As mentioned yesterday, I am currently working on a commission for The Museum of Oxford called The Fabric of Oxford. The project is part of the Museum’s 40th anniversary celebrations and some of the KNITSONIK activities will be running alongside those of the Museum.
For instance on Saturday the 20th June from 11am – 4pm I shall be joining my comrades at the Museum for a Collection day. At this event folk can drop in with significant objects relating in some way to the last 40 years of Oxford’s history. The object(s) can relate in any way to Oxford’s history – it’s really broad – and the Museum are setting up ways of digitising and documenting them all. As you can imagine, I shall be there especially to document textile objects.
Help KNITSONIK find The Fabric of Oxford!
Bring along textile objects – clothes, tablecloths, rugs, blankets – which relate in some way to the last 40 years in Oxford. From a hat worn at a graduation ball to a May Day parade costume to a Witney blanket to a repaired pillowcase to a knitted scarf, this item can be anything textile-related as long as it was bought, made, worn and/or repaired in the city of Oxford. KNITSONIK will record your story and digitise your object to share with visitors to museum galleries and users online. Your stories and memories make up Oxford’s history… help bring that history alive by sharing your textile objects and their stories. Some of the objects will be included in a special commemorative performance and installation in December. Just drop in with your textiles and their tales…
I shall be at the Museum of Oxford all day with my trusty microphones and SLR camera; if you are going to come it would be brilliant to hear from you beforehand. I am very excited to see what folks bring and to find ways of sharing and celebrating the textiles that make up The Fabric of Oxford.
By way of an object to have digitised in the collection of The Museum of Oxford, I think I might bring the blanket which my amazing comrades in The Oxford Bluestockings made before my foot surgery in 2008; it is a superlative artefact speaking to the ingenuity and kindness of The Oxford Bluestockings and it was made in Oxford and used as a daily source of comfort during my stay at the Nuffield Orthopedic Centre; in terms of sounds to go with it, well, there is the story, the sound of the knitting itself, and the ambience of the Royal Oak Pub in which these amazing knitters still meet every Wednesday evening.