Structures, Products, Themes Textile technology is one of the oldest and most basic technologies. We need its products and feel them next to our skin. They are both useful and beautiful. Textile technology has existed ever since our earliest ancestors, the hunters and gatherers, carried food in basket-woven containers. Textile technology was the first industrialised technology and the first technology to use information technology to control production. Regardless of the materials employed, textile technology is characterised by its structures: clothing is produced in the same way as technical textiles. Textile technology relates to the past (industrialisation), the present (fashion, consumerism) and the future: technical textiles are steadily gaining in importance. Textile technology is globalised: a world-wide division of labour has already become reality in textile technology. Knitting Interlacing Global Digital Knitted fabrics are produced by continuously interlocking loops of yarn. Knitwear is more flexible than woven fabrics, and will mould itself to the body. For this reason knitting technology is very suitable for products worn next to the skin (underclothes) or inside the body (medical technology). Woven fabrics are produced by interlacing two material systems. Woven fabrics are firmer than knitted ones. Thus official dress (men’s or women’s suits) and robust textile products such as air bags are woven. Braided textile structures like shoelaces or cable sheathing are also interlaced. They are firm yet flexible. Production and consumption have increased as a result of a worldwide division of labour: the south tolerates low-wage industrial work and long machine running times whereas the north is driven by development of high technology. The example of India is used in the exhibition to show the changing relationship between the First and Third World in the textile sector. Textile technology and information technology are closely interrelated. Textile technology, in particular weaving technology, has been “digital” for millennia: the warp is lifted up to allow the weft to pass through (on) or left down (off). Jean Marie Jacquard first employed the digital principle in production in 1805: he used a punched card to control every single weft on a loom. Today weaving patterns designed on the computer are directly implemented on a computer-controlled loom. Textile technology and structure: Both the mini dress (1965) and the pan scrubber are knitted. Even this braiding machine for surgical sutures (1950) conveys the Raw materials and human labour: in her piece poetry of braiding in the harmony “Work in an Indian Embroidery Factory” (1999), created by reverse motion. the artist Rachael Howard reflects on the South’s contribution to textile consumption. Textile technology in time and space: Knitting and weaving techniques, past and present, here and all over the world. Everyday items, often made and used by women. Women with containers in Papua New Guinea (1976) and in Cologne (1947). Mahatma Gandhi at the spinning wheel. Punched cards were first used to Textile technology and material: A woollen mini dress and a metal pan scrubber. Circular knitting machine for pan scrubber production, around 1920. control production in textile technology. Weaving is the textile technique that has been refined more than any other over the course of millennia. Preparation for weaving: Twisting on new warps (1937). Drawing by E. Bindewald. Today information technology enables worldwide division of textile labour. Embroidery machine controlled by a punched tape (1928). GLOBAL Felt Flowers The most important non-knitted or non-woven textile surfaces are felts and fleeces. The fibres are “shaken together” by means of steam, glue or needles until they have become interconnected. The history of these “composite fibre fabrics” goes back as far as the Middle Ages (felt boots). Today they are employed in technological applications (fuel filters or insulation and sealing materials in construction). Beginning in the 18 th century, the textile technique of making artificial flowers for the aristocracy and the upcoming bourgeoisie flourished for a period of only 200 years before declining again before World War II. This exhibition section documents the power of imagination and effort that went into the production of objects which, although fairly insignificant, were perceived as beautiful. CONSUMERISM Textile Technology FELT DIGITAL Historic and contemporary felt and straw hats are the focus of the exhibition section “Hats”. Ladies’ hat with inlaid felt flowers: an item produced during a demon- INTERLACING HATS KNITTING stration in the exhibition. FLOWERS Felt “Daffodil” (2000) by Karin MATERIALS Hats Wagner. Textile objects as traditional expressions of “femininity” are often manipulated in unusual and humorous ways by female artists. ENTRANCE Today hats are no longer status symbols, but rather fashionable accessories made of felt (for winter) or straw (for summer). Industrial hat manufacture has greatly declined in importance; hat production, however, lives on in imaginative hat-making and millinery. The exhibition emphasises manual labour and machine work as its central theme, and describes production locations. consumerism rag press women’s drawers videos global wall hanging embroidery machine Gandhi export cloth dioramas digital ribbon loom card punching machine computer workstation interlacing wire loom braiding machine knitting wire knitting machine flat bed knitting machine materials high-tech yarns felt plate felting machine carding machine transparencies hats hat band sewing machine straw braid sewing machine flowers punching die embossing press transparencies Like hat-making, flower production is a craft that cannot be fully TEXTILE TECHNOLOGY Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin Text by Anna Döpfner Trebbiner Straße 9, 10963 Berlin Photographs courtesy of Kirchner, Tel +49.30.90 254-0 Kienzle, Fischer, Howard, into flowers with stamens (top) Fax +49.30.90 254-175 Cardenas, Schröder Hat Factory, and stems (left). [email protected] The Archive of Art and History. mechanised. The silk is punched, dyed, embossed and assembled Both mass production and ENTRANCE the closure of a hat factory www.dtmb.de are documented by photographs Tuesday – Friday 9 – 17.30 hours The cover illustration shows Saturday/Sunday 10 – 18 hours a piece by Patricia Waller, Monday closed “Dangers in the Home”. in the exhibition. lubricating machines. Unlike the “soft” felt used in fashion, “hard” felt meets the high demands of technological applications. Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin SLOTHROP.EU 1105 Felt gear for