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APPENDIX:
TACTILE STORYTELLING USING A TRANSMEDIA APPROACH
AT EMILY CARR UNIVERSITY OF ART + DESIGN
FROM SEPTEMBER 2017 TO APRIL 2020
HAOLIN LIU

APPENDIX:
TACTILE STORYTELLING USING A TRANSMEDIA APPROACH
AT EMILY CARR UNIVERSITY OF ART + DESIGN
FROM SEPTEMBER 2017 TO APRIL 2020
This appendix represents part of the submission for the degree of Master of Design at
Emily Carr University of Art + Design. This process book highlights key moments of my
practice-based research.

Haolin Liu 2020

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CONTENTS

I

WEAVING IMAGES

P. 6-13

II

MATERIALIZING MEDITATION

P. 14-23

III

EXPLORATORY WEAVING

P. 24-41

IV

INTERVIEWS

P. 32-41

V

HANDS-ON WORKSHOPS

P. 42-57

VI

LOOM PREPARATION

P. 58-65

VII

FINAL TAPESTRIES

P. 66-85

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I

WEAVING IMAGES

P. 6-13

Figure 1: Weaving poster

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Figure 6: Fixing horizontal strips into place

Figure 2: Original image of portrait

Figure 3: Cutting portrait into strips vertically

Figure 8: Weaving the poster

I planned this project to be an exploration of graphic design
through hand making. I started with one poster of portrait of a
man, and a second poster of a tree. The two posters were cut
into horizontal or vertical strips, then a new poster was created
with the “pixels” from the two posters. Thus the audience could
see both the “man” and the “tree” in one same poster. In a way
the creation process “weaved” the two posters together. The
strips are like yarns, and after weaving the elements of both
posters are harmoniously integrated. After the exploration, I
became interested in how different images, or even different
types of media can be used collaboratively to express
Figure 4: Original image of nature

Figure 5: Cutting nature image into strips horizontally

Figure 7: Fixing vertical strips into place

information and emotion.

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Figure 9: Detail of weaved poster

Figure 10: Final product of weaved poster

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Figure 11: Detail of weaved poster

II

MATERIALIZING MEDITATION

P. 14-23

Figure 12: Materials displaying

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Figure 13: Meditation practice #1

Figure 14: Meditation practice #2

After coming to Vancouver, I felt a lot of stress so I began to
meditate in the morning. I would perform present moment
awareness meditation, clear my mind of all thoughts and anchor
my soul. It was very relaxing and led me into my research of irises
and how the world is seen through them. I spent time searching
through images of nature and observed the colours therein. I
selected a variety of different types of irises to do my work and
extracted colour from them. I then did a detailed examination
of each iris and analyzed the different elements before deciding
which materials to use for each part.

Figure 15: Meditation practice #3

Figure 16: Meditation practice #4

Figure 17: Moodboard of irises

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Figure 19: Creation process

In the next step, I made embroidery sewing of the symbol of iris, as it represents the energy of the universe that enters the body like
a spiritual light, behind the darkness of closed eyes. Several attemps were made (shown in Figure 19), for instance, when drafting
pattern #1, I was planning to sew onto the patterned texture, using French knot for the black part and flat stitch for the yellow part.
However, as I was exploring I recognized that the homogenized texture lacks the feeling of thickness and variation, thus this plan
was abandoned after several attempts. Then I tried to add some different material such as wool and coloured beads to diversify the
expressions. Two entire days were spent on creating pattern #2; unfortunately due to the issues of cutting the edge this pattern was
abandoned as well. Nevertheless, through the process of exploration each failure brought me closer to success.

Figure 18: Draft of design

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Figure 20: Cutting printed fabric

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Figure 21: Exhibition of embroideries

Figure 22: Sewing process

Figure 23: Display of final embroideries

III

EXPLORATORY WEAVING

P. 24-41

Figure 24: First attemp of Jacquard weaving

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Figure 25: TC-2 loom in Material Matters Lab

Figure 26: Marking the warps for cutting

Figure 27: Cutting the tapestry

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The tapestry below was made by the TC-2 (The Thread Controller 2), for my second academic year open studio exhibition. I practiced weaving with the machine for three weeks, during which I first learnt different scales to operate the machine with my pupils
patterns, then I tested with different kinds of threads and experimented with different texts in terms of scale and font. This was my
first attempt of using the TC-2 loom, with guidance from the Softshop technician Jen Hiebert. Through the process I gained the preliminary understanding and essential technique of using the loom, which built a solid foundation for future tapestry weaving.

Figure 28: Display of tapestry

Figure 29: Original bitmap (left) vs. tapestry product (right)

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Figure 32: Details of tapestry #1

Figure 30: Thirty two pattern testings

Figure 31: Bitmap of 32 patterns

Figure 33: Details of tapestry #2

Figure 34: Details of tapestry #3

Figure 35: Details of tapestry #4

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INTERVIEWS

P. 32-41

Figure 36: Ruth Scheuing at Makerlabs, Vancouver, BC

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Figure 37: Ruth explaining her project

Figure 38: Graffiti of Makerlabs

Figure 39: Ruth’s studio inside Makerlabs

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Figure 41: Hanna reviewing 32 pattern testing

Figure 40: Hanna Haapasalo displaying her tapestry at Material Matters Lab, Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Vancouver, BC

Figure 42: Hanna displaying another tapestry

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Figure 43: Hanna showing notes on weaving structures

