The use of modern industrial machines and digital fabric production has profoundly transformed textile manufacturing. This thesis argues that it is crucial to resist succumbing to a positivist technocratic narrative around textile production, and critically examine the construction of the modern weaving loom within a context of colonial ideologies and extractive economies. In the first chapter, I explore the ontological nature of the loom, its societal impact during the industrial revolution, and the ideological construction of textiles as boundless resource and potential interwoven with capitalist colonial structures. In the second chapter, drawing on personal experience, the thesis investigates the disconnect between the weaver’s body and their work at the loom, proposing somatic weaving to restore embodied connection, intuition, and improvisation in the process of making. The rhythmic movement of the weaving shuttle emerges as a central element in this somatic approach. Essentially, the thesis addresses the capitalist regime of making that is enforced on the body of the weaver and their craft. By critically examining this topic within the realm of arts education, this thesis seeks to cultivate a deeper understanding of the ways in which weaving can be reimagined and meaning can be generated in the present-day arts landscape.

Author: Gleb Maiboroda