Textile Testimonies: Feminist Sonic Practices with Domestic Instruments

Jocelyn Ho (University of Sydney)*; Margaret Schedel (Stony Brook University); Sofy Yuditskaya (Pôle Universitaire Léonard de Vinci)

Textile Testimonies: Feminist Sonic Practices with Domestic Instruments
Image credit: Jocelyn Ho (University of Sydney)*; Margaret Schedel (Stony Brook University); Sofy Yuditskaya (Pôle Universitaire Léonard de Vinci)
  • The registration for this workshop is managed by the workshop chairs. A sign-up form will be circulated in late May
  • Type: In person
  • Room Location: 207
  • Afternoon (2pm-6pm)
  • Signup Deadline: June 19th AoE (first-come first-served)
  • Contact Email: here

Abstract:

Across cultures, domestic labor remains disproportionately carried out by women, yet it is frequently invisible and undervalued. Developed within the Women’s Labor project, the Textile Testimonies workshop addresses this issue by using NIME as a vehicle for community research, bringing together experimental musical interface design and participatory social research methods.

In the workshop, participants interact with two NIMEs designed to translate textile manipulation and domestic gestures into sound—the Embedded Iron and the EM Embroidery Lo͞o͞o͞p and Ho͞o͞p. Embedded Iron is an embedded acoustic instrument that captures ironing gestures using LiDAR and ultrasonic sensing, combined with spectroscopy and machine learning that detects color and texture. EM Embroidery Lo͞o͞o͞p and Ho͞o͞o͞p uses an Arduino-based capacitive and electromagnetic sensing system in which conductive textile elements act as antenna interfaces controlling pitch and amplitude through proximity and touch.

In the first half of the workshop, participants engage in the Story Circle method, sharing experiences of domestic labour through structured collective storytelling. Participants then translate these narratives onto fabric banners in a new Banner-Voice method, adapted from Photovoice method. When performed on the instruments, these banners function as interactive textile scores, whose colour, texture, and conductivity shape the sonic behaviour. The workshop culminates in a co-created participatory performance with the textile scores. The resulting artifacts form part of the ongoing Women’s Labor Living Archive, a collection of performable textile interfaces used in installations and performances. By combining experimental instrument design, textile materiality, and participatory research, Textile Testimonies proposes a model of intersecting socially situated and community-engaged feminist NIME practice.