Task Force Textiles

The Seconda mano project involves an experimental exploration of traditional hand embroidery and appliqué techniques. Freely applied to found textile pieces, the resulting fabrics demonstrate various possibilities for creative reworking.
The Tuscan region surrounding Sophie Ringgenburger’s current home in Florence, Italy – with its centuries-old textile industry – provides the inspiration to realise the project using textiles prodotto e trovato in Italia as well as embroidery techniques commonly practised there. On silk fabrics, historic ribbed and jacquard weaves, knotted nets and lace elements, various types of embroidery, appliqué techniques, openwork, as well as freehand decorative stitching and beadwork are executed using fine cotton and silk threads, brocade threads and mohair yarns; textile floral elements and paper are also incorporated into the finishing.
A sensitive and meticulous approach to the existing textile base material, combined with deliberate alterations to its appearance, character and dimensions, places these found textiles in a contemporary context and demonstrates the potential for enhancing their tactile and visual qualities through the contemporary application of traditional craftsmanship.

Sophie Ringgenburger is a qualified textile designer. Colour, form and function form the foundation for the creative aspect of her textile designs and conceptual explorations.
Her artistic approach is to tell a story through design. With skilful craftsmanship and a keen eye for detail, these stories are visualised and brought to life through and within textiles. Her distinctive style is characterised by a fascination with the interplay between different cultures and the influences of her surroundings.
Sophie Ringgenburger works primarily with various printing and dyeing techniques. Another key focus of her creative work is the creation and reworking of existing materials, ranging from carpets to historical artefacts.

Instagram @fu_textiles

In the Polka Dot 4D project, Ursula Wagner explores how to translate the functioning of a camera obscura into textile structures. The interaction between sunlight and the fabric creates a temporary polka dot pattern consisting of round patches of light.
A specially perforated, flat material behaves, when exposed to sunlight, like a multitude of pinhole cameras arranged side by side and one above the other. When sunlight passes through fine openings in the fabric or paper, each of these openings produces an image of the sun. At any given moment, these images represent a two-dimensional cross-section through the four-dimensional space-time through which the three-dimensional beam of light travels over the course of the day. Although the phenomenon can be described in physical terms, this work focuses on the fascination with the magical quality of this effect.
The project involved developing various material studies, such as fabrics and handmade papers, featuring different hole sizes, shapes and arrangements. The challenge lay in designing a material with functional holes whilst maintaining structural integrity.

Ursula Wagner (Dipl.-Des.) is a textile designer, artist and researcher. In her work, she explores the interplay between material, technology and aesthetics with regard to the three-dimensionality of textile constructions. Using unconventional material combinations and her expertise in weaving technology, she creates multi-layered fabrics, sculptures and objects.
Ursula Wagner studied textile and surface design at the Weissensee Academy of Art, Berlin, and at Hiroshima City University, Japan. Following her graduation (2013), she worked at the Design Research Lab at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK) before setting up her own practice as a textile designer in 2015. She has taught at the Weißensee Academy of Art Berlin, the HAW in Hamburg and Shenzhen Polytechnic, CN. From 2017 to 2019, she taught as Assistant Professor of Textiles & New Technologies at the Rhode Island School of Design, USA. From 2020 to 2023, she worked as a project manager for research and development at rohi Stoffe GmbH. Ursula Wagner is now working independently again. She lives and works in Murnau am Staffelsee.

Instagram: @ursulawagnerstudio
ursula-wagner.com

Lauren Luckert da Costa Tavares’ project Same same but different resulted in the creation of a material archive that highlights the tactile variations of different source materials. Through the development and analysis of textile structures, the project examines the correlation between material (fibres) and construction technique (knitting), thereby highlighting the sensory diversity of fibres such as cotton, wool, merino wool, hemp, linen and silk. This resulted in six groups, each realised in a specific yarn quality. They can be felt, allowing visitors to experience the variations through touch. In addition to the haptic aspect, visual aesthetics are also relevant, as revealed through the interplay of pattern, colour and structure.

Lauren Luckert da Costa Tavares has been working as a knitwear designer at Maestro Knitting (P) since November. Whilst studying at the ABK Stuttgart, she undertook work placements at the Staatstheater Stuttgart and with knitwear designer Cécile Feilchenfeldt (F), as well as spending a semester as a visiting student at the École nationale supérieure de création industrielle in Paris (F). At the TextielLab of the Textile Museum in Tilburg (NL), she worked as an assistant in product development for knitwear, embroidery and laser cutting. With a focus on sustainable design, she seeks progressive solutions for textile products. Her exploration of colour and form, material and structure are central components of her work.

