The talk given to us the other day, did not only open up a new dimension, in terms of what I thought the course would offer us but also was surprisingly stimulating.  It was amusing to jump into so many different aspects of looking at ornamentation such as in relation to crime, the fact that textiles may be considered to be niche because it’s all about the surfaces!

 A value judgement is a judgement of the rightness or wrongness of something, or of the usefulness of something, based on a comparison. As a generalization, a value judgement can refer to a judgement based upon a particular set of values.  Culture can also be a medium of setting such values hence making judgement culture specific.  When we were being told about how tattoos, certain kinds of art work, symbols, graffiti are now considered to be wrong, not ethical etc.. and are still practised in different kinds of societies in this very country, it reminded me of noticing tattoos and body art on my maid’s face and arms and the fact that piercing your ears in India is a part of growing up whereas in the western countries, is considered to be cheap or rebellious. 

Jacquard Looms:

 I visited a weaving colony in Devanahali a few days ago and came across the punch cards which was quiet a fascinating sight. The cards were made very thick and had rectangular holes punched in them.  The hooks and needles used in weaving were guided by these holes in the cardboard.  When the hooks came into contact with the card they were held stationary unless it encountered one of the punched holes.  Then the hook was able to pass through the hole with a needle inserting another thread, thus forming the desired pattern.  Intricate patterns were achieved by having many cards arranged one after the other and/or used repeatedly. 

This course was quiet different than I had expected it to be as I was prepared to study a lot about the  manufacturing processes of different types of cloths, weaving and a lot of theory work etc.. but I was amazed by how reading cloth doesn't only mean just that much, but also a lot to do with people, the cultures they are brought up into, the factors that lead to differences in the kind of cloth used in specific regions of the world, gender biases etc. The strongly worded piece written by Adolf Loose, "Ornamentation and Crime" gave us a lot to think about. Although what he wrote was to an extent agreeable, I didn't relate to all of it. The fact that so many lives are dependant on the skill of ornamentation and it is the strongest way of self expression makes me believe that in no way is ornamentation unnecessary.