The production and marketing of baskets in the Mammoth Cave area of Kentucky from 1880 to the present is observed in light of the cultural, technical, aesthetic, ad traditional aspects involved. The process of making a white oak ribbed basket is documented, as well as the technical and aesthetic variables from which the basket maker renders his product. The changing role of social organization and communication in the production and marketing of a traditional craft objects is also considered.

The artist discusses the work in DollHouse, her Master of Fine Arts exhibition on display at Tipton Gallery, Johnson City, Tennessee from January 25 to February 5, 2016. The exhibition was an installation consisting of five sets, each containing furniture - both 2D and 3D - and a mask with instructions relating to a room found within a dollhouse. The sets and supporting thesis explore the ideas of social norms, feminism, and identity, and how submission to ideologies can create emptiness, while engagement can prompt social change. Topics include the process and evolution of the work and the artists who influenced it, ideas of identity and society, and the impacts of social norms on young women’s lives. Included is a catalogue of the exhibition.

This thesis is in support of the exhibition entitled ES-SEN-TIAL on display in Tipton Gallery located in Downtown Johnson City from February 27, 2017 to March 10, 2017. The exhibition is a presentation in fiber medium of the human impact on the landscape, specifically using the extractive industry of coal mining as example. This is accomplished through the use of digital imagery printed on textiles, hand and machine embroidery, and surface design techniques of dyeing and layering. This body of work reflects the artist’s interest in art activism and the utilization of photography, fiber arts, ideas and techniques, as creative process to formally explore the landscape.

Le présent travail de thèse a pour but d'automatiser la détection des défauts de tissage, à l'aide d'un système informatisé fondé sur le traitement d'image. La structure du tissu, de par sa fabrication, est périodique par répétition de l'armure (dessin d'entrecroisement). L'apparition d'un défaut dans le tissu entraîne la destruction de cette périodicité. de ce fait, le défaut de tissage peut être détecté par la surveillance en continu de la structure du tissu pendant le tissage. Dans notre travail, les techniques de transformée rapide de Fourier et la corrélation croisée sont d'abord mises en œuvre, afin d'examiner les caractéristiques de régularité de la structure de l'image du tissu dans le domaine fréquentiel. Dans un deuxième temps, afin d'améliorer l'efficacité de la technique et d'éviter le problème d'erreur de détection, une opération de seuillage a été implémentée en utilisant un filtre de sélection de niveau. Au moyen de ce filtre, la technique mise en place est capable de détecter uniquement les défauts réels et de mettre en évidence leurs dimensions exactes. L'ensemble de cette procédure a été implémentée au moyen du progiciel Matlab ou Scilab. Puis l'ensemble des procédures a été mis en œuvre sur un tissu simulé, afin de comprendre le comportement du spectre de fréquences, de déterminer et d'optimiser les paramètres de détection les plus importants. Dans toutes ces procédures, le niveau de bruit a bien sûr été pris en compte. L'efficacité des procédures ayant été testée sur des tissus simulés dans un premier temps, elles ont été appliquées aux tissus sortant de machines à tisser. Ainsi, des échantillons contenant divers défauts ainsi que des échantillons écrus, unis ou de diverses couleurs ont pu être testés. Les techniques proposées ont aussi dans ces divers cas montré leur efficacité. En conclusion, un prototype fondé sur un dispositif de vision pour l'inspection des tissus sur métier à tisser en temps réel est proposé. / The purpose of this thesis is to automate the online detection of weaving defects by a computerized system based on image processing software. Obviously, fabric inspection has an importance to prevent risk of delivering inferior quality product. Until recently, the visual defect detection is still under taken offline and manually by humans with many drawbacks such as tiredness, boredom, and, inattentiveness. Fortunately, the continuous development in computer technology introduces the online automated fabric inspection as an effective alternative. Because the defect-free fabric has a periodic regular structure, the occurrence of a defect in the fabric breaks the regular structure. Therefore, the fabric defects can be detected by monitoring fabric structure. In our work, Fast Fourier Transform and Cross-correlation techniques, i.e. linear operations, are first implemented to examine the structure regularity features of the fabric image in the frequency domain. To improve the efficiency of the technique and overcome the problem of detection errors, further thresholding operation is implemented using a level selection filter. Through this filter, the technique is able to detect only the actual or real defects and highlight their exact dimensions. A software package such as Matlab or Scilab is used for this procedure. It is implemented firstly on a simulated plain fabric to determine the most important parameters during the process of defect detection and then to optimize each of them even considering noise. To verify the success of the technique, it is implemented on real plain fabric samples with different colours containing various defects. Finally, a vision-based fabric inspection prototype that could be accomplished on-loom to inspect the fabric under construction with 100% coverage is proposed.

