Date of Award

Spring 5-31-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Department

Textiles

First Advisor

Anna Gitelson-Kahn

Second Advisor

Brooks Hagan

Third Advisor

Max Pratt

Abstract

We have grown accustomed to living in flux—moving between cities, countries, languages, and digital spaces. Life no longer unfolds in a straight line, but in fragments and transitions, never quite settling. In this restless rhythm—shaped by fast trains, shifting skies, and the invisible current of the internet—we find ourselves suspended in a vast, woven network. Connection is constant, yet motion is unrelenting.

This project begins with a question: how can textiles reflect this state of in-between? I imagine textiles not as fixed surfaces, but as responsive skins—adaptive, expressive, and attuned to change. Inspired by the tensions of contemporary life—surveillance, shrinking privacy, the demand to move and transform—I create foldable textile structures that shift form and appearance in response to their environment.

These textiles do not stay still. Their patterns shimmer; their folds breathe. Their surfaces disguise or reveal, depending on how they are worn or seen. Some distort the body’s outline; others reflect light to confuse recognition. They offer not only protection, but a quiet camouflage—tools for navigating a world in motion, where softness and flexibility are forms of strength, and transformation a quiet act of resistance.

The project draws inspiration from the natural world and examines the mechanisms behind natural pattern formation, integrating bio-inspired structures that can transform and adapt. These elements are then reinterpreted in the context of contemporary urban environments, offering dynamic visual and tactile experiences through folding and transformation.

By integrating material experimentation, innovative folding structures, and abstract cityscape-inspired patterns, this project offers a fresh approach to how textiles engage with space and the human body with innovative materials and structures.

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