Rope, Line, Thread Workshop
International rope-making workshop with Georg Winner and Joanna Zabielska, exploring traditional fibre technologies through hands-on making and digital experimentation organised by Michelle Howard and Adam Hudec, Institute of Art and Architecture, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna as part of the Erasmus+ project Ignored Technology.
Before engines, before steel cables, there was rope. As part of the Erasmus+ project Ignored Technology, this workshop returns to rope as a fundamental technology, exploring tension, twist, fibres, pulling, lifting and binding through hands-on making and digital experimentation. Working collectively, 50 student participants from Austria, Czech Republic and Slovakia will deconstruct and construct ropes, experiment with reused and hybrid materials, develop tools for rope-making, and investigate historical fibre technologies — from bast fibres and withies to ropes used in alpine agriculture and sailing.
The workshop takes place at Prospekthof, a former scenography building where ropes once worked invisibly behind the scenes. The scale and history of the space will become part of the process of making rope collectively.
Speakers:
Georg Winner, based in Zell am See is a natural-fibre and wood technologist specialising in prehistoric and historical uses of fibre and wood. His practice combines material research, traditional craftsmanship and sustainable technologies, including rope-making, weaving and the reconstruction of historical tools.
Joanna Zabielska, based in Vienna, works at the intersection of digital art, design and architecture. Through 3D scanning, photogrammetry and motion capture, she explores how physical materials, spatial data and digital craftsmanship can generate new forms of world-building.
Project Partner:
