Needles to Say: Women Quilters’ Narratives from the Past, Present and Future with the Coming of Creative Technology for Creative Industries in India

• Published in: Interactive Film & Media Journal 2023-06, Vol.3 (2)
• Main Author: Gowda, Anupama
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2564-4173; 2564-4173
• DOI: 10.32920/ifmj.v3i2.1737

Story telling and informal learning is passed down generations and has been recognized as the best approach for human evolution and development. Its efficient process has made its impact and has demonstrated its benefits scientifically at the DNA level. There are scientific publications that attribute human evolution to this DNA based memory, making humans thrive on this planet as dominant species with emotions and care. One such form of storytelling and informal learning is folk quilting which has an extensive history. The power of storytelling and informal learning over generations helped quilters acquire their sense of identity, belonging with a deep sense of felt values. Every patch in a quilt is a story to say invoking memories presenting a living tradition in the folk world. The story of quilts are not just personal appeal to those who stitch but symbol of care, comfort, and inspiration to their loved ones and to those who eventually own them. Community of collaborative quilters within families and guild collectives resonate to social values; patience, connectedness and expression that are central to the form. Hybrid networks of quilting communities in developed countries maintain integrity of social values different from that of traditional folk quilters in developing countries due to the very nature of digital accessibility. With the growing global market, native folk quilters are approached by the creative industries with a certain sense of urgency. Creative technological tools are introduced to meet the demand for increased production. With market driven production, care and collaboration are in question. To top it all, as digital immigrants, traditional folk quilters struggle with technological adoption as they are already threatened to survive and sustain the purity of the indigenous form. They now are further challenged to impart their sense of effective passing down of traditions to their younger generation with the care different from their own. Adopting technology on their own terms is no easy feat, as makers of technology don’t necessarily see folk artists as their primary users. As part of my research into creative technology influencing quilters, I hope to draw on transdisciplinary methodologies ranging from textual analysis of case studies from India and North American folk art history, folk feminist ethnography, cultural studies, ethno-mathematics and digital fabrication. I will be interviewing folk quilters, quilt guilds, artists, des