The digital has been around for a while explores the relationship between digital and physical materials and objects. Drawing on virtual textile simulations in a 3D programme, and by combining analogue and digital techniques, Anna Resei has developed various animations and designs.

In the first piece, clay served as the starting point. It was digitally modelled in the same way as it would normally be physically shaped by hand. To bring the tactile quality of the material to life in the digital sphere, the second piece involved the development of a simulation of hair, bristles, brushes and fringes. Here, the interplay between natural and soft materials and artificial and digital material worlds was crucial to the subsequent transformation of the digital work into a physical one.

Anna Resei, born in Klagenfurt (A), studied textile design at the ABK Stuttgart and design at the HFBK Hamburg, where, alongside her studies, she also worked as a costume designer and set designer on films. After completing her Bachelor’s degree, she took her passion for conceptual and material research to the Design Academy Eindhoven (NL), where her Master’s thesis in the Contextual Design programme was awarded a cum laude. She is a finalist in the 15th Design Parade Hyères (F) and has been nominated and awarded several times as part of the German Design Council’s ein&zwanzig prize for emerging talent. Anna Resei is a conceptual designer who sees herself as an archaeologist of the digital world.

annaroro.com

The Agility in norm project brings intuitive manual work and standardised industrial processes into dialogue, thereby creating a new common language. It combines craftsmanship with state-of-the-art digital production processes and demonstrates that, through their mutual interaction, humans and machines can act in both an empathetic and innovative manner.
The manual yarn-dyeing process developed by Sarah Schrof is integrated into the industrial production workflow of a Knit&Wear machine as part of the project and, in a series of jumpers featuring unique intarsia patterns, offers insights into poetic colour phenomena.
Hand dyeing is based on observation, experience and intuition. It is only through the partial immersion of the thread in the dye bath that the colour is transferred to the linear carrier – the yarn. Whilst the pattern in the dye bath is still in a fluid, formless state, the interweaving of the fibres with the polychromatic woollen yarn during the knitting process later creates a nuanced, three-dimensional structure.

Sarah Schrof’s work as a freelance textile artist is shaped by her training as a master tailor and an interdisciplinary, iterative approach to design, which she has

further developed since completing her textile design studies at the ABK Stuttgart. Sarah Schrof’s textile works are based on three fundamental elements: colour, material and process. The aesthetic of her pieces is reminiscent of abstract paintings of horizons or reflections on water. The dyeing and knitting process, which she has developed herself, ensures that colour palettes unfold organically in a controlled, random manner.

sarahschrof.com

How can production waste and leftover recyclable materials be repurposed in an attractive and meaningful way? In the Stories of Space workshop with Velia Dietz, participants worked with a selection of discarded materials. Taking into account their functional and aesthetic properties and exploring their history in depth, the materials were examined, design variations were tested using different techniques, and textile objects designed to divide spaces were created. Themes such as distance, separation and protection, as well as permeability, were key aspects of the design development. Equally important was the desire to work largely with materials of a single type – using joining methods appropriate to the materials, such as tying or slotting – thereby ensuring the designs were recyclable.

How do textiles acquire the ability to change shape? What potential lies in the enhanced expressiveness of textiles achieved through mobility? In the Textiles in Motion workshop with Paula van Brummelen, a shape-memory wire was programmed using heat to bend into a specific shape and/or contract when electrical impulses were applied. By combining this with various materials and forms, the students explored a diverse range of design and movement possibilities.

Care labels (ger. Pflegeetiketten) are instructions for use that are sewn into items of clothing. How can the concept of ‘care’, in the sense of looking after others, be further developed in terms of both content and design? In the ‘Matters of Care’ workshop with Stéphanie Baechler, the students analysed the meanings of specific care labels and, based on this, developed personal motifs, patterns, symbols and texts centred on the theme of ‘caring for textiles’. These were transferred onto fabrics in a collage-like manner using a transfer printing process known as sublimation. The results reflect themes such as caring for oneself and others, as well as personal relationships with items of clothing.

Textile Talks are student-led discussion sessions in which former textile design students from the ABK Stuttgart speak openly and informally about their experiences since graduating. The alumni talk about their own personal career paths, offer direct insights into their professional development, showcase their current work and are on hand to answer any questions the students may have.
The idea, concept and organisation of the Textile Talks come from textile design students. Interested alumni are welcome to get in touch directly by email at textile.talk@abk-stuttgart.de.