The Center for Virtual and Material Studies in the Department of Art History at Penn State announces its research theme for 2022-2024, Fabrication: Virtual and Material approaches to Global Textiles. From the beginning of the fall semester in 2022, and continuing until the spring of 2024, The center will host lectures, collaborative panels and workshops dedicated to the impact of textile production on the history of art and humanities. The Department of Art History encourages applications from students interested in pursuing graduate study in related areas.
The center will facilitate training in digital and/or technical methods, as well as support projects related to historical art objects made of or related to fiber. Flax, cotton, wool, silk, and synthetic polymers will constitute the raw materials of many such objects. They may be brushed, spun, wound, woven, knit, knotted, sewn, printed, shredded and/or recycled. They may be tapestries, embroidery, upholstery, clothing, costumes, flags, sails, bedsheets, lace garters or ritual garments. Fabric as a constituent metaphor for information systems (from Ada Lovelace’s use of loom technology for early computing models to the late 20th century terminology of “webs” and “nets”) will direct our thinking as well as encourage projects that organize and present information related to fiber-arts. Special attention will be paid to the socio-economic impact of fiber-working and trade, from piece-work production to guilds and larger industrial models, from intimate activity to the devastation of enslaved labor. Cloth as a generator of value for patrons, as a subject of representation (from the representation of clothing in painting and sculpture to uses of interlace in ornamental motifs) and even as a physical support for other media (canvas under painting) will be of interest as well. Approaches to fiber in contemporary art (such as knit-bombing and other lo-tech practices) will be of special interest, particularly in their acts of resistance to repressive models of gender, sexuality, race and consumer identity.
Interested scholars and prospective students should feel free to inquire for more information.