Weaving Communities of Practice
Researchers
Funding
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This project is funded by AHRC.
Project Brief
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This project is about developing a knowledge base to store 3D Andean
textile patterns together with rich cultural and historic context
information.
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Andean civilisations have used weaving for conveying information for a
very long time. In contrast to alphabetic writing as developed in
Europe and the Middle East, information is stored in patterns on
materials such as cloth. Research has established that Andean people
have employed this medium to document and communicate complex
information. While some of these textile messages are understood by
today's researchers, others are still waiting to be deciphered. One
challenge in continuing this research is that the material for study
is only available in a piecemeal fashion and without contextual
information.
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We plan to prepare information on Andean textiles in a way that puts
it into a cultural, geographical, and historical context by providing
a knowledge base that researchers can annotate and query. We draw on
AI techniques for knowledge representation, reasoning, and
sophisticated methods for searching. In addition to storing weaving
patterns, our knowledge base will be fed with multimedia data such as
digital photos, video, and text, providing context for the textile
designs. This ranges from commentaries by living weavers to
ethnographic and historical records.
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This project has a certain urgency to it, as the weaving practices,
some of which have been handed down for millennia, are
endangered. Younger generations no longer pick up weaving, meaning
that this knowledge is being lost.
We want to contribute to preserving the rich cultural heritage of
Andean weaving. In particular, we have the following objectives:
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Developing an ontological approach that permits a more logical
systematisation of the data and interpretations of former studies
on Andean weaving.
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Surpassing the (software) limitations of the current 2D analysis
techniques of Andean cloth through the development of 3D virtual
reality fabric design and simulation tools.
Official Web Site
- The official web site of the project can be found
here
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Publications
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Denise Y. Arnold, Sven Helmer, Rodolfo Velasquez Arando:
Towards Building a Knowledge Base for Research on Andean Weaving.
Proc. 26th British National Conf. on Databases (BNCOD), Birmingham, July
2009: 180-188
http://www.dcs.bbk.ac.uk/~sven/andean/
Last Updated: Fri Sep 30 16:54:31 BST 2011