The thread and the line

Abstract

As the word ‘line’ derives from ‘lineum’ or linen thread it is curious that the abstract and the material are in close affiliation. Exploring the materiality of textile cloth as a meshwork of threads and lines we consider the metaphors of thread which lead us to lineage as a form of calibrating attachments. Things mean because they matter. Is affective attachment the predecessor of abstract knowledge? Can we trace the ‘lineaments of gratified desire’ in painting and sculpture? This article introduces some of the fundamental material properties that give textiles such powerful agency. Following the line of attachment that is spun from the body to the world we show how fashion thinking offers a new interface for thinking about digital economies.

Keywords:

• tacit knowledge
• tactile
• holding
• hand–eye coordination

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Dr Claire Pajaczkowska, Senior Research Tutor in Fashion and Textiles in the School of Material, graduated from Goldsmiths’ Fine Art, completed a degree in Contemporary Cultural Studies and a PhD ‘Before Language’ in Humanities. Her work as filmmaker was screened at 19 Bergasse, Vienna, 2013 and at Shih Chien University, Taipei, 2013. Her recent essays ‘Stuff and Nonsense: the complexity of cloth’ (Berg 2007), ‘Tension, Time and Tenderness: traces of touch in textiles’ (Digital and Other Virtualities; IB Tauris 2010) and ‘Making Known: seven types of textile thinking’ (Handbook of Textiles: Bloomsbury 2015) demonstrate the integration of the theory and practice of making. Currently Principal Investigator on the AHRC Cultural Value research project ‘Empathy by Design’ she works with interdisciplinary research across the RCA and teaches at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust.

Notes

1. http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/titian-bacchus-and-ariadne