Already there is more to say than I can possibly write before I pass out from fatigue.
This is art camp for adults and we are all at capacity full speed on the creativity intensity and out put front. Not to mention just meeting new people and remembering names, but learning new concepts from crocheting, making nets, and warping a loom to knowing the difference between raster and vector files for the fabrication lab.
Today I watched myself learning a new language like a toddler learning to speak, or a child learning to read. The concept of a warped loom was only hieroglyphics to me earlier in the week and between yesterday when I prepared my warp by laying it out on a large warp board, and today when I actually set the warp on the loom (with the help of the amazing TA Liz in our class) - it began to reveal itself as a visual language, a verbal language, a numerical language and most importantly a physical language. Threading the warp of a loom allows you to touch every thread on your loom and to truly claim the story that loom will write. It also demands a level of mental and physical focus that is almost super human. Yet with the support of the TA and teacher with various comments about tricks to set mistakes aright, I set out on the journey of counting that is the math of physical warp heddle threading. First you must count forward 1-8 with every thread alternating between over and under. Then you count backwards from 8-1 with every thread alternating between under and over. So the count flips as does what you must see visually and do physically with the hand. It is mind bending and reminds me of Neil DeGrasse Tyson speaking about the directional spirals of protein molecules which make up all human life. The all turn to the left and those that are manipulated to turn right become toxic. The reason this comes to mind is a Radio Lab segment about Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass and Alice pondering to her cat if there was such a thing as "mirror milk." Would it be the same as regular milk or reversed some how? On the molecular level it could be toxic! Warping the loom made me think of the possibility of mirrored images in the loom both left to right and top to bottom, as well as under and over. A duality experience in so many aspects of life, yet integrated into the whole cloth of the loom.
This is art camp for adults and we are all at capacity full speed on the creativity intensity and out put front. Not to mention just meeting new people and remembering names, but learning new concepts from crocheting, making nets, and warping a loom to knowing the difference between raster and vector files for the fabrication lab.
Today I watched myself learning a new language like a toddler learning to speak, or a child learning to read. The concept of a warped loom was only hieroglyphics to me earlier in the week and between yesterday when I prepared my warp by laying it out on a large warp board, and today when I actually set the warp on the loom (with the help of the amazing TA Liz in our class) - it began to reveal itself as a visual language, a verbal language, a numerical language and most importantly a physical language. Threading the warp of a loom allows you to touch every thread on your loom and to truly claim the story that loom will write. It also demands a level of mental and physical focus that is almost super human. Yet with the support of the TA and teacher with various comments about tricks to set mistakes aright, I set out on the journey of counting that is the math of physical warp heddle threading. First you must count forward 1-8 with every thread alternating between over and under. Then you count backwards from 8-1 with every thread alternating between under and over. So the count flips as does what you must see visually and do physically with the hand. It is mind bending and reminds me of Neil DeGrasse Tyson speaking about the directional spirals of protein molecules which make up all human life. The all turn to the left and those that are manipulated to turn right become toxic. The reason this comes to mind is a Radio Lab segment about Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass and Alice pondering to her cat if there was such a thing as "mirror milk." Would it be the same as regular milk or reversed some how? On the molecular level it could be toxic! Warping the loom made me think of the possibility of mirrored images in the loom both left to right and top to bottom, as well as under and over. A duality experience in so many aspects of life, yet integrated into the whole cloth of the loom.
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