Weave, music and community Weave, music and community A Shetland tale A Shetland tale
Dec 16, 2015
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
QuickTime™ and aDV/DVCPRO - NTSC decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Music for community
• Singing Saturdays• SWRI choir• Bluemull Sound• Concerts
QuickTime™ and aH.264 decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
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
QuickTime™ and aH.264 decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
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?