Introduction: Textile Intersections - Textile Discipline at Cross-Roads

Abstract

Multidisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity and trans-disciplinarity (Nimkulrat et al. 2020) are frequently-courted concepts testifying to the high level of specialisation of scientific research and of the need to work collaboratively. These connections can be interpreted as an aspect of the interdependencies between science and technology (what is commonly known as “technosciences”) which are often realized as collaborations between different specialists and institutional structures. If “technoscientific productivity” (Klein 2005) relates to an empiric epistemic model in which there is a prevalence of “techne” (doing) over “episteme” (knowing), the “science in action” perspective advanced by Bruno Latour (Latour 1999) translates the way science is done today in both its instrumental and institutional reality, as opposed to science idealist constructions. In an age in which the idea of expertise is challenged (Latour 2014), concepts such as interdisciplinarity and multidisciplinarity are to be addressed with even more consideration. Design as a science between scales (Heinzel and Hinestroza 2020) is dependent on both: the tools used in the measurement, the visualisation and the treatment of the material world, as on the (participatory) tools to understand and to represent the social phenomena. As a constructivist discipline, design has to deal not only with the analysis and the understanding of different natural phenomena, but has to take into account the possible impact of design interventions on everybody and everyday life. The high degree of Tincuţa Heinzel is an artist, designer and researcher with a background in visual arts, design and cultural anthropology. Her artistic production makes use of electronic textiles, digital and interactive media and engages the ways in which techniques can be diverted in order to bring into the light their potentialities. Her research focuses on the impact of material turn in design and the new forms of industry. She initiated, curated, and / or coordinated several projects, such as “Artists in Industry” (Bucharest, 2011–2013), “Haptosonics” (Oslo, 2013) and “Attempts, Failures, Trials and Errors” (Bergen Bucharest, 2017-1018). She is presently a Senior Lecturer at Loughborough University (UK). Additional information can be found at: www. textiltronics.com.