FEMUFACTURE

FEMUFACTURE
Masako Ban
Rina Bernabei & Kelly Freeman
Erina Kashihara
Belinda Dunstan
Aki Inomata
Tricia Flanagan
Curated by Tricia Flanagan

Computational Craft Practices between Japan and Australia

The Japan foundation Gallery
Level 4, Central Park, 28 Broadway
Chippendale NSW 2019www.JPF.org.au
February 6 - March 30 2019
Sydney Design Festival 2019www.Sydneydesign.com.au
Art Month Sydneywww.artmonthsydney.com.au
1-30 March 2019

CONTENTS

04
07

Introduction
Essay

14
18
20

Part 1 Digital Fabrication
Masako Ban
Rina Bernabei & Kelly Freeman

22
26
28

Part 2 Morphologies of Mechanical Motion
Erina Kashihara
Belinda Dunstan

30
34
36

Part 3 Co Creation
Aki Inomata
Tricia Flanagan

39
40

Event Programme
Credits

04

INTRODUCTION

DR TRICIA FLANAGAN

FEMUFACTURE
explores the hybrid
space between
traditional crafting
techniques andcontemporary
digital fabrication
technologies. The
exhibition is adiverse showcase ofexperimental works
created by merging
traditional and newtechnologies acrossdifferent mediums.

world, rather a digital
mindset has entered ourcollective consciousness
and it informs our
systems of production.

We are living in liquid
times, in the post-digitalage, where networked
systems of logic are
the undercurrent to ourexistence. The digital
has not superseded
the physical material

We have seen therise of STEM (Science
Technology Engineering
Medicine) acrossacademia. Recently theacronym has become
STEAM with theaddition of Art.

FEMUFACTURE reveals
design processes thatsupersede the mass
reproduced widgets ofthe manufacturing era,
to forms of productionthat enable reflexive
rather than indexical
design.

05

A materialist turn inthe humanities has
enlivened the debate
about the notion ofembedded material
practice and we hearphases coming into thevernacular like critical
crafting and digital
fabrication and with it arecognition of their role
within technology andinnovation.

Designing hybrid forms
that emerge between
digital production andtraditional crafting
techniques are Masako
Bans laser cut jewellery
and bags, and Rina
Bernabei and Kelly
Freemans 3D ceramic
printed vessels.
Designing futuretechnologies byobservation of newforms of movement ofmachines and bodies
are Belinda Dunstan’s
soft robotics and Erina
Kashihara’s LED lightworks.

The title for thisexhibition was bornin conversation with
Belinda Dunstan,and the works in
the FEMUFACTURE
exhibition continue theconversation suggesting Exerimenting with forms
three themes.
of production that are
not based on design as

06

dominant over material,
but defining design
process that engage
with state changes,
growth, erosion,calcification etc, as
agents of change within
the design process
are embedded in Aki
Inomata’s collaboration
with other species andin my own work withweather systems andwalking.
FEMUFACTURE
considers theexperimental
application oftechnology by female
practitioners leveraging
traditional crafting
sensibilities. Through an
exploration of processesof creation, building
and co-existing
technoilogies theexhibition aims
to formulate newunderstandings andexpectations for the
future of design.

07

ESSAY

DR ELENA KNOX

i Waseda FACTS 2014–2018, waseda.jp

To Make Up A Whole
World

STEM disciplines anddevelopments.

For two and a half years
I have been resident
artist in the scienceand engineering
department of a Tokyo
university. Womenconsistently makeup fifteen percentof the department’s
students.i Engineers
are an influential group
among society’s makers:
people who test anddrive design, directing
the mainstream frommodel to manufacture.
For women to beadequately represented
in this cohort, we mustpress further into
the conversations of

The dialectic is familiar:
if we don’t include
more women in theseconversations, thenwe are missing out
on perspectives andskills derived from thespecific ways in which
women are socialized;
if women are included
equally in the group,
then potentially thesedifferences might begin
to vanish. We have
yet to be able to test
the latter hypothesis
because we are justfifteen percent of theauthoritative group(less, in the professional
arena after graduation).