Un tissu classique est réalisé par l’entrecroisement de 2 réseaux de fils (appelé armure), un longitudinal, la chaîne et un transversal, la trame. L’introduction des tissus dans les applications techniques a nécessité le développement de réseaux de fils beaucoup plus complexes permettant la réalisation d’entrecroisement en 3D. Toutefois, ces tissus complexes ne sont constitués que de fils textiles de même nature. Dans un futur proche, il sera nécessaire d’entrecroiser d’une part des fils textiles, mais aussi d’autres éléments tels que des capteurs, des tubes d’alimentation liquide, des fils électriques ou tout autre objet. Le but de notre travail est de développer un nouveau concept de machine pouvant répondre à ces nouvelles exigences. Dans le cadre du développement d’un nouveau concept de tissage, nous souhaitons mettre en mouvement les divers mécanismes de la machine à tisser de manière indépendante et remplacer la synchronisation mécanique de ces mécanismes, par une synchronisation électronique. Ce nouveau type de synchronisation permettra de « déstructurer » l’horloge de tissage et ainsi apporter de nouvelles fonctions. La réalisation de cette nouvelle machine a conduit à la conception d’une partie mécanique et d’une partie électronique.L'automatisation développée lors de la réalisation de cette machine est fondée sur la mise en place d'une structure avancée d'automatisation, constituée d’un contrôleur de mouvement, d’un IHM, d’une automate déporté, connectés sur un bus de terrain CANmotion, essayant de répondre au mieux aux besoins des utilisateurs. La flexibilité et la synchronisation électronique présente dans cette machine architecturée autour de cames électroniques, sont les points forts, et laisse la porte ouverte à l'utilisation de cette machine pour de nouvelles applications. En particulier la réalisation de tissus multicouches hybrides complexes. / Woven fabric is basically produced by interlacing two set of threads, warp yarns, or ends, which run lengthwise in the fabric and the filling yarns (weft), or picks, which run from side to side. The traditional system of ends and picks interlacing is identified as a two dimensional weave or pattern. Involving woven fabrics into technical applications require the evolution of advanced patterns in which ends and picks can be interlaced to build a 3D woven fabric. Moreover, these advanced patterns can allow the integration of new elements other than textile yarns such as sensors, liquid-feeding tubes, electric wires, etc. The goal of this study is to develop a new concept of weaving machine that fill these requirements by moving the various mechanisms of weaving machine independently and replacing the mechanical synchronization by an electronic one. Such a new synchronization will take the timing diagram apart and thus to bring new functions. The new concept of the weaving machine lies on two parts; a mechanical part and an electronic part. The developed automation for this new concept is based on an advanced automation structure. This structure is composed of motion controller, IHM, a distance PLC connected to a CANmotion bus to meet the user's needs, this new concept of weaving machine based on electronic cams which is one of the strongest point. This new machine electronically synchronized allows a great flexibility and gives a great opportunity to develop a wide range of new woven fabric structures

As the world shifts and changes, so do its people, and every day, more refugees are forced out-of-place, out of their homelands, and into a foreign and unfamiliar context. Many of these refugees are women, single mothers, who along with their children, are set to face many challenges in the process of re-settling into a new cultural landscape. This project is a study on how the design of an interior can aid in the difficult process of transitioning between lands and cultures. Within it, I explore the making of place through the design of a transitional residence for women and children refugees, set within the dynamic urban landscape of West Broadway in Winnipeg, Manitoba. I proceed through this project through an exploration of four conceptual frameworks and examine the project and its users in relation to movement and migration, to boundaries, to the contact zone, and finally to weaving.

In the UNDP Report of 2008, promotion of gender equality and women empowerment, Millennium Development Goal (MDG3), has been declared not only as the main developmental objective but also a fundamental mode of attaining the entire MDGs. This study examines women’s experiences of economic empowerment projects in the era of escalating female household heading and relentless poverty in Lesotho. It particularly focuses on women participating in crafts projects initiated for income generation, in the context of gendered spaces. A growing body of literature asserts that Women Economic Empowerment (WEE) is a potential route out of abject poverty, especially for the economically marginalised women in Female- Headed Households (FHH). A case study focusing on women participants in Teya-teyaneng crafts of Berea district in Lesotho was carried out. Semi-structured interviews were employed to explore the potential of participation to yield positively for empowerment in the scenario of informal economy. Findings from the two units within the single case utilised revealed that empowerment remains to be one of the entangled processes of economic development. It is highly subjected to social, political and economic procedures operating in a country. The study further revealed that economic empowerment of women participating in income generating projects is considerably constrained by the patriarchal and globalised economic set ups that women operate within. The case of Elelloang Basali illuminated that adherence to contemporary strategies of economic empowerment is a beneficial ingredient, contrary to the operations of Setsoto Design. Recommendations ultimately forwarded highlight the significance of macro-economic policy to pay attention to the assertion that WEE is not merely a path out of poverty but an intrinsic entity of employment-led-growth. This also hints on policy for broad-based growth that can be countercyclical for the economy of the country. The paper serves to articulate a dire need for shift from reluctance to responsiveness for those with political and economic will power. / Thesis (M.Dev.Studies)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

