About the course: The topic of the course is textiles as material and as a medium Based on an ongoing research project on textiles as a visual medium, the course introduces different approaches to the study of textiles and their unique potentials, with a view to understanding better what characterises the use, production, perception, and description etc. of textiles.
About the activity: The activity may be used in the study of specific materials, media or artefacts and of their use within and influence on specific (historical) contexts.
I wanted the students to gain practical experience with handling and producing the material which we worked with in the workshop – textile – so as to provide them with a better basis for understanding the topic of analysis of the course and the technical descriptions in the course literature. At the same time, I wanted to expand the students’ understanding of the potentials of technologies such as the textile technology to shape the cultures in which they are practiced on a day-to-day basis.
The activity comprises two sub-activities. One of these is based on reading, presentation and discussion of literature on historical textile technologies; the other is based on practical performance of the historical textile technologies.
At the beginning of the semester, I divided the class into study groups.
In preparation for this teaching session, I asked half of the groups to read two texts about textile technologies in the pre-Columbian Andes region, and the other half to read two text about textile technologies in Ancient Greece.
In class, the study groups have 30 minutes to prepare a 10-minute presentation of the two texts. In the presentations, they are instructed to describe a technology mentioned in the texts and explain how, according to the texts, this technology has influenced the historical communities described in the texts.
Then each Columbian text group pairs up with a Greek text group, and the two groups take it in turns to make presentations for each other. Approx 30 minutes are set aside for this.
Finally, all the groups get together in class to sum up; focus is on having key issues from the texts presented by all groups and on encouraging the students to reflect on their experience of acquiring knowledge about a technology from text reading, and of communicating this knowledge verbally.
I have prepared an exercise sheet (in Danish) describing how to perform four different historical textile technologies and including suggestions for attempts to reconstruct elements from specific historical textiles included in the course. I have also bought materials for the exercise.
In preparation for the teaching sessions, the students have read texts describing how practical performance can supplement their theoretical studies in academic teaching, as a method to generate knowledge through action.
In class, I introduce the exercise and the purpose of this: to generate knowledge through practical experiments.
Together, we set up four work stations in the classroom, one for each of the four activities at which the students are to try their hand. The necessary materials and exercise sheets are available at each station.
The students split up in four groups, one for each station, and begin to explore the technologies. 90 minutes are set aside for this activity. Each group spends 20 minutes at each station.
At the end of the session, each student selects one technology they wish to continue working on at home and use to develop a product. The students are instructed to bring their products for the final session in the course; the products will then act as analysis objects for other exercises.
The students gained experience in communicating a technology verbally to their peers. In other words, they were required to study the technology to the extent that they were able to communicate this, using the relevant terminology. They were also given the opportunity to reflect on how the technologies can influence the cultures in which they are practised.
During the first sub-activity, the presentations promoted a dialogue about the techniques and discussion about their influence on the cultures – including comparisons of how the same technology may have influenced two separate cultures.
Based on the first sub-activity, I was able to formulate a problem for us to try to solve through the second sub-activity – i.e. that the students had encountered problems understanding and explaining the techniques they had read about precisely because they did not have any personal experience of performing them. Through the second sub-activity, the students could then try out the technologies they had read about, thus creating an understanding of the technologies which they had not been able to pick up from text reading only.
Faculty: Arts
Degree programme: Art History
Course: Interdisciplinary Workshop: Textile mediality and materiality
Study level: MA
Size of class: 25 students
Form of instruction: Classroom instruction
Extent: Activity
Primary activity type: Knowledge and information
How the case is carried out: In-person teaching