We can, though,examine the former
hypothesis, as does theexhibition ‘Femufacture’in highlighting theperspectives and skillsof four Australian andthree Japanese women
who design and make.

mitigated or enhancedin the adoption of
new technologies.
Jennifer Robertson,
an anthropologist ofJapan’s tech scene,
has tagged someof this synergistic
output ‘retrotech’: newtech with retrograde
Artist/curator Tricia
sensibilities.iii But
Flanagan presents
instead of building‘a synergy of digital
retrotech, a scene
and analogue craft’,of rapid change
observing that ‘although in approaches to
it is not an overtly
production can be
feminist exhibition, we
an opportunity todraw on knowledge
rebalance our values.
of traditional craft –women’s work – in
We must haveeach of our practices.’ii
a complicatedAs digital methods
relationship to theincreasingly suffuse
phrase ‘women’s work’.
design and fabrication,
Standard classifications
an urgent concern ofencompass work
feminist technosciencebehind-the-scenes
is to scrutinise how
and the work of simply
we digitise historic
being seen. This
practices, and whichpolarity lends itself
social values are
to deconstruction
replicated, embedded,in performance art,ii Email from curator, 21
January 2019iii J. Robertson, Gendering
Humanoid Robots, Body
and Society 16.2 (2010)

wherein one knows
one is the product andcan rebel against thisobjectification, whilst
also revealing theenabling labours ofbackstage and back-ofhouse.
As to object design, thetechne is less literally
performative, but theanalogy can be drawn.
To have a crafted work,or the design for such awork, take up limelight– to be observed as thework, not the worker,
being neither the ‘warm
prop’ nor the lead
actor’s apparatus – has
not been women’s work.
Very generally speaking,
women’s manufacturing
has played a supportingrole.
Traditionally, women
have made usefulthings that are wielded
daily, worn down, worn

through and out. Lowstatus yet indispensable
things, like clothes,bags and baskets,processed food andfurnishings, without
which humankind would
be less civilized. These
are things that are
touched, held, worn,
digested, implemented
against other materials.
They are prized for theirfacility to complement,
produce and enrichother things.
In imagining a fiftyfifty conversational
weighting, women are
therefore bringing tobear expertise, forgedover time, in craftingand designing forendurance, for material
usefulness. We rethink
and reposition expertise
where it is not usuallyacknowledged. Newmaterialist theorists
have suggested thatstatus in materiality
should be – andindeed inherently is –non-hierarchical. The
Japanese context is anintelligent context inwhich to explore thissuggestion. Objects
and raw materials
are not conceived
as so separate fromliving beings; they
command care andrespect. Considering
this horizontality, themanufacture of peer
parity across genders
does not seem
implausible.
The Japan-born
discipline of kansei
kougaku concerns
the engineering of
emotion in productdesign. Without at
all advocating theghettoization of womenengineers into this field,
one might observethat women bringdifferential expertiseto it.iv Having beenschooled in a particularservice – in this casesensitivity to others’
emotions – builds
up skill, nuance andresilience. It is notthat particular talents
come ‘naturally’, butthat a foundational,
intersectional
sophistication alreadyexists.
Can we design
diversity? A
contemporary
inclination in fine art
toward ‘collaborating’with non-human formsof agency almost
caricatures a desire
for non-hierarchy thatis especially relevant
for feminist artists,
given such deficit
in participation andinfluence as referenced
at the top of this article.
Art co-produced with

iv Y. Shimizu, 女脳と男脳のコラボレーションが創る感性工、学繊維学会誌
Textile Society Journal 61.3
(2005)2005)

non-human agents canbe read as displaying
our dis-ease withdominance. Invoking
non-hierarchicalaffordance in art anddesign represents deep
research into diversity(though non-hierarchy
is perhaps only extant
in realms of purephilosophy; it is moot in
ecology or sociology).
Composing withanimals, plants, weather,
generative algorithms
and objects externalizes
the problem of how
a production system
might thrive without
subjugating any of its
constituents.
Currently many creative
women are tackling thisproblem; one might
say they perform arelaxation of control.
Aki Inomata’s recent
sculpting with beavers,
Michaela Davies’

embodiment of seismic
data, Caroline Sinders’machine learning,
Hanna Saito’s and Jenna
Sutela’s slime molds,
Sputniko’s and Vivian
Xu’s silkworms, andRobertina Šebjanič’ssonic crystal lattice are
but a few examples.
Variously, they express
either that control is
illusory, or that thegrip is too tight andoverbearing for thegood of the planet
and more than half
its inhabitants. Theycelebrate expertiseand creativity locatedoutside the self.
Artist Yoshiko Shimada
writes of being‘connected to others
in many different,
conflicting and organic
ways. I imagine thismulti-directional andmulti-layered way ofconnecting oneself toothers and to society as
the ideal of feminism,as opposed to the rigid,
vertically structured
social system.’v In her
notes for ‘Femufacture’,
Inomata quotes
Donna Haraway: how
to get on together is
at stake. Extending
beyond compromise,
existence in the
networked digital age
requires a fundamental
acceptance of lived
contradiction suchas found in Japan’s
spiritual canon. We areorganic and artificial;
we sit with system/
disorder, code/chaos,constraint/freedom; were-form the world anew
each moment while
embodying the ages.
But as we remake theworld, there are chances
to notice where wehave become rigid or
too focused on narrow
arbitrary criteria, rather

than fluid in making
a generous adaptive
life amidst complex
conflicting forces.

