Encoded Cloth – Alina + Michael

Our intent –
Through our encoded cloth, quilting is used as a type of stream of consciousness making – upon which we are inscribing a sort of shared narrative of our bodies across space. The quilt, through this additive mark-making and stuffing process, becomes representative of the body itself.

It tells the story of our bodies through three stages – 1) the physical and trauma-based stressors formed by and producing anxiety throughout our days, 2) the state of our bodies in forced stasis, our work state that as architecture thesis students is dominated by the theoretical space surrounding us, and 3) the moment of absolute state of rest and decompression.
Our block print is representative of a nerve or a blood platelet and is stitched and stuffed onto the quilt as another representation of the underlying anxieties informing our behaviors through space.

The quote stitched on – “the intertwined reciprocity between bodies and space” – is a very literal read into the quilt, but also a direct connection to some of the spatial and architectural theory we consider through our work.

Learning –
Both of us were probably the most excited by the subtle and gradual manipulation of the rectangular fabric form. If this were to continue, we think the exploration of the invisible mark-making as a way to render tensions would be an exciting area to expand on.

Process –
We first started by photographing each other in our various states and drawing them into a fluid image. This was then used as the base linework to quilt the front, back, and batting together. Parts of the bodies were then individually stuffed to emphasize the hierarchy of form. We then spent the rest of our time adding our block print appliques and doing various kinds of meditative and mindful stitching, both visible and invisible, to further render the quilt as the skin itself.