Knitted Stool
Linen Biennale Northern Ireland (Lisburn, UK, October 3-4, 2018)
Knitted Stool was presented in 2018 in Lisburn, Northern Ireland. The project explored the fabrication of domestic objects with a hypothetical capacity for regeneration, acknowledging the finite life cycles of all objects while complicating the tensions among durability and disposability. Knitted Stool contributes to a broader inquiry into sustainable manufacturing by embracing a long ecological view increasingly advocated by designers and by proposing agriculture and living systems generally as compelling material starting points for manufacturing.
The approach championed the value of adopting an active, experimental mindset, and contributed to the third theme of the Linen Biennale: “To communicate the value of textiles, eroded through globalization, through the recognition of linen/flax fibre as a relatively sustainable material. And to emphasize the ethos of a ‘slower’ more responsible approach to the development of value-added product to include new flax fibre applications such as composite materials.”
From flax field to yarn, and yarn to functional forms through simple tools. The circular knitter has been automated with a sewing machine motor and foot control.
