The loom as a machine of the senses and of thought artistic research by aruma-sandra de berduccy

Aruma – Sandra De Berduccy has been researching Andean textile techniques for over fifteen years, not only in relation to theory and practice, but she has also managed to master a great many traditional forms of fabric and their corresponding processes: techniques involving spinning and natural dying, all the while using various mediums and contemporary artistic strategies such as video, performances, programming and digital art in general. Through these mediums she establishes aesthetic, material and conceptual dialogues which have allowed her to approach, observe and analyse in depth Andean weaving as a highly complex technological and social union in which elements participate that can be analysed from the perspectives of iconology and aesthetics, and also in relation to their material nature and electrical and chemical reactions; the notions of code and algorithm, and a world view which, while it is still alive and changing, runs the risk of disappearance, being eclipsed by the global technoscientific hegemony that has imposed its unidirectional influence since the beginning of the modern period. Her work can be read as a contemporary exploration of skills and practices which are positioned in a specific territory and world view, and which serve as a guide for us to understand the intertwined relationships between what we now recognise as art, design, science and technology.