Helsinki Central Library Oodi, 08.09-01.10.23
‘DIALOGUES - An Ode to Textile Stories’, is an exhibition at Central Library Oodi, exploring textile narratives, artistic exploration, material solutions and design pedagogy across a multitude of textile works from Aalto University.
Here, textiles are presented as a medium for creativity, design, narratives, and innovation, bridging storytelling and tactility. The interconnectedness of textiles and storytelling, lies in the etymology of the word text, deriving from the Latin root texere, “to weave”. The pieces and projects in this exhibition approach problem-solving and creative expression through different means, showing a diverse range of possibilities when it comes to material interpretations of textile stories.
In addition to the selected textile works, the publication ‘Interwoven– Exploring Materials and Structures’ by Maarit Salolainen, Head of the MA Major in Fashion, Clothing and Textile Design (FaCT) at Aalto University, provides further context for the exhibition's textile narratives within the site of Central Library Oodi. The book explores the history of the world of fabrics, while introducing new pedagogical methods for woven textile design studies, with contributions by Aalto academics and students. From prehistoric twining and the invention of the binary code to new material discoveries in the quest for sustainability, the histories of textile design and technological innovation have long been entwined. By investigating the past and present of textiles, and narrating their cross-cultural roles, meanings and influences, Interwoven illustrates how textiles have been used to tell human stories throughout time.
This exhibition continues the series DIALOGUES, presenting textiles as a medium for future solutions. Launched in New York in November 2022 with a joint exhibition and seminar by Aalto University and Parsons - The New School, the exhibition was expanded on return to the Dipoli Gallery, Aalto University in Espoo in December 2022. The partnership with Central Library Oodi brings textile stories from Aalto University to new audiences in Helsinki.
Exhibition Dates: 08.09-01.10.23
Mon-Fri: 9:00–18:00 / Sat-Sun: 10:00-17:00
Location: Helsinki Central Library Oodi, Kuutio / Cube Space, 2nd Floor
Address: Töölönlahdenkatu 4, 00100 Helsinki
Exhibiting Designers and Research Groups:
Sanna Ahonen / Lorena Articadi / Nora Bremer / Venla Elonsalo / Anusuya Krishnaswamy /Josh Krute / Ella Siltavuori / Kristin Ferrell / Multifunctional Materials Design Research Group: Jaana Vapaavuori, Laura Koskelo, Maija Vaara, Mithila Mohan, Pedro Silva, Zahra Madani / Sun-Powered Textiles-Moiré project: Zuzana Zmatekova, Janne Halme, Elina Ilén, Maarit Salolainen / BioColour-Natural Indigo project: Kirsi Niinimäki, Arttu Åfeldt, Maija Fagerlund, Anna-Mari Leppisaari / Ioncell® Lindström towel project knit - Ioncell® research team & Elina Onkinen, Kasia Gorniak / Leonardo Hidalgo Uribe / Ia Kähkönen / Helmi Liikanen / Jarno Kettunen / Elisa Defossez
DIALOGUES Exhibition Team:
Concept and curation: Maarit Salolainen / Curator, Aalto Exhibitions: Edel O’Reilly / Exhibition coordinator: Nora Bremer / Graphic design: Aino Salonen
Collaborators:
Aalto Studios / Aalto Printlab & Bookstudio / Helsinki Central Library Oodi
AaltoARTS Books 2022
'Interwoven-Exploring Materials and Structures' is a joyous exploration into woven textile design. It dissects woven structures along with the fibers and yarns used to make them, giving exceptional insight into the world of fabrics.
The book outlines how the manifold history of textiles has been intertwined with human innovation from prehistoric twining to the invention of the binary code, through to today's new material discoveries and the urgent quest for sustainability. By investigating the past and present of textiles, and narrating their cross-cultural roles, meanings and influences, Interwoven illustrates how textiles have been used to tell human stories throughout the ages.
