DIS 2023 - Honourable Mention Award - “Transmediating Sky Blanket”

Photo by Reese Muntean, 2022.

We are excited to have been awarded an Honorable Mention for our pictorial paper “Transmediating Sky Blanket: tensions with a digital jacquard loom” at the DIS 2024 (Designing Interactive Systems) Conference. You can see our full open access here.

Oogjes, D., O’Brien, M., Turner, H., Hennessy, K., Muntean, R., Camman, M. (2023). 
Transmediating Sky Blanket: tensions with a digital jacquard loom. Proceedings of DIS 2023, New York, ACM Press. 16 pages. [link]

Abstract: This pictorial presents an ongoing collaboration between a Haida/Kwakwaka'wakw/Irish artist and a multi-disciplinary team of settler researchers around Sky Blanket, a hybrid Yeil Koowu (Raven's Tail) and Naaxiin (Chilkat) style woven robe. We elaborate on our collaborative commitments that include a focus on materiality and particular team dynamics. We report on three frictions we experienced while working on a TC2 jacquard loom: the translation of weaving patterns from one production technique to another, working within the material limitations of the loom, and the design of a woven box that allowed us to articulate differing perspectives on failures. In our discussion, we argue that these material encounters are a way for design and creation research to work through tensions at play between digital technologies, artistic practices, and cultural continuities.