Re-Sounding Yarns

Designers and consumers perceive textiles and their production as a silent process, however for producers in different social-economic contexts weaving is characterised by distinct sonic landscapes. Re-Sounding Yarns is an artistic research project using deep listening and ethnographic research to explore the disparate sounds and socioeconomics of weaving. A spatial installation of woven fabric speakers recreates the broad sonic spectrum of weaving, ranging from the rhythmic patterns activated by hand-weavers guided by multisensorial embodied knowledge, to the deafening thunder of power looms that compromise worker health in industrial mega factories. Sounds are revealed not as inconsequential by-products, but as indicators of exploitative supply chains and labour conditions.