The book introduces a new pedagogical method for woven textile design studies, inviting the reader to take a seat at the looms to weave their own stories. Detailed instructions for creating textiles, ranging from fibers and yarns to basic weaves, multi-layered constructions and digital jacquard design, are interspersed by emotionally rich, tactile textile stories by Aalto ARTS design students. The way this book interweaves technical knowledge, artistic expression and storytelling makes it a unique guide on the path to mastering textile design.
"This book weaves the warp of wisdom and the weft of wonder into a fabric of fascinating complexity. Displaying a burst of creativity coupled with a sense of functionality it shows a deep respect for our pummeled planet. From pre-historic constructions to futuristic applications, this book demonstrates the intelligence of weaving.” – Lidewij Edelkoort
Order from Aalto ARTS Books
Sun Powered Textiles Project 2019-2022
The Sun-powered Textiles collection was designed and developed to be able to harvest solar energy. The solar cells are hidden underneath a textile layer providing a broader freedom of design, while producing enough energy for powering wearable devices.
Sun-powered Textiles are a result of cross-disciplinary collaboration between the Department of Design and Department of Applied Physics in Aalto University. In collaboration were also companies Foxa Oy, Haltian Oy and Lindström Oy.
The main objectives in the project were:
1) to understand how the textile materials and structures affect the solar cell performance 2) to find optimal solar cell cover materials by measuring the optical properties of textiles
The project was funded by Business Finland.
Lorena Articadi
'Softcore' portrays light in a seemingly cartographic manner, in the form of structural jacquard tapestries, constituting a sort of flesh that is only real in its constructedness –that is true in its own accord as a single reading. Softcore can only account for wave behaviour; it looks at the sun through the processing of radio frequency signals, retrieved from the Metsähovi Radio Observatory’s repository of solar activity. Records of solar activity capture a de-phased, distorted and out-of-sync plurality of events –indexed as single instances. I approach the notions of interference and patterns of difference, as to unfold their implications for an understanding of diffractive time and –subsequently– a convergence of timelines, distinct temporal scales and simultaneity.
These signals are readings. Interference concerns me with understanding both the apparatus and the object, the nature of light and the apparatus itself. The instruments we use to collect solar activity data are engineered to filter out the vast and predominant noise that would otherwise significantly obstruct a -theorized- pure and isolated access to the sun. In their obscured and concealed constitution, these instruments are tailored to predict error so as to cancel it out. In Softcore, the processing of these signals deliberately amplifies the resolute noise that, despite the efforts of science, managed to permeate our records.
Kristin Ferrell
Kristin Ferrell's great-grandmother is from Látrabjarg, which is a cliff on the west peninsula of Iceland. The coast there is about 14 km long and the fall to the sea is 400 meters. The landscape there is peaceful and beautiful, yet extreme and dangerous to navigate.
These dualities, seen through the designer's memories of Látrabjarg is the story being expressed in the dress “Mountainside.”
The piece began with several fabric tryouts when trying to capture this duality, and came together when she started stitching on the bias. In those samples, the stitched areas were stiff and structured, while the other areas were light and voluminous. The next step was to translate this into woven structures.
The dress is a woven piece, created using a combination of a two-weft structure and a two-warp structure. The yarns play a big part in achieving the texture. The front side is a black viscose, and the back is a black wool. When washing and dyeing the fabric the wool shrinks and results in a more stiff and structured area while the other areas are light and voluminous. The final result is a draped deep purple asymmetric dress.
Sanna Ahonen
In the ancient world, when textile materials were highly valuable and fabrics a result of numerous hours of work by skilled artisans, clothes were created so that none of the precious material was wasted. This method, which is nowadays known as zero waste pattern cutting, was then a necessity and a common practice instead of an interesting design choice.
