The String Revolution

Threads and Traces was created in collaboration with the Academy of Arts in Vienna as part of the Action project "Threads and Traces - The String Revolution" under the direction of Michelle Howard together with Adam Hudec and Veronika Miškovičová. The students explored the direction technology could take if more attention was paid to the skills commonly attributed to women. The initial idea was based on Ursula Le Guin's assumption that the first tool in human history was not a weapon, but a collection bag made of yarn. It was on this material that the two studios in Brno and Vienna focused, looking at two opposite sides of the production process. While the Vienna studio opted for upcycled material, looking for new uses for used T-shirts, the Brno studio focused on the primary material, raw wool, which it obtained from Slovak farmers.

The students of the Threads and Traces studio placed great emphasis on the process of wool processing and fibre creation. They followed the idea of Paul Klee, who argued that the process of creation is more fundamental than the final form itself. "Through frequent discussions, students were given the opportunity to construct their ideas in process, as opposed to the commonly used linear approach of creating studio work, where most students focus only on the final output and not on the process as part of the creative activity," Adam Hudec pointed out. The results of the research could be seen until 4 March at the exhibition entitled Ignored Technology at the creative HUB Kumst in Brno.
Michelle Howard is a lecturer at the Institute of Art and Architecture at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts and an architect who runs the Berlin-based constructconcept studio (COCO).