XYZ Knitting or Searching for Mary
But, you may say, what is so special about knitting? I will try to explain. At least since the birth of the assembly line in the industrial revolution, designers have been taught a way of design thinking that objects are made out of parts. Parts with a distinct function, assembled into an object (Oxman 2019). However, knitting is designing from a different perspective. The structure of a knit makes it possible to create material and form at one and the same time (Landahl 2015). No material has to go to waste.
A knit can be three-dimensional depending on material or structure. Or both. There are materials that can hold three-dimensional form better than others. And there are structures that make a knit more three-dimensional. However, as scale increases, a knit will eventually collapse. Consequently, an external element is needed, for example a body or filling, to get and maintain the three-dimensionality of the knit. How can the knitted structure be challenged to be three-dimensional of its own? A knit can be carried out by hand with a pair of knitting needles or with a knitting machine. The needles and machines are tools to give form to the knit structure, primarily constructed to increase the speed of the craft. When we look for innovation within knitting it is usually through material, form, pattern, colour, or the artistic context (Von Busch 2013). The tools, on the other hand, have looked more or less the same for centuries. Zooming in on machine invention, certain engineering methods are common practice. I wonder, what does machine invention look like as artistic practice? A machine can imitate the work of human hands and acts as an extension to them. What does it mean to share automation, to make together, with a machine?
The aim with XYZ Knitting or Searching for Mary is explore these questions, with the motivation to stretch our perception of knitting, to provide an artistic perspective on invention as well as visualise human+machine collaboration and interaction. This research is grounded in practice-based experiments with prototyping and experimentation in an interplay human and machines, with analogue and digital tools. The practical experiments are supported by theoretical studies with literature reviews on knitting, artistic research and human+machine collaboration. The essay ”A Room of One’s Own” by Virginia Woolf (1929) and the novel ”Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley (1818) are used as artistic tools for reflection as well as to ground and bridge the thesis to discourses.
How can the knitted structure be challenged to be three-dimensional on its own?
By changing the perspective. Imagine knitting in layers instead of the traditional courses. This way of thinking enables one to knit three-dimensional objects that are both surface and filling at the same time. Knits that, through structure, are three-dimensional of their own. We decided to name this knit structure XYZ Knitting.
What does machine invention look like as artistic practice?
This study is in itself an example of artistic practice. The method of using essays and novels as tools for reflection becomes a door opener for contemplation on topics as women and invention and makes us challenge our deeply held assumptions on machines. The essays and novels also become a way of finding words for abstract thoughts, a way of understanding and describing the journey of design practice.
What does it mean to share automation, to make together, with a machine?
This question emerged during the many hours I spent in the workshop and in my studio, assembling hundreds of chains, screws and needles by hand, while listening and contemplating on ”A Room of One’s Own” and ”Frankenstein”. I would like to argue that this question is one of the results of this study rather than a research question I can provide an answer to. I do not have an answer yet. Instead, I see it as a beginning, a new starting point for my XYZ Knitting practice. But I do have one answer. Mary and I are collaborative partners. Together we will share the automatic and repetitive task of knitting. Stitch by stitch. Course by course. Layer by layer.
XYZ Knitting or Searching for Mary expands our knowledge and understanding of knitted structure, form and performance and call attention to designing form and material as one. It is a contribution to tools within textile craft, and displays artistic practice in the field of machine invention.
By Louise Christiansson, 2020.
Awards
This thesis was awarded Göteborgs Slöjdförening’s degree award in the MFA Design category, June 2020.
Mentioned references
Landahl, K. (2015). The myth of the Silhouette – On form thinking in knitwear design. Borås: University of Borås.
Oxman, N. (2016). Age of Entanglement. Journal of Design and Science. https://doi.org/10.21428/7e0583ad
Shelley, M. (1818). Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus London: Penguin Books Ltd.
Von Busch, O. (2013). "Zen and the Abstract Machine of Knitting", Textile, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 6-19.
Woolf, V. (1929). A room of one’s own. London: Penguin Random House UK
