Weave, music and community A Shetland tale. When I was a bachelor… Born in Zimbabwe and grew up there Music ‘O’ Level Exchange in Chicago and won a scholarship.

Weave, music and communityWeave, music and communityA Shetland taleA Shetland tale

When I was a bachelor…

• Born in Zimbabwe and grew up there• Music ‘O’ Level• Exchange in Chicago and won a scholarship • Returned to Zimbabwe and did Hotel and Catering Management• Moved to London 1992• Gained Performance Diploma in Opera 1998• Created the Wind Dog Café in Shetland and moved up in 2001• Left the café in 2006 to run the Centre for Creative Industries• Teach and train in vocal music and performance• Learnt to weave in 2006 from Melanie Venes

In the beginning

• ASF Shetland was formerly the Ann Sutton Foundation• A woven whirlpool!• Came to Shetland in 2006• Established at the Centre for Creative Industries in Yell• Maelstrom project in 2007• Looking at textiles as a regeneration tool for development

The Centre is funded by

Shetland map

Music as inspiration - felting

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Music for community

• Singing Saturdays• SWRI choir• Bluemull Sound• Concerts

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Weaving for community

• Weaver in residence - Angharad McLaren• Short and longer home stays• Textile tours• Ph.D. in community and textiles with Heriot-Watt

The Giant Weave

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Words - music and weave

Patterns

Beau Cordier (b. around 1380)

Belle, Bonne, Sage

Tout par compas suy composé

Ian Blake

• Responding to printmaker Dianne Fogwell’s Resonance piece. • Bees, printing process sounds, instruments and vocals

Textiles and music

Nigel MorganTextiles and music interact seriesStudies in Movement Dance Figures

Anni Albers Code 1962©2007 The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

… create a kind of continually shifting warp of tonality colour across which is woven a weft of ‘picks’ of different lengths and frequency. The analogy with weaving is significant: the 'pitch' warp maintains a set of 10 ‘ends’ giving the music a set beat pattern and count. … It is possible to see many examples in handwoven design of this kind of construction, particularly in the woven creations of Anni Albers (wife of the artist Josef Albers).

Structure and composition

• Duke Bluebeard’s Castle– Bela Bartok– Psychological opera– Fibonacci series (0 1 1 2 3 5 8…) and Golden ratio (a+b is to

a as a is to b)– F# to C and back again

Structure and composition

• A woven whirlpool! ( part two)

Ancient Greek thinking?

• Tete a tete opera taking knitting as its focus. Odysseus Unwound.

• Synaesthesia (together sensation)• A web of song - Homer and the lyric poets. Taken from a

JSTOR publication.– Claims weave terminology acts as a metaphor for intellectual

activity as well as literal weave with song– Linguistic associations with weave and music– Mechanical associations with the lyre and the warp threads

of the loom. Warp weighted, upright looms.

Time and music and weaving

• Is there something about perceptions of time and how music affects it?

• How does music affect the weaving process?• Does music and weave automatically go together? Why?• Rhythm• Does music allow a weaver to block out anything other than

weaving? Why?

Contact ASF 4 SellafirthYell

Shetland IslesZE2 9DG

01957 744 355globalyell@btconnect.com