Pattern is a familiar concept ever present in our daily lives, existing in many material forms, observable in varied states, and able to be created from a diverse range of processes and events. Natural pattern forms, such as biological and chemical patterns, have been extensively studied, often within the digital environment because of its capacity to process large amounts of data which aids investigation of not only their characteristics but their potentiality. However, human designed physical patterns, while having been investigated extensively in terms of their historical, geographic and cultural significance and their aesthetic and/or mathematical characteristics, have not been fully investigated in terms of their evolutionary potential. This project explores one example of human designed physical patterns, crochet lace patterns ??? which have remained largely stable and consistent throughout various technological transformations such as the industrial revolution ??? in order to explore pattern as a process and investigate the potential for these patterns to become emergent. This exploration translated the patterns into the digital environment where, as data, the patterns become available for manipulation using a generative art practice approach. By translating the patterns into a digital environment and engaging with the pattern forms at their systematic core, where crochet pattern instructions and software programming scripts operate similarly as ???code???, this research provided a deeper understanding of the patterns and allowed exploration of whether a pattern???s developmental path can be altered to create new emergent patterns. This research draws on systems theory and systems aesthetics and their application within contemporary generative art practice and informs visual arts in several areas including showing how aesthetic values shift as work becomes cross-disciplinary and enters the digital environment, and how the introduction and location of innovation affects the relationship between the original and its copy.

Pattern is a familiar concept ever present in our daily lives, existing in many material forms, observable in varied states, and able to be created from a diverse range of processes and events. Natural pattern forms, such as biological and chemical patterns, have been extensively studied, often within the digital environment because of its capacity to process large amounts of data which aids investigation of not only their characteristics but their potentiality. However, human designed physical patterns, while having been investigated extensively in terms of their historical, geographic and cultural significance and their aesthetic and/or mathematical characteristics, have not been fully investigated in terms of their evolutionary potential. This project explores one example of human designed physical patterns, crochet lace patterns ??? which have remained largely stable and consistent throughout various technological transformations such as the industrial revolution ??? in order to explore pattern as a process and investigate the potential for these patterns to become emergent. This exploration translated the patterns into the digital environment where, as data, the patterns become available for manipulation using a generative art practice approach. By translating the patterns into a digital environment and engaging with the pattern forms at their systematic core, where crochet pattern instructions and software programming scripts operate similarly as ???code???, this research provided a deeper understanding of the patterns and allowed exploration of whether a pattern???s developmental path can be altered to create new emergent patterns. This research draws on systems theory and systems aesthetics and their application within contemporary generative art practice and informs visual arts in several areas including showing how aesthetic values shift as work becomes cross-disciplinary and enters the digital environment, and how the introduction and location of innovation affects the relationship between the original and its copy.

M.Tech. / In this research, I examine whether cultural meanings embedded in original sixteenth to eighteenth century Dutch lace and Shweshwe fabric, as examples of colonial forms, are transformed through selected processes. With reference to Dutch lace from Holland, I analyse how the form changes within colonial and post-colonial contexts, but propose that the cultural meanings of the lace remain similar in both contexts. With reference to Shweshwe fabric, I argue that the form stays the same within both colonial and post-colonial contexts, but that its cultural meaning changes as a result of how patterns printed on it are named and identified in a post-colonial context. In this research, I use the term ‘cultural meaning’ to refer to certain signifiers of culture. I propose that factors such as value, class, aspiration, desire and consumption are embedded in or make cultural meaning. My central argument proposes that crocheted doilies, and plastic tablecloths and placemats might be seen as post-colonial versions of Dutch lace. These post-colonial versions of Dutch lace are adopted and adapted by female homemakers in Naledi Ext. 2 to suit certain decorative tastes, values, aspirations and act as markers of class. This adoption and adaptation of the original colonial form, shifts the cultural meanings imbued within it, but not necessarily the associated consumptive meanings. Whilst the primary focus of the theoretical research is Dutch lace and its proposed post-colonial counterparts, I also examine examples of original Shweshwe fabric and how meanings of motifs found on this fabric have been transformed by the modern Mosotho to reflect notions of value and aspiration, whilst the actual motifs appear to be unchanged. In my practical work, I use Dutch lace, crocheted doilies, and plastic tablecloths and placemats, as well as Shweshwe fabric as visual references in the production of large to small scale paintings. In these, I explore how, through painterly alteration and transformation, shifts can occur in the meanings of patterns derived from these culturally-loaded sources.

The purposes of the study were to identify laces located on the fifteen white dresses worn between 1900 and 1922. The dresses selected for study were chosen from the Dallas Fashion Museum located at North Texas State University. All laces were identified and the history of each lace was traced.

This dissertation presents an anthropological research about ´´Renda Irlandesa``(Irish Lace) Sergipe´s handicraft that had its modi faciendi registered as National Intangible Cultural Heritage, in the Book of Knowledge, in November 2008 - in an approach that introduces new directions for addressing production, marketing and use, resulting from its interaction with the fashion market. The research focuses on a new approach that tends to treat consumption as a matter of culture, analyzing the emergence of new attitudes assumed by artisans in the ´´know-how Renda Irlandesa`` amid the demands of the fashion market linked to women´s clothing, which provide potential use of formulating handmade garments. It highlights the processes of the cultural heritage exerted by the female artisans in their know-how and shape the cultural heritage of handicrafts, emphasizing its role as a complementary source of income for the protagonists of the practice. Finally, we discuss the new mechanisms of representation made by social workers from the symbolic consumption of cultural heritage. / O presente trabalho apresenta uma investigação antropológica sobre a renda irlandesa artesanato sergipano que teve seu modo de fazer registrado como Patrimônio Cultural Imaterial Nacional, no Livro de Registro dos Saberes, em novembro de 2008 em suas novas instruções de produção, comercialização e uso, advindas das interações com o mercado de moda. A pesquisa privilegia uma nova abordagem sobre a Renda, tratando-a a partir de seu consumo como uma questão de cultura, para analisar o advento das novas atitudes assumidas pelas artesãs no saber fazer , em meio às demandas do mercado de moda ligadas ao vestuário feminino, que prevêem a potencialidade do uso de motivos artesanais na formulação de vestimentas. Evidencia ainda os processos de herança cultural exercidos pelas artesãs em seu ofício e que configuram a patrimonialidade do artesanato, destacando seu papel enquanto fonte complementar de ganho para as protagonistas da prática. Por fim, discute os novos mecanismos de representação assumidos pelos agentes sociais a partir do consumo simbólico da patrimonialidade.