The idea of textiles’ inherent value, borrowed from the past and enhanced by my own background as a textile designer, was taken as the starting point of the garment design process. The respect for the material, the technique and the craft is channeled into garment-textiles that tell the story of their own creation to an observant viewer. The garments utilize the simplest shape determined by the creation technique itself, a rectangular piece of loom width fabric, and with the help of the interwoven shibori pulling yarns, turn it into re-shapeable, adjustable and re-constructable clothing.
Nora Bremer
Everything Comes from Something explores the cyclicality of trends and how a designer can utilize references as inspiration. The work consists of a research book that compiles four fashion trends that reached some degree of virality on TikTok, tracing back their respective reference chains. As ephemeral as TikTok fads might seem, the book shows that they are all rooted in styles that have repeated themselves on an ever-renewing trend cycle.
The material from the book was used to create four idea collections, showing how the trends and their previous iterations can be used as inspiration for more timeless design choices. The book and the idea collections work together as a tool for exploring the relationship between reference material and outcome. The collections are not the only possible design solutions from the book's source material. Instead, they show one possible interpretation.
This project shows the processes of design that are often invisible to the outside by presenting and analyzing the visual research that is always done before the actual design process. Including trend research and particularly TikTok as a platform for observation proved to be a rich and varied source of inspiration that can be infinitely adapted.
Venla Elonsalo
The dog and the cardigan visualize the potential of creating three-dimensional textile products by utilizing multilayered woven structures. The layers of the fabric interweave together in four different ways creating the seams that do not require sewing.
The process follows the specific narrative; the fabric is first woven and then fulled and cut. By fulling the wool, fraying of the fabric is prevented. Then the product is stuffed, steamed, and finished with hand-embroidered details.
This method requires for the pattern to be flat, which can easily be achieved with a plush toy pattern as they are usually made from the profile of a plush toy. However, creating similar flattened patterns for clothes is more challenging. Currently, it is possible to industrially produce three-dimensional products solely with the knitted structures, but with weaving we are still at the beginning.
Anusuya Krishnaswamy
Of the ordinary, in this ordinary are textile glimpses, a narrative patching together my everyday life. Emerging from a moment of pause while doing my laundry, these textiles are an examination of the mundane that make up my daily experience, and in particular, the routines surrounding my everyday textiles situated in my home.
Through an auto-ethnographic approach, I wrote diary entries, sketched, and took pictures of my home, drawing upon this data to organise into maps and create a book of collages combining these writings and imagery, all of which formed the underlying narrative of the woven textiles. Here, I highlight the role of a textile designer as a ‘translator’ one who traverses mediums transforming and adding to the initial experience and observations, translating daily life onto a textile embedded with the rich storytelling that lies in the ordinary.
The fabrics each describe three distinct experiences. Thorn Field refers to uncomfortable cotton sheets and a time of rest. Glassformer depicts a moment where my shower curtain seemed to merge with the glass beside it, taking a solid form. And Vantage Shiftis based on my numerous kitchen towels, their textures and surfaces in stripes and checks, constantly changing positions throughout the day.
Ella Siltavuori
This lamp was designed as a part of Ella’s Bachelor’s thesis, which focused on sustainable product design processes and material-driven product design.
The lamp's surface material is solely steel, and its look was achieved by using various material manipulation techniques. The lampshade attempts to mimic the properties of textiles, specifically light transmittance and flexibility. This lampshade was inspired by lamps that have textile tassels hanging in a beautiful unified row at the base of the lamp. This effect was achieved by using steel chains. An important goal for the designer was to achieve a product with a long lifespan. Since steel is proven to have a long lifespan, it was a perfect material choice for this lamp design.
Ella's designs are informed by her interest in the material qualities of both metals and textiles, despite their different properties. In her design, steel encounters and adapts the characteristics of textiles, while still retaining its own characteristic properties, such as durability and a light-reflective surface. The use of metal throughout the product and a uniform design language keeps the product aesthetically balanced and it intentionally highlights the unique use of the material.
