is research on the intersection of technics, technology, textiles and text. The common etymological source is techne (gr.). techne can be translated as skills, handicraft, art and versatility. It is a conception that gives proof of a different idea of reality than the contemporary reading does: craft, art and philosophy are identical, and must not be distinguished in any way. They are an expression of the struggle for knowledge an recognition (gr. episteme) and differ only in their outward appearance.
techne picks up this interpretation, exploring its depths.

Technik

Manual work is a way of self-realization. The manufactured object mirrors the manufacturer and gives evidence of the way it was created. Thus it cannot solely be regarded as a simple thing with a certain function. And textile workpieces differ from other man-made things: clothing is as elementary to us as food and considering the variety of information it carries apart from its practical function, it can be taken as a threedimensional, hypertextual document - literally a dress-code. But as soon as the cultural knowledge and daily practicing of textile techniques vanish, the multidimensional information inherent to a textile workpiece gets lost. The ability to read it disintegrates parallel to the reducing practice.

Textilie

Textiles are in the centre of our work, since they are craft, art and philosophy in one. Few areas of human work have traditionally determined societies as fundamentally as the production of textiles have. The know-how, necessary to design, produce and finally read a textile workpiece comprehends almost all fields of human knowledge.

Text

One type of creactive work one would hardly expect here is text-based work. A text is the most abstract kind of medium for informational exchange - and if things go well the information becomes knowledge. Texts work on different levels: They do have an aesthetic dimension - a direct connection to the eye. (Which enables us enjoying a text written in non-latin letters without having a clue of its meaning.) But to gather the information and meaning a text contains, you have to be able to read it - which means a lot more than deciphering the letters. (Everyone who ever learned a foreign language will know what is meant). In that way, although on another level, a text works similar to a textile piece and a technological device that is to be used in a certain context.

The contents of this Website deal with textile techniques and technologies that suggest traditional reading will soon be unneccessary - and also with results that emerge from verbal expressions: reality, constructed by verbal weaving.