One of the challenges of making The Warp and Weft of Memory was bringing a sense of materiality to the digital. After all, clothing and textiles are tactile. Taffetas are crisp and rustle when moved, wool is rough or soft depending on how it has been treated, and silk is smooth and light to the touch. Next to the writing, one way of conveying this materiality was through video. Folding was integrated into the site, www.warpweftmemory.net and also featured in the exhibition at H401 where the folded clothes were on view next to the online work.
The video, shot in Gisèle d’Ailly-Van Waterschoot van der Gracht’s studio, was filmed by Boris van Hoof and edited by Jessica van Rueschen. In the installation, the video was exhibited in a loop. However online, each garment is shown individually so they could be semantically tagged and integrated into the database in different semantic configurations.
Installation view, The Warp and Weft of Memory, September 2018
Folding, screenshot of The Semantic Tapestry, warpweftmemory.net