Foundation is doing
here.
Dr Elena Knox is an
artist and scholar.
elenaknox.com

In Japanese traditional
philosophy, it is anobject’s privilege andwish to be used; use
makes ‘sense’ of its ‘life’.
For women engineers,makers and designers,
multi-valent involvement
is crucial. To be of use
in designing the futureof things and theirinterfaces; to make up
half the cogs in themachine of the world.
The art in ‘Femufacture’riffs on usefulness:from robotics to bodyornamentation, there
is nothing displayedthat does not reference
its own usual use.
Its inclusion, its
unique perspectives
and also its generalv Y. Shimada, Escape fromapplicability need to be ‘Oneself’ (Tokyo: Ota Fine
championed, as Japan
Arts, 2002)

13

15

DIGITALFABRICATIONThe rapid growth of technology has brought theaffordability of digital fabrication tools withinreach for many, bringing a decrease in fabrication
costs, and transferring the ability to produce
design to the masses. Replacing mass production,
we are seeing atomised and distributed
production by the masses.
New ecologies of maker spaces, hacker spaces
and fab-labs have disrupted traditional top-down
manufacturing chains and offer more sustainable
methods that are flexible and agile. Artefacts
can be made on demand and customised preproduction. It is no longer necessary to stockpile
widgets in warehouses, or for bodies to be16

categorised to fit generic size specifications.
The fungibility of data enables production to
be distributed avoiding environmental costlytransportation infrastructure.
In FEMUFACTURE digital fabrication finds form,
expressed through the seductive surfaces of
3D printed ceramic and laser cut materials by
Masako Ban and Rina Bernabei / Kelly Freeman.
Their work is part of the fourth industrial
revolution characterised by the emergence ofhybrid forms that blend digital production andtraditional crafting techniques.
Modes of digital fabrication are constantly
regenerating, born in the fuzzy periferal edges
between physical, digital and biological spaces.
From the fusion of emergent technologies,
additive manufacturing, sustainable systems
and smart materials – bespoke artefacts herald afuture of crafted mass production.

18

MASAKO BAN

Bracelet Bag RENZWhite + Honeycomb, 2018(basic design 2007).
Photo credit: Seiji Oguri© acrylic 2018

I am attracted to industrial
materials. Their special
atmosphere, which iscreated by the fact thateach of them is invented
for a particular purpose,
fascinates me. The material
itself is the main character.
Keep the design simple.
For example the mainmaterial of the Braclet
Bag RENZ is PVC fabricused for furniture which is
red wine stain proof. The
bag handle is made withaluminium honeycomb
which is also used forspacecrafts; this is put inan acrylic mould. From thematerials to production, allmade in Japan.

Masako Ban creates
jewellery and accessories
through the manipulation
and refiguring of industrial
materials. The material
itself is the principle
feature of her pieces.
From the materials to
production, she makes
her work entirely within
a Japanese vocabulary.
With a background inarchitecture and graphic
design, Ban began
designing accessories
in 2001. She established“acrylic” in Tokyo in
2003, and by 2005 her
first collection has been
selected for the MoMA
Design Store, New York.
Her works are available
in international art anddesign institutions andretailers.
http://www.acrylic.jp/

19

20

RINA BERNABEI /KELLY FREEMAN

Variations: Crafting digital
decoration, 2019
Vessels 1-5: 3D printed
tinted stoneware ceramics,
fabricated brass sheet.
Photo credit: Rina Bernabei© 2019Variations (2019) examines
the relationships between
handmade craft practices,
digital technologies andmanufacture. Through theimmediate and intricate
design process of these
digital fabrication modes,
we explore how new andold forms, decoration andcrafting can create ‘hybrid’forms and languages,
applications and emotional
values.
In this series of vessels,
Bernabei/Freeman
investigate how to merge
traditional decorative
design and craft qualities,
with those of digital
fabrication. Using domestic
ceramic decoration of the
60s and 70s as a reference
point, and reinterpretingthese through digital
design software and3D ceramic printing
fabrication; completedwith handmade andlasercut brass components.
The design and production
process examines thecontradictions andsimilarities of traditional
decoration and forms with
the new visual and formal
language of 3D ceramic
digital fabrication.
http://www.
bernabeifreeman.com.au/23

