As part of the theoretical studies within the arts-based research project Spinning Stories – Living Archives<\/em>, we are gathering opinions of experts from related research fields to obtain valuable contributions and inspirations for the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today we are interviewing Mag. Sen.Sc. Liddy Scheffknecht, an Austrian visual artist and Senior Scientist at the Department of Cultural Studies at the Angewandte as part of our “reach-outs.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n In her photographic sequences, videos and installations Liddy Scheffknecht explores the relationship between temporality and perception, simultaneously creating and breaking illusions. In addition to computer-assisted imaging techniques, the artist works with analogue light and shadow projections created by direct sunlight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n K.A.: Your work often explores time, perception, and space. How do you translate something as intangible as light, shadow, and time-based processes into material or spatial forms?<\/p>\n\n\n\n L.S.: Over time, I have created various works in which I make time visible in space. I work with earthly conditions that I cannot change, such as sunlight and the Earth’s rotation. Through the movement of the planet, we perceive the passage of time. I \u201cshape\u201d the sunlight that falls into rooms using masks in the window and photograph the changes in the room at specific intervals or trace the sunlight that I have shaped. In doing so, the movement of the Earth in relation to the Sun is recorded and made visible.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n K.A.: How might these ephemeral qualities speak to the idea of vanishing textile knowledge and tacit skills?<\/p>\n\n\n\n L.S.: Knowledge gained through experience, observation, and practice plays a crucial role. In order to work with sunlight in the best possible way, I closely observe the specific location and the \u201cmovement\u201d of sunlight in the room, ideally over the course of a year. I can also transfer some of my knowledge about one location to other locations. But not all of it. Weather observations and predictions are also important. I use weather forecasts as well, but they cannot replace the observation of clouds and the wind with the accuracy I need for my work. I compare this knowledge to the weather knowledge of farmers, which used to be essential but is perhaps no longer so necessary today and is therefore disappearing. I think there is a parallel to textile knowledge. It is also passed on by individuals and contains both generally applicable rules and location-specific characteristics. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n K.A.: Much textile knowledge is both embodied and implicit. How can art make such invisible knowledge perceptible without freezing it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n L.S.: An archive in a traditional sense can partly preserve knowledge. An archive conserves artifacts and attempts, through photo, video and written documentation, to conserve the processes. Additionally, it is important to find ways in which knowledge can be passed on directly by the people who possess it. It is important, however, that the concept for such an archive is always planned together with the people\/community where the knowledge is anchored. This is all the truer when it lies outside one’s own familiar culture. Of course, there is always the danger of approaching the heritage of another culture with a Western perspective and, in the worst case, even exploiting it. Strategies must be developed in the beginning to avoid this. The archive can form the basis for exhibitions, books, workshops, or similar formats. However, it seems essential to me that the process of passing on implicit knowledge always involves people who have mastered the techniques.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n K.A.: Within the project, we posed a provocative question: If No One Learns, Can AI Take Over? If there is no younger generation willing or able to learn hand spinning, what exactly is lost and what might still be preserved? Do you think an AI could meaningfully \u201ctake over\u201d a textile heritage?<\/p>\n\n\n\n L.S.: When we talk about AI today, we mainly mean LLMs or machine vision. The output of AI is then the machine interpretation of language or images. If we take a craft such as hand spinning, we are talking about knowledge a machine today cannot have, and I also think that we are still very, very far from that. If a craft is to be performed to a high standard, the knowledge is deeply ingrained in the body through experience. This knowledge is fed by a wide variety of senses, touch, hearing, etc., and often has very little to do with language. When it comes to passing on knowledge, I also think that live observation and transmission by people cannot be replaced by a learning machine with nowadays technologies.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n K.A.: Instead of replacing spinners, could AI act as a listener, witness, or accompanist to textile practices?<\/p>\n\n\n\n L.S.: I can imagine that AIs could be used to compare textile techniques and patterns and to identify differences and similarities. Depending on the material underlying the AIs, they could reveal differences and continuities across time and space, which could be interesting for research. AI may also play a role in linking textile practices or transferring textile practices to other crafts or, of course, in speculative design.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n K.A.: Do you think AI can \u201cremember,\u201d or does it merely simulate memory through pattern recognition?<\/p>\n\n\n\n L.S.: Depending on the definition, memory is certainly also possible for AI; depending on the definition, AI can probably also remember better (more accurately) than a human being. For me memory is tied to lived experience, a machine cannot achieve that.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER Karin Altmann and Liddy Scheffknecht As part of the theoretical studies within the arts-based research project Spinning Stories – Living Archives, we are gathering opinions of experts from related research fields to obtain valuable contributions and inspirations for the project. Today we are interviewing Mag. Sen.Sc. Liddy Scheffknecht, an Austrian visual artist and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1065,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,11,21,31,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-angewandte","category-austria","category-external-expert","category-in-conversation","category-knowledge-transfer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spinningstories.uni-ak.ac.at\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spinningstories.uni-ak.ac.at\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spinningstories.uni-ak.ac.at\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spinningstories.uni-ak.ac.at\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spinningstories.uni-ak.ac.at\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1064"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/spinningstories.uni-ak.ac.at\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1068,"href":"https:\/\/spinningstories.uni-ak.ac.at\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064\/revisions\/1068"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spinningstories.uni-ak.ac.at\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spinningstories.uni-ak.ac.at\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spinningstories.uni-ak.ac.at\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spinningstories.uni-ak.ac.at\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}