiting, and accessing the ephemeral events of the past. The loom, once threaded with a given pattern, reveals its digital capacity to house mathematical “events” to be executed by the future actions of the weaver. While this defers the labor of holding complex patterning away from organic, human memory, it extends human capacity to create ever more complex patterning in cloth. The extension of human memory in weaving can be traced to concerns of labor, socio-economic equity, industrialization, and globalization. In this lecture, we will reimagine the loom as a device of memory storage, relating it to other technologies both ancient and present that extend the human capacity to remember, and contemplate the role of human memory when aided by technology.