MORPHOLOGIESOF MECHANICALMOTIONThomas Haring once wrote that… “The body is
not an unreliable machine, it can be a generative
tool, an evaluative sensibility, a transformative site
and a source of knowledge and creativity.”
The boundaries between the body of humanand machine are increasing harder to define.
Human capacity is augmented and extended andmachines are smaller, mobile and intelligent. The
camera profoundly altered our perception byenabling us to see in new ways, and now, mobilityof the machine, body and cyborganic otherare
forging new ways of moving in the world.

24

Erina Kashihara and Belinda Dunstan explore
the gestures and bodies of the machine age, todevelop morphologies of mechanical motion insoft robotics and expression of LED light.
New technologies are disrupting traditional
linear cause and effect interactions, reconfiguring
human, non-human and posthuman perspectives,in which case design becomes a conversation
between two entities - human and machine
intelligence.

i. Flanagan, Patricia;
Frankjaer, Raune. Bamboo
Whisper – A Cyborganic,
Reconfiguring Human and
Non-Human: Texts, Images
and Beyond, University of
Jyväskylä, Finland, October
29-30, 2015

26

ERINA KASHIHARA

Light Shawl “Geometric
Nerve”, 20193D Printer parts (ABS),
electric wire, glass beads,
LED, electronic circuit, video
projection
Photo credit:
Erina Kashihara 2019

We can’t usually see
the energy our bodies
produce. This flexibly
structured work converts
the wearer’s body heat into
light, making it visible topeople around them. The
wearer’s energy is seen
to surround their bodyin the form of small andconstantly changing pointsof light.

Electrical wires areconnected like nerve
fibres, and organicallyshaped parts made with
3D printing are arranged
together like synapses.
The shawl is fitted withheat sensors and can be
operated with a mobile
battery pack for use inperformance contexts.
https://k-onespace.com/@lightart.erina

28

BELINDADUNSTAN

Still, Life, 2019
Silicone Eco-Flex rubbercompound, fabric, rubber
adhesive. Formed fromlaser-cut Perspex moulds
Photo credit:
Tricia Flanagan© Belinda Dunstan 2019

There are two variant
media approaches
to Dunstan’s work in
critically rethinking themorphologies of robotic
agents that may soon
share social spaces with us.
By returning to analogue
pneumatics andgestural diagrammingof movement, the artist
works through iterative
material reconfigurations,
examining the gesture,shape and form of emotive
movement, for example
sketching Guy Hoffman
and Oren Zuckerman

robot, Kip1, in his
emotional states of calm,
curious and fearful.
Through this process
Dunstan generates newmorphologies that may
position these agentsas complementary tohuman life, rather thancompetitive.

31

CO-CREATION
We have dramatically changed the geology andecology of the planet, and forms of traditional
manufacture that exploited the wealth ofresources of a former age of plenty are no longer
viable.
Artists and designers are pioneering forms of
production that are not based on design as
dominant over material. They are defining new
forms of design processes, for example, thatengage with state changes, growth, erosion,calcification etc. In re-thinking design as cocreation with other entities, collaboration withnature is akin to production methods that32

question the existing heiracrchies that dominate
manufacture. In this way (traditional women’swork) craft, basketry, give new insight to the morerigid forms of digital mass production that areprevalent today.
Aki Inomata and Tricia Flanagan have a “systemsthinking” approach to design which disrupts thelinear hierarchy of thought that places mind overmatter, brain over body, and head over hand, by
production through experimental collaboration
with other forms of agency. In the case of Aki
Inomata – a cross-species exchange of hair; orwork with bagworms to create protective cases;
casting acrylic homes for hermit crabs to inhabit;
and co-creation of work with animals that bitewood. In Tricia Flanagan’s case co-design is with
insects, plants and weather systems.
Experimental design processes are linking
man-made and natural systems and ecologies.
Engaging natural phenomena, that cannot be fully
controlled, leverages the generative potentialof plant, animal or insect ecosystems. The
combination of new technologies and traditional
techniques represent new forms of craft, otherthan human.