Josh Krute
Kuulas, meaning ‘clear’ in Finnish, is a low-chair designed for interior home or office lounge spaces. Taking cues from Japanese and Danish furniture, Kuulas has notable low and wide seat proportions, and a refined minimal form to promote relaxation while sitting. It is made from solid ash wood and designed for three interchangeable textile components: a soft wool blanket, a cushion with strap attachment, and a fully upholstered seat, all with a surface pattern entitled End-grain.
The End-grain upholstery fabric, now produced by Annala Oy, combines black and white wool yarns with woven structures to represent wood-like textures and grain patterns of wooden blocks. For Krute, the End-grain pattern is familiar; it reminds him of how wood is commonly found in a lumber yard, as a bundle of loosely stacked two-by-four boards that have been sifted through by other carpenters. The pattern was integrated in the design to enhance the ‘low-sitting/essence of wooden materiality’.
Ioncell® research team
Ioncell®, developed by Aalto University in cooperation with the University of Helsinki, is an emerging technique to produce cellulosic fibers of high quality for textile and technical applications. The process uses a non-toxic ionic liquid solvent to dissolve natural polymer-based materials like fresh wood pulp or textile wastes. The solution is turned into fibers by a lyocell-type dry-jet wet-spinning technique. In a closed-loop operation, the ionic liquid is re-circulated. The process generates fibers that outperform commercial cellulose-based fibers regarding their mechanical properties. Ioncell® fibers are soft, strong even when wet, moisture absorbing, biodegradable, bright, and dyed like cotton or viscose.
Over the years, many prototypes have been manufactured (e.g., baby jackets, scarfs, tablet covers, dresses) by the use of Ioncell® fibers generated by students during their Ph.D. or MSc investigations.
The featured Lindström towels project utilizes used towel rolls from public spaces for ioncell fiber production and shows the advantage of recycling not only the used textiles, but also the dyestuffs throughout the development process of man-made cellulose fibers.
BioColour Project - Biocolour Hanke 2019-2025
Some synthetic textile dyes are toxic for the environment, employees and product users, and may end up polluting waterways. Industrial use of dyes and pigments is currently based on synthetic solutions. The use of natural compounds as colorants has been minimal and even bio-based materials are often being colored with synthetic dyes and pigments. With the advent of interesting new biocolorants, viable alternatives to synthetic colorants can be considered for industrial use.
BioColour research project develops new solutions for biocolourant production, characterization and application. Forest and food industry side streams are investigated as sources for dyes and pigments to foster eco-efficiency. This research also focuses on agricultural sources and microbes which produce colorants. Thus, the aim of the project is to create a colorful palette of yellows, reds, browns, greens, blues and blacks using bio-based dyes and pigments. The project is funded by the Academy of Finland Strategic funding.
BioColour project group has tested various natural colour sources. The throw, shirt and jacket have been dyed with Dyer’s woad (Isatis Tinctoria). This is an old European indigo plant which can be used in industrial scale dyeing and printing processes. The color plant has been cultivated in Finland by Natural Indigo Finland.
Multifunctional Materials Design Research Group
This exhibition showcases how dynamically moving textiles can be realized through the interlacement of thermoresponsive active yarns and conventional yarns that construct the textile architecture. Through different textile designs, minute movement of the active yarns can be translated into large-scale motion of the fabrics – allowing opening and closing of pores, or flat surfaces deforming into 3D landscapes, for example. The kinetic response of the fabrics to changing temperatures presents a visual and tangible narrative of the unseen invisible ever-changing environment. Furthermore, active textiles and the complex movement patterns that can be written into them will create new possibilities of narration, self-expression, and performance.
This exhibition is based on interdisciplinary research work involving contributions from physics, crafting, materials engineering, and textile design. By working parallel both employing methodologies from these various disciplines, as well as working – at the same time – at different levels of hierarchy of textile construction can help us to reimagine, materialize and finally realize new textiles concepts and their changing aesthetics.
