Methodology of Knotting

My methodological approach is one of art education research within studio practice, craft history, and teacher action research. I plan to work with local schools and community organizations with which I have professional relationships as a new assistant professor of Art Education. This would include New York schools in Long Island and the New York City metropolitan area. I will volunteer as a teaching artist in these schools. Preliminary materials lists include recycled fiber and fabric as well as cords, wires, threads, fibers, and other materials for knotting. The content of my “Knot Curriculum” would include exploring different materials, techniques, and rituals/processes of knotting as well as some discussion of histories of knots, uses of knots, recent related fiber art through such artist groups as the International Fiber Collaborative. I also envision this curriculum as a general investigation of the educational importance of the associative, discursive, and analytical nature of such public artworks. In this way, knotting itself is a sort of methodological approach, and can serve as a conceptual and visual metaphor for connections and ties between subjects in arts research.

Introduction: Knot Curriculum

My proposal is entitled “Knots: Not for Naught.” This studio art and art education project seeks to explore and catalogue the rich traditions of knots and knotting with various fiber materials. I envision this as a public art and art education project, involving both my own studio practice and work with school students and community members in an exploration of many different types, contexts, and materials of knotting. I will invite others to explore the rich sensory experience of interlacing, twining, looping, and pulling involved in the craft of knots to form a rich visual network of multiple knots on a large scale. I believe that this research release program for a semester course is suited well to the scope and components of this project.

Knotting uniquely affects and engages us as a craft technique; for unlike sewing, knitting, and crochet - knots are completed solely by the hand as a tool, and are a democratic (and perhaps even quintessential) unit of creation that nearly everyone can do. Knotting can be both connective and isolative: we can knot two materials together, or tie up one strand in a knot so that parts are enclosed, invisible, and more compact. Knotting has rich cultural traditions from scouting activities for children to classic and contemporary knotting traditions across cultures. Knotting in proliferation (as I intend to collaboratively do through this research release program) can also contribute intricate and patterned artistic products. A partial list of associations which I plan to continuously research and explore in my own artwork and writing includes: knot as nautical measurement, sailors’ knots, fishing knots, love knots, forget-me-nots, Celtic knots, friendship bracelets, groups of people, knots of wood and muscle, knots and being knotted up as indicative of worry, knots as rescue and safety devices, necktie knots, knotted hair, knot theory in mathematics, software knots, shoe tying, knotting between mala beads, surgeon’s knot, the Red Knot, knots in jewelry-making, French knots, and themes and popular sayings like “tying the knot.” I will explore many various kinds of basic and advanced knotting techniques, such as these:

http://www.tollesburysc.co.uk/Knots/Knots_gallery.htm