How Textile Communicates

Textile has been used as a medium of communication since the prehistoric period. Up until the 19th century, civilizations throughout the world manipulated thread and fabric to communicate in a way that would astound many of us now. Unlike text and images, textile is haptic and three-dimensional. Its meaning is unfixed, constantly shifting as it circulates between different owners and creators. In How Textile Communicates, Ganaele Langlois dissects textile's unique capacity for communication through a range of global case studies, before examining the profound impact of colonialism on textile practice and the appropriation of this medium by capitalist systems. A thought-provoking contribution to the fields of both fashion and communication studies, Langlois' writing challenges readers' preconceptions and shines new light on the profound impact of textiles on human communication.

Ganaele Langlois is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication and Media Studies at York University, Canada.

Introduction: Textile as Communication Winding Back Textile as a Medium Textile Making as Mediating Textile Making and Power Decolonizing Media and Communication Book Overview Part 1: Communicative Power 1. Unraveling Textile from Commodity to Communication A Plural Medium Textile as Communication Medium: Historical Pointers Two Common Understandings of Communication through Textile: as Representation and Information Towards a Third Aspect: textile as binding worlds through space and time Global Textile, or Communication as Expressive Power Textile, a Medium of Struggle 2. Quechua Textility Pre-Columbian Textiles: Media and Power Indigenous Identities in Contemporary Peru The Revival of Quechua Textiles Confronting Appropriation Part 2: Technology and Imagination 3. Jacquard and the Creativity of Extensions The Jacquard Mechanism, Automation and Digital Media Weaving Digital Images Weaving as Extension 4. Communicating Across the Abyss Of the Meanings, Symbols and Patterns in Diasporic Textile Mathematics, Rhythms and Signs The Values of Making Part 3: Transformative Entanglements 5. Reweaving the Interface Domestic Textiles and Power Marking Subjects Reading through the Lines: The Evanescent Maker Portable Technologies of Making "Where Am I going?": Creative Meandering 6. Kené, or the Promise of Unknowing Shipibo-Conibo Textiles and Perspectival Anthropology Kené in the Global Market Delineating the Space of Unknowing and Potentials Back to the Basics Part 4: Cosmomedia 7. Cosmomedia - the Tale of Two Indigos Cosmotechnics and Ecosophical Media Combinations and Recombinations: Indigo dyeing and the making of worlds Colonizing Indigo Indigo and Collectives of Humans and Non-Humans Japanese Indigo and Natural Dyes as Cosmomedia Conclusion: The Shape of Things to Come