Ia Kähkönen
This practical project was executed through the knitwear designer overtaking the knitwear technician’s role, resulting in a hybrid ‘designer-technician’ approach to the practical production of industrial knitwear development. This approach established a dynamic, cyclic dialogue between the maker, technique, material, and technical aspects. Observations and reflections on translations between digital symbolisms, adapted to a fully automated mechanical process, are designed to serve as an ever-expanding space for novel fashion expressions and their tactile, emotional outcomes.
Led by sustainable, commercializable values and technique-inspired embodied learning, the final collection explores several different knitted structures and their diverse modifications.
The process, its value-setting and the final outcome of it, in turn, aims to provide a narrative between maker and eventual wearer, with potential for widespread systemic innovations for an unstable future. The thesis argues that embodied learning of synthesizing technical construction and materialized outcomes – ‘textile thinking’ – can reverse the negative impacts of the traditional design-led work processes of fast fashion.
The entire collection follows the fundamental aim of closed-loop production, with zero-waste design principles joined by mono-material construction methods. A recycled 100% PET-yarn was used for these technical explorations in knitwear programming to expand the conceptual design space of reversible and multi-functional design expressions.
Jarno Kettunen
In Between; Color, Object is an exploration through thoughts about the process of experimental clothing design. Creativity happens in intuition. This work shows how one’s mind evolves into intuitive creations and how the “norm” in clothing could be thought of differently. All the excess is stripped off, leaving only the basics of a garment: blocks and objects. The motivation itself is purely concentrating on the visual aspects in the form of different objects. This project adapts the concept to fashion design.
By understanding the theory behind visual thinking, one can use it in making garments: the idea works as a tool but doesn’t determine the result. This project also approaches garment making and fashion in the engaging senses of abstraction in one’s trust in intuition. Kettunen trusts in his personal history and experiences as a maker, relying on his senses – touching, seeing, and feeling. Kettunen has painted silk fabrics in an experimental and intuitive process. Kettunen seeks to transform the philosophy and artistic practice of Laszlo-Moholy Nagy, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and Oskar Schlemmer into his artistic research.
Helmi Liikanen
In Aukeama, large shapes overlap, forming new hues in Helmi Liikanen’s painted textile. This could be seen as a metaphor for new knowledge being born in the intersections. The abstract shapes of the painting can appear as a book spread, perhaps prompting us to turn a page towards a more sustainable future. The artwork is painted on Ioncell fabric using surplus dyes.
The light-hued woven fabric was originally designed by Helmi Liikanen in 2018 as part of Aalto University's Ioncell Independence Day Gown project. The fabric was hand-woven by Päivi Kokko-Vuori, which can be seen in the beautiful fringed edges.
The textile painting Aukeama was born in 2021, when Helmi wanted to give new life to some of the fabric that was remaining from the project. Because Ioncell is an ecological solution to fiber-production, Liikanen wanted to choose a dye-stuff that was also responsible. The reactive color used to paint this art piece is surplus color from the digital printer of the printing workshop of Aalto University.
The ingredients for this art-project were found in different corners of Aalto University with thanks to Pirjo Kääriäinen, Marja Rissanen and Eeva Heikkinen.
Elisa Defossez
Nukuness is a collection of acoustic panels made of wool felt material, inspired by the concept of "Nukumori", a Japanese term designating coziness and warmth perception, both physically and psychologically.
This project results from introspective research about this abstract and subjective notion, interpreting it into a collection of large-scale surfaces and wall-hanging objects. Coziness features are related to Finnish nature and are about subtle calming colors, grained gradients, a soft and warm material, and a muffed quietness. As a dialogue between product design and textile thinking, this collection explores the blurry limit between surface and volume, applying textile thinking notions such as repetition, interwoven structure, or color variation within product design practice.
This acoustic panels collection has been carried out within a client's work context, implicating a dialogue between professional consciousness and personal research. Sustainability is at the core of product development. Design features include mono-materiality in the elements and creating an assembly process that does not require any glue or extra materials. Furthermore, the components can be disassembled and flattened for transportation, minimizing the needed space.
