A unique collaboration between the Zuiderzee Museum and TextielMuseum has led to a project by design duo Glithero. They used the pattern of an organ punch card as input for a loom. With as result a short film that shows a moment in the lives of two craftsmen, different fabrics with musical patterns, and a fabric showcasing the beauty of the punch cards and their abstract pattern of holes.
The Dutch-English duo of designers Glithero has been asked to develop a project around immaterial heritage with the emphasis on crafts. Glithero is made up of Sarah van Gameren (the Netherlands) and Tim Simpson (England). Both artists took various design courses, including that at the Royal College of Art in London. Since their training they have been working together on projects in various European cities. The Zuiderzee Museum chose this duo because in their work 'the process of making' is the basic principle. This is entirely in line with the line of approach of the Museum.
For this project Glithero has tried to find a modern interpretation of traditional techniques. How can old techniques be used in a modern way? How can unusual ideas, which cannot be realized in modern textile factories nowadays, be executed on a small scale?
From the multitude of old crafts Glithero have chosen that of the maker of music books for street organs, and of the weaver. There is a distinct connection between the two crafts: in either case the craftsman punches cards and these cards drive a machine. The designers have examined the possibility to use the pattern of an organ punch card as input for a loom. This way they aim to translate the know-how of one discipline to the other and weave street organ music in textile.
The exhibition not only includes the final products of the search – the table cloths and the scarves – but also shows the search itself: the exploratory expedition into the possibility to mutually translate know-how between the two crafts and use traditional techniques in a new way.