Knittistruments: Exploring creativity in knitting
in collaboration with Encinas Encinas we explored the following questions:
To which degree can a skilled practice, and the tacit knowledge that characterizes it, be faithfully translated into a different expressive domain? To what extend can this translation question knitters’ creativity?
The main contribution of this research is an further examination of knitting practices, focused on the interrelations between creativity and skill,building upon the knitters’ embodied knowledge. The main aim of this explorative project was to investigate how an auditory feedback, which makes the knitters aware of their bodily movement, affects their performance and triggers creativity.
The knitters built upon their skills practices and tried to adjust their skills to the new setting in various ways, from rhythmically pulling the yarn, to altering the knitting angle (from a static horizon plane to the vertical one). The direct coupling between action and perception, through sound, brought them out of the flow state, let them experiment and improvise during the process with the tools available (yarns,needles, body). The awereness of epistemic and pragmatic actions where the knitter’s perception changes in the transitional moments (pulling the yarns, swifting the needles) between previous and next action, can challenge their creativity on the process of making.
Koulidou, K. and Encinas, E., (2014). Knittstruments: Melodies of weaving. In: Proceedings of All Makers Now? Craft Values in the 21st Century Production Conference Journal, 10 -11 July 2014, Falmouth University, Vol 1, p 73-78
Encinas, E., Koulidou, K. and Mitchell, R., 2015, March. The kraftwork and the knittstruments: augmenting knitting with sound. In Proceedings of the 6th Augmented Human International Conference (pp. 49-52). ACM.
