Embedding surface imagery: exploring a hybrid textile design practice – the Desktop Atelier

The rise of digital textile printing has dramatically shifted the landscape creating a juncture in textile design between digital and analogue processes for printed textiles. Rather than seeing digital textile printing technology as a threat to my acquired skills and materials intelligence I wanted to understand and investigate how can this technology enhance my creativity. Through textile sampling and the exploration of serious play and immersive material engagement, the research examines the relationship and impact of the synthesis between traditional textile hand making techniques and new technology in the creative process. How can hand and digital textile design processes work together to create enriched textile surfaces? Hand and digital textile design processes work together through a hybrid textile design mode – the Desktop Atelier. The Desktop Atelier is a method of making that merges all the advantages of new technologies with traditional textile techniques. It is a self-managed micro-industry of creativity, materially engaged and responsive. Working directly with a meshwork of materials, tools, techniques and processes the Desktop Atelier supports nonlinear non-hierarchical ways of working. The value of this hybrid textile mode is a deeper understanding of the complex relationship between imagery and the material surface. Through this mode, the imagery and material surface are simultaneously created. This results in the image being embedded into the surface rather than printed onto the surface, reflecting the interconnected and symbiotic nature of the imagery and surface material. I refer to this as surface ‘aura’, as a way to articulate and encapsulate the complexity of the surface, it’s dimensional depth and surrounding atmosphere. This creates a surface that is dynamic, has depth and evokes an emotional response.