Data of the Domestic: Series I (Dish Towels)

The first kernel for the idea of my “Data of the Domestic” embroidered data art visualization series sprouted from the reflective writing prompt given in a Women & Art class I took with Stella Marrs in fall 2019. The simple question was “where am I right now?” My response, “I’m exhausted and depleted, yet hopeful. I’m struggling to find rest and peace and stillness…” And then, “what comes up as joy and comfort?” My response, “home, family, warmth, empty spaces of time, knowing and truly believing I am enough…” And so, I narrowed in on the concept of “enough” - of being or having enough when it comes to energy, body/beauty, achievement, pace, and consumption; of seeking stillness, slowness, and balance - with intention.

My first idea of translating this materially was to create “zen-like” symmetrical mixed media textile pieces that were super textural, emoting calm and balance, yet whose peaceful state was somehow disrupted by the chaos. While I still have vision and sketches for how this could play out, my thinking took a different turn with some feedback from Stella about considering how I could make everyday activities be somehow a part of the work so it was reflective of my reality, but also as to not overburden or add to the overwhelm. It was then the idea of using my FitBit wearable tracker/watch. I wear it nearly everyday and it could be interesting to see what kind of story it’s geo-location data could tell me. I played with tracking different time periods of my day both at home and at work, looking at my movements on a micro scale within specific environments holding certain identities. I played with looking at my day on a macro scale (on one weekday, from the time I left the house in the morning until the time I got home at night, I had visited nine different locations!). No wonder I was feeling scattered.

More reflecting got me thinking about the domestic space and my role as a mother in that space to my two boys, ages 4 and 6. I got thinking about my role in the home and was drawn to using embroidery as a way to represent the domestic space and traditional women’s work. The appeal of the physical act of creating this “slow form” of art was also strong, as it acted as a method for helping achieve the very slowness I’d been seeking - a way of extending time almost. The data set could represent 1 hour of time, but when translated to embroidery, that 1 hour was now expanded into 3 hours of stitching. There was something intriguing there for me. I chose to embroider my first piece on a dish towel, one I’d been saving in my fabric stash, further emphasizing the domestic nature of the work.

With continued reflection and iteration I began thinking about my husband’s role in the home also, how we work in concert and sometimes in disassociation, and specifically about our morning routines. Mornings always seem frenzied and hectic, no matter how much we try to get ahead of things and prepare as much as possible the night before. Getting out of the house at 7:30 am with two young children and a husband who is off to work by 6:30, often before the children are awake, is no easy feat. This tension, my sometimes envy of his “easy” mornings primarily just taking care of himself, is what prompted the current iteration of my series. Through no fault of his own, his work requires a certain schedule that does not mesh well with family life and responsibilities. He is very active in sharing household and childcare responsibilities during other times of day, however the reality of our mornings is what it is and that is what I’m hoping to get across in this series. The final iteration of the series is a set of 3 embroidery hoops each holding a used dish towel from my home. Each hoop portrays 2 abstract-looking lines (one reddish pink, one blue) that are representations of my and my husband’s movements throughout the house on a given morning. On two of the three days there is a stark contrast in the trajectories of these lines.

Doing this work opened up a lot of questions and thought points for me - gender roles, modern family dynamics, care giving and motherhood, motherhood while also working outside the home, the mental load of these roles, roles and identities in relationship to physical space, the under representation of motherhood and the domestic space in the art world, the overly fast-paced and rushed culture of living in the U.S., the representative expansion of time, the potential that exists with using textiles as a way to communicate information (not a new concept), and finally, curiosity around this type of technology tracking and surveillance that our modern conveniences afford us (or are they affordances?). I plan to continue being curious about these questions and diving deeper into each of them, most top of mind being the intersection of data and textiles.

Until I started writing this reflection, I hadn’t looked back at my initial writing prompts. It’s now clear to see that the strands of seeking peace within seemingly expansive stretches of chaos and also what brings me joy and comfort are inextricably linked. This series incorporates both of those things and also explores the questions I mention above. I’m excited to keep exploring.