Textile semantics: Perception and memory

Individual memory is built from many facets, mediated through different communication channels it incorporates perceptions transmitted from those with whom we have formative and on-going relationships, and the shared experiences (real, virtual or hyper-real) that form our collective cultural memory. Erll (2008) notes that the material (artefacts, media), the social (people, social relations, institutions), and the cognitive (culturally defined ways of thinking) contribute to the formation of cultural memory. Viewer interpretations of textiles and the context in which they are used or viewed, are informed by both individual memory and shared cultural memory, which act as triggers for the generation of shared perceptions that in semiotic terms reveal dominant cultural codes of meaning.