Poetic Emergences: Organisation through Textile and Code is a 4-day online Discussion Forum held on 16 – 19 April, 2021 that gathers the voices of local and international creative practitioners including weavers, programmers, philosophers and community workers to investigate the transformative processes of textile and code.

The interlacing of threads is akin to the sequencing of instructions; both are actions that transform information into the perceptible experiences of textile(s) and computer code respectively. Yet, what emerges are not only such material structures but also social organisations, such as the tailor and their clients, as well as the programmer and their users. These networks of human interactions are each imbued with unique histories, tensions and more importantly, the poetic possibility of shaping change.

The forum is a pre-event to the exhibition Interweaving Poetic Code (on view at CHAT in Hong Kong 1 May – 18 July, 2021) curated by CHAT’s Executive Director and Chief Curator Takahashi Mizuki with Taeyoon Choi as Artistic Director.

Keynote: Interweaving Poetic Code
Friday, 16 April, 9:00pm (Hong Kong, UTC+8), 9:00am (New York, UTC-4), 10:00pm (Seoul, UTC+9)
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New York- and Seoul-based artist and educator Taeyoon Choi and New York-based professor of media studies Alexander R. Galloway join to consider the common underpinnings of textile and code, including those of duality and opposition, from humans and machines to production and philosophy. How may these considerations supersede or sustain such binarisms? What alternative relations are possible? The conversation will be moderated by Amy K.S. Chan, Hong Kong-based professor and scholar researching on the intersections of technoscience and philosophy, as well as gender and literary studies.

Session 1: Care as Technology
Saturday, 17 April, 10:30am (Hong Kong, UTC+8)
Friday, 16 April, 9:30pm (Chicago, UTC-5)
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Chicago-based label Rebirth Garments (Sky Cubacub) and Hong Kong-based social enterprise Rhys (Ophelia Keung and Kadri Keung) create tailormade garments for marginalised bodies with care. Imbued in both practices are the respect, empathy and celebration of the stories, needs and intimate desires of the individual. Brenda Rodriguez Alegre, lecturer in gender studies at the University of Hong Kong, connects the experiences of the two to examine: How do textile technologies serve as media to express care and love for others?

Session 2: Metaphors of E-Textiles
Saturday, 17 April, 9:00pm (Hong Kong, UTC +8), 3:00pm (Munich, UTC+2), 7:00am (Boulder, UTC-6)
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Boulder-based artist Laura Devendorf and Munich-based scholar Annapurna Mamidipudi examine traditional weaving through technological lenses. Their deeply imaginative practices guided by research forge unique connections between the ancient craft of weaving to contemporary lived experiences. In the process, the two put weavers into dialogue with engineers. CHAT Assistant Curator Bruce Li moderates the discussion to ask: What can technology learn from the stories of weavers?

Session 3: Radical Re-Imaginings
Sunday, 18 April, 12:00pm (Hong Kong, UTC +8), 12:00am (New York, UTC-4)
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Hong Kong-based entrepreneur Innocent Mutanga and New York-based artist and cultural worker Zainab Aliyu reveal in their practices the often concealed social structures of control and governance. Mutanga and Aliyu respond, resist and advocate through diverse methods including social organisation and research in their respective fields of finance and art. Chantal Wong, Director of Culture at Eaton Workshop Hong Kong, moderates to consider what futures are re-imagined by their radical practices.

Session 4: Networks and Restorations
Sunday, 18 April, 9:00pm (Hong Kong, UTC +8), 9:00am (Montreal, UTC-4)
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Hong Kong-based artist and social activist Mok Chiu Yu and Montreal-based Inuk artist Asinnajaq are creative practitioners working with community members in their complex localities. For both, art-making against contested backdrops calls for unique engagements with those underrepresented around us. CHAT Assistant Curator Eugenia Law moderates the discussion to question: What is the role of art in building networks of mutual aid for communities?

Session 5: Short Circuiting Textiles
Monday, 19 April, 9:00pm (Hong Kong, UTC +8), 3:00pm (Berlin, UTC+2), 8:00am (Mexico City, UTC-5)
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Berlin-based collective KOBAKANT (Satomi Mika and Hannah Perner-Wilson) and Mexico City-based artist Amor Munoz inject poetry and play into their textile-based practices, often softening the boundaries between an artistic project, social mediation, a workshop for profit and conventional community engagement. CHAT’s Executive Director and Chief Curator Takahashi Mizuki moderates to ask: What is revealed about prevailing systems through alternative modes of making?