Ce mémoire de maîtrise en recherche-création explore les modalités d’intégration d’éléments défiant, dans les romans dits hybrides, les conventions visuelles de la majeure partie du texte et participant à la construction du sens. Le poids de l’oiseau sur la vitre est un récit hybride qui suit le parcours d’une vieille femme revisitant un fragment du journal intime de sa jeunesse, écrit – ou imaginé – après la perte de son bébé. Un parcours qui est une seconde fuite car au fil des corrections et de la reconstruction du texte, elle tombe à nouveau dans le piège du mensonge. Confrontée à une surenchère du faux, elle réalisera que cette habitude de considérer la fiction comme un refuge équivaut à rester infidèle au passé, et ultimement à soi. L’essai associe Blankets de Craig Thompson, roman graphique au style composite, au roman hybride, et se consacre à l’étude de ses pages visuellement atypiques, cherchant à déterminer comment elles parviennent, malgré leur aspect divergent, à renforcer la cohésion et le caractère immersif de l’œuvre. / This practice-led M.A. thesis explores how in hybrid novels, the integration of elements defying the visual conventions of the majority of the text participate to their construction of meaning. In the hybrid narrative Le poids de l’oiseau sur la vitre, an elderly woman revisits her diary, written – or imagined – decades ago to shield her from the reality of her infant son’s death. At first intent on restoring the truth, she soon falls, through the many corrections she brings to the original text and her reconstruction of the book, into her habit of tweaking facts, realizing at last that giving in to this spiral of lies means cheating herself from the past and, ultimately, her future. The following essay likens Craig Thompson’s Blankets, a graphic novel whose structure dynamics are based upon the use of different styles and page layouts, to hybrid novels, and studies its most visually striking pages to determine how, despite their distinctive appearance, they enhance the novel’s cohesion and make it more immersive. / Le mémoire original s'accompagnait en annexe du livre-objet Le poids de l'oiseau sur la vitre.

As the world shifts and changes, so do its people, and every day, more refugees are forced out-of-place, out of their homelands, and into a foreign and unfamiliar context. Many of these refugees are women, single mothers, who along with their children, are set to face many challenges in the process of re-settling into a new cultural landscape. This project is a study on how the design of an interior can aid in the difficult process of transitioning between lands and cultures. Within it, I explore the making of place through the design of a transitional residence for women and children refugees, set within the dynamic urban landscape of West Broadway in Winnipeg, Manitoba. I proceed through this project through an exploration of four conceptual frameworks and examine the project and its users in relation to movement and migration, to boundaries, to the contact zone, and finally to weaving.

Dafeng fue una fábrica china pionera en la fabricación y apresto de bienes de algodón industriales. La primera industrialización de China, donde cabe ubicar Dafeng, es un hecho histórico que empezó a mediados del siglo XIX y acabó en los años cincuenta del siglo siguiente. Ubicada en Shanghai, Dafeng es representativa de este acontecimiento, muy concentrado en el sector algodonero y en la región del delta del Yangzi. En China, el desarrollo de la industrialización tuvo sus fortalezas y sus debilidades. Sin embargo, los intentos de China de alcanzar a las economías industriales occidentales fueron en vano. Sirviéndose del caso particular de la empresa Dafeng, la presente investigación pretende examinar las continuidades y rupturas que produjo la industrialización en China. / Dafeng was a pioneer in the industrial production of finished cotton fabrics in China. Located in Shanghai, it played a leading role in the first industrialization of China, a historical process that was strongly focused in the cotton sector and highly concentrated in the Yangzi Delta. Starting in the mid XIXth Century, the first industrialization of China ended in the 1950s and had its strengths and its weaknesses. However, Chinese attempts to reach industrialized countries in that period were in vain. Using a particular case, the company Dafeng, the present research aims to contextualize and examine the continuities and breakdowns of Chinese industrialization.