Not too long ago I had the privilege of attending a guest lecture by Dr. Veronika Irvine – a computer scientist and fiber artist. At Evergreen, students have the opportunity to attend lectures by candidates for teaching positions at the school and to provide feedback as to whether or not we believe the candidate would be a good fit for the academic style of Evergreen. It’s pretty rare that you get to have such an important voice in the hiring process of your school, so I always feel honored to be able to participate. As a student currently researching traditional vs. industrial methods of textile production, I was really excited to have the opportunity to go listen to a lecture so relevant to my current academic interests right at Evergreen!

Example of bobbin lace created by Dr. Irvine.

This particular lecture was incredibly intriguing and even more relevant to what I am studying than I originally anticipated. Dr. Irvine gave a brief history of bobbin lace and the significance of it’s versatility as well as it’s difference from traditional weaving methods which proved to be very useful to my deciphering the different textile practices.

Her main point of the lecture was to explain how she has successfully “coded” the pattern of antique bobbin lace and passed around examples of her own work. This is a particularly important accomplishment because she mentioned the fact that there are only a few hundred fiber artists who can still create bobbin lace alive today – largely due to the mechanization of textile production. So, the ability to record a patter to do so is crucial to keeping the art alive.

Coding example with the pattern it creates.

I was really surprised by the complexity associated with creating designs through weaving and other production methods I have been observing and the comparative simplicity of lace making. It’s quite easy to think of textile crafts and mathematics/computers as mutually exclusive entities – a point that Evergreen tries hard to make clear. When you really look at the mechanics behind those crafts, it’s very obvious that textiles are, in fact, their own form of mathematics. With this knowledge it’s suddenly easy to understand why and how that particular craft was industrialized so quickly as well as how the knowledge behind how things have been made in the past in fading at a rapid pace.

I’m really excited at the prospect of having a professor that will be able to integrate traditional fiber arts with modern-day computer science and look forward to the different kinds of programs she could potentially teach.