Leonardo Hidalgo Uribe
This project explores world-building practices as methods for a creative direction involving storytelling in creating textile collections for woven fabrics. Inspired by literary fiction based on family histories, Leonardo Hidalgo Uribe interviewed his mother and grandparents, who lived together in the same house in Bogotá. Together with their memories, he collected stories of his great-grandparents and the diverse regions around Colombia gathered into the walls, rooms, and gardens of Hidalgo Uribe’s mother’s home. Their anecdotes were collected into an atlas composed of written stories and imagery that set the tone and mood of different worlds created in each story. Hidalgo Uribe translated these narratives into woven fabrics that built together a collection that jumps between worlds that describe particular characters, places, or moments in time.
This exhibition features the collection The meditation of my father, which tells the story of Hildago Uribe’s grandfather, Álvaro, who struggles with expressing care and affection and yet can do it timidly. In collaboration with a Turkish mill, Vanelli, Leonardo Hidalgo Uribe created a series of interior fabrics which play around the tension between the rigidity of his grandfather and the softness and delicacy of his words. This was expressed by composing simple geometrical patterns distorted into soft curves by using cotton yarns and stone washing as finishings.
A collaboration between Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture and Parsons - The New School
‘Dialogues: An Ode to Textile Stories’ at Helsinki Central Library Oodi is the latest edition in the DIALOGUES exhibition series. The first edition was organised as part of a seminar programmed for New York Textiles Month in November 2022. The series title emerged from this transatlantic showcase of creative design work, material solutions and design pedagogy which offered a platform for cross-sectoral dialogue on textile futures across borders.
By presenting an interplay of contemporary textile and fashion design practices by master’s level students at Aalto University, School of Arts, Design and Architecture in Finland and Parsons - The New School in the United States, the seminar connected creatives, educators, innovators, and leaders from Finland and the US to reimagine the landscape of tomorrow’s textiles and fashion, driving a shared dialogue spanning over continents and into the future.
The projects from Aalto University included a research-driven project on compression textiles used in healthcare, a study on natural dyes that originate from food waste, and the dialogue between light-emitting technology and textiles, combining material science and traditional weaving.
“Aalto University with its six schools forms a multidisciplinary environment, which sets the scene for the student’s studies. The focus of the curation is on practice-led research and creative future solutions. Textile thinking and studio pedagogy, highlighted by the newly published book 'Interwoven – Exploring Materials and Structures', stand at the forefront of this exhibition, as they are the base for textile design studies at Aalto. We are delighted to share our textile stories with the MFA Textiles of Parsons in this New York Textile Month event. New innovations for textile futures come from shared passion, creative dialogues and interaction.” notes Maarit Salolainen, Head of the Master’s in Fashion, Clothing and Textile Design (FaCT) at Aalto University.
DIALOGUES, New York was presented by Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Parsons School of Design, The Consulate General of Finland in New York, The Finnish Cultural Institute in New York, Business Finland, and Juni Communication, in collaboration with New York Textile Month.
DIALOGUES – Creating New Textile Futures brings together leading universities from Finland and the United States to reimagine the landscape of textile and fashion industries of tomorrow.
New York Textiles Month 2022
Aalto University, Otaniemi Campus
Following the success of the programme in New York, the Dialogues exhibition returned to Aalto University's Otaniemi campus, opening in Dipoli Gallery in December 2022. Here the exhibition was expanded to include over 30 projects, showcasing the range and diversity of textile thinking across research and education disciplines.
This exhibition 'DIALOGUES: Creating New Textile Futures' at Dipoli Gallery, Aalto University can be explored through the virtual exhibition website below.
The visual identity for each edition of the series was designed by Aino Salonen.
DIALOGUES – Creating New Textile Futures by AaltoTEXTILES