34

AKI INOMATA

I Wear the Dog’s Hair, andthe Dog Wears My Hair,
2014
Photo credit: Aki Inomata© Aki Inomata courtesy of
Maho Kubota Gallery 2014

Whom and what do I touch
when I touch my dog?
How is becoming witha practice of becomingworldly? When species
meet, the question of
how to inherit histories ispressing, and how to get
on together is at stake.
Donna J. Haraway
When Species Meet

A cape made of dog’s hairfor a human and a capemade of human hair for adog. Plus a two-channel
video installation.
Inomata collected thefur of a dog called Cielo
and her own hair over anumber of years, and thenmade clothes out of her
hair for the dog and out ofthe dog’s hair for herself sothat they could exchange
coats. The two species,
human beings and dogs,
have developed together
over the ages. This is awork that examines therelationship between ahuman and her pet, giving
form to this concept.
http://www.aki-inomata.
com/

35

36

TRICIA FLANAGAN

Generative Textile Systems,
2019
Merino wool, cotton/polyester, wood, steel,knitting machine, acrylic,
LCD screens, wire, data,code, electronics (Fitbit,
Arduino, Rasberry Pi,
Neopixles, foot pedal
switch, SD mini).
Photo credit:
Tricia Flanagan© 2019Flanagan’s work articulates
an aspiration for formsof technology that arereflexive rather thanindexical. Generative
Textile Systems (GTS) is ahuman-computer interface
based on reciprocity
rather than reproduction,transforming systems
predicated on ontology
and materiality into
cybernetic systems ofcommunication, prediction
and virtuality(1). In GTS thecloth is the embodimentof the pedestrian stride,
coded with the stain ofcolour from the weather
and the texture of thetemperature. Holes in theknitting are punctuation
marks that articulate aphrase – the duration of
the day – determined notby the ticking of minutes

but the pace of steps. The
walker’s body becomesa node in a system, aconduit for data to flow
through. The artist’s bodyalso acts as a node.
Both perform repetitive
actions – the object of
information, never a
subject in communication.
The projects begin with athread that creates a line,
through gestures of the
body walking and throughprosthetic extension theinterloping and interlacingof the thread forms cloth.
Textiles grows from thisconversation of the bodyin the world.
1 Orit Halpern, Beautiful data (2014)

http://triciaflanagan.com/
com/

38

THANK YOU

Thanks to the JapanFoundation:
Yoshihiro Wada, Ayusa
Koshi, Alison Groves,Susan Bui, Simonne Goran,
Naomi Segal, Aurora
Newton , Jessica Chow
and the Japan Foundation
Gallery volunteers.

Bernabei/ Kelly’s researchhas been supported
by Built Environment,
University of New South
Wales

Dunstan’s researchacknowledges Guy
Hoffman and Oren
Zuckerman for permission
to sketch their robot, Kip1,
in his emotional states ofcalm, curious and fearful.
Flanagan’s research has
been supported by theInteractive Media Lab, Art& Design, University of
New South Wales. Special
thanks to Mari Velonaki
and Michael Blake.

39

EVENT
PROGRAMMEPRESENTED BY

FEMUFACTURE
EXHIBITION
February 6 –March 30, 2019
The Japan Foundation
Gallery, The JapanFoundation, Sydney
Level 4, Central Park
28 Broadway, Chippendale
NSW Australia
February 8 (Friday)
Opening Event
6:00pm-8:00pm
March 7 (Thursday) Artist
Talk with
Erina Kashihara
6:30pm-7:30pm
Erina Kashihara discusses
her wearable light art
practice alongside digitally
fabricated art and design
within Japan.

March 8 (Friday)
Panel Discussion: Womenand Digital Fabrication inAustralia and Japan.
6:30pm-8:00pm
Rina Bernabei, Belinda
Dunstan, Tricia Flanagan
and Erina Kashihara
discuss their practices.
Moderated by Kathryn
Hunyor.

40© Flanagan, Dunstan,
Bernabei, Kashihara,
Inomata, Ban 2018

All right reserved. Thispublication or any portion
thereof may not be
reproduced in any mannerwhatsoever without priorpermission except for theuse of brief quotations andeducation purposes.

Catalogue design:
Dr. Patricia Flanagan

ISBN-13 978-0-73343854-7
Title of Publication:
Femufacture:
Computational Craft
Practices between Japanand Australia.
Author/Editor: Flanagan, PPublication date: 2018
Format: e-catalogue andlimited edition paperback

Cover image and chapter
images:Tricia Flanagan adaptedfrom Stafford Beer’s thesis
The Total System.

Catalogue Essay:
Dr. Ellena Knox
Design statements:
Courtosy of the artists