From Spiderweb to World Wide Web: Textile Matters in History
Thursday, August 24, 2017
6pm - 8:30pm
Joining us from Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Loan Oei is a textile researcher who uses words and images as her warp and weft. Beginning her collection of ethnographic textiles in 1979 led her to studies across the humanities, natural and social sciences. She has curated exhibitions on topics including ikat, indigo, and beads at the Tropenmuseum, (co-)authored and photographed books such as The Elements of Design, and chaired the Dutch Textile Society. She is currently writing a book on the history of mankind through the lens of textiles.
Join independent researcher Loan Oei as she traces the interwoven threads of textile and human history from prehistory to the future. Investigate the ways textiles have impacted and interacted with people across time and space through varied thematic lenses: relationships between textile metaphors, etymology, mythology, and the emergence of language across the globe; the evolution of artificial light from oil lamp to fibre optics; the growth of architecture from tent to monument; economic networking from barter to globalization; digital innovation from Chinese drawloom to computer; development of aero- and astronautics from silk wings to NASA’s solar sails; artistry from musical instruments to contemporary fiber art; and much more.