Record, Map & Capture Textile Art Talk

Jordan Cunliffe is a textile artist specialising in data visualisation. Her background is in hand embroidery, an interest from childhood which was honed during a BA in embroidery and an MA in textiles. The data visualisation influence came about during this MA when she found that using existing information took away some of the decision making fatigue and freed her up to be more creative. It was also a means of creating very personal work while encoding it to maintain privacy. She uses data points from her own life experiences and translates them into meticulously hand stitched patterns. This data might be; steps walked, days lived, routes travelled, minutes slept, or any other aspect of her life that she records and documents, championing the everyday. Each of these points will then become a small stitch or a bead to make up a larger piece, sometimes reaching the tens of thousands. Such a time consuming method of making allows plenty of time for mindfulness and ruminating over future projects and ideas! Alongside her practice she gives talks and workshops about the subject, creates bespoke commissions, exhibits her work and her book ‘record, map & capture in textile art’ was published by Batsford in 2021.

This talk will act as an introduction to data visualisation in stitch. Delving into what this means and the journey which led Jordan to work in this way. Through a range of examples, Jordan will discuss the various ways in which you can take your own personal data and use it to create a tangible keepsake to record or document a time in your life. This talk will explain time consuming approach to the work, including generating ideas, how they are then turned into ‘patterns’ to follow, and in turn transformed into embroideries. Jordan will talk through the sort of data she collects and the techniques and equipment she finds the most useful, as well as the way in which she uses slow hand stitching to honour people and moments.