Figure 44: Hanna demonstrating how to make a 7-ends satin weaving structure

Figure 46: Interior of Hanna’s studio

Figure 45: Hanna showing her current work at her studio

Figure 47: Sfumato edge effect

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Questionnaires
1. How did you first get into (weaving, knitting…)?
2. How did you get into your profession?
Figure 48: Skype interview of Wanda Kerr

Figure 49: Skyper interview of Trish Johnson

I interviewed ten weaving

3. Do you have a ritual for creativity?

experts: Hanna Haapasalo,
Jen Hiebert, Ruth Scheuing,

4. Do people influence your creative process?

Wanda Kerr, Trish Johnson,
Saskia Wassing, John Paul

5. What is your process for coming up with new ideas?

Morabito, Apple Chang,
Yanfen Wang and Agatha Lee.

6. Do you start with materials or an idea first?

Each artist shared not only
their technique, but also how
weaving relates to their life. I
appreciate their insights and
support to my research.
Figure 50: Skype interview of Saskia Wassing

7. Do you have a preferred material that you use?
8. How is creating things important in your life? And what does being a
creator mean to you?
9. What is your favourite creation and why?
10. Do you have any creation that is related to your past? If so, can you tell
me some more details about your stories?
11. Have you noticed if there is a difference between how people interpret your
work?
12. Do you think people interpret your work differently than you intend?
13. How do you feel about your work having different interpretations? whether
it is your intended interpretation or another?

Figure 51: Interview with Jen Hiebert at ECU

Figure 52: Interview questionnaire

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HANDS-ON WORKSHOPS

P. 42-57

Figure 53: A glance at “Hands-on weaving“ workshop

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Figure 54: “A day in our life” peer review with MDes 2019 #1

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Figure 57: “A day in our life” peer review with MDes 2019 #4

Figure 58: “A day in our life” peer review with MDes 2019 #5

Figure 59: Tammy Tan and Maggie Luo weaving in pair

Figure 60: Keirh Doyle and Prakriti Mukhopadhyay weaving in pair

Figure 61: Sherry Kuo and Mariko Kuroda weaving in pair

Figure 62: Song Tang and Jessica Bayntun weaving in pair

Figure 55: “A day in our life” peer review with MDes 2019 #2

Figure 56: “A day in our life” peer review with MDes 2019 #3

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Figure 67: Final weaving piece of Keirh and Prakriti

Figure 68: Final weaving piece of Tammy and Maggie

Figure 69: Final weaving piece of Song and Jessica

Figure 70: Final weaving piece of Xinyu and Jesse

Figure 63: Alejandro Alarcon and Ricardo Barrocas weaving in pair

I held a weaving workshop during the Graduate Design Studio III class in fall 2018. Almost all participants were students who face
various levels of stress out of daily life. The topic of this workshop was storytelling by weaving and the goals of this workshop were:
1. Initial exploration of storytelling through weaving. 2. Sharing stories and promoting communication. 3. Learning basic weaving skills.

Figure 64: Composing weaving draft

Working in pairs, each student started at one end and then had to bring their weaving together in the middle. As they did so, they
shared stories. An important observation is that reaching the middle together and discussing stories while working was essentially
social communication. Figure 67 to 70 are some artefacts and the stories behind them collected in this workshop. Tammy’s story (right
side of Figure 68) was about her cat named “Tuan”. Getting Tuan as a 20th birthday present turned out to be the happiest memory of
her life. Tammy used solid blue to represent her daily routine, while a pink flower to represent Tuan. The other participant of the group,
Maggie’s weaving (left side of Figure 68) is based on her love life: her life used to be dark and gloomy, she chose pink to illustrate
meeting her partner. Pink flows into white to signify her life now where she is happily married and living a wonderful life. Song’s
weaving (left side of Figure 69) illustrated a bird’s eye view his hometown, interlaced with the sea and forest, all surrounded by clouds.

From outside, looking in, these pieces tell stories that are open to interpretation giving everyone a unique experience. As Maarit
Mäkelä said, weaving works “to give a voice to the artefact. This requires us to interpret an artefact in a certain context. This action
Figure 65: Xinyu Yang and Jesse Cathcart weaving in pair

Figure 66: Drawing weaving draft

seems to break the muteness of the artefact and give it a voice so that it can tell its story.”

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Figure 71: “Hands-on weaving” workshop with MDes 2020 #1

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Figure 76: Damien Stonick and Nandita Ratan weaving in pair

Figure 77: Wuchen Zhang and Siddhi Vasudeo weaving in pair

Figure 78: Laura Caceres Rivero, Andrew Simon, and Jonathan Yaputra teamwork

Figure 79: Workshop on Halloween

Figure 72: “Hands-on weaving” workshop with MDes 2020 #2

This second weaving workshop was conducted as my
transmedia storytelling exploration and practice-based research
progressed. This workshop was conducted with students in the
MDes 2020 class with the theme of “a day in our life”. Instead of
being focused on just weaving, the participants were also asked
to create a transmedia storytelling event using the steps of
composing, weaving, writing and oral storytelling. This workshop
was designed so that the participants could practice and
explore the transmedia storytelling approach to express stories.

Figure 73: “Hands-on weaving” workshop with MDes 2020 #3

Figure 74: Material selection

Figure 75: “Hands-on weaving” workshop with MDes 2020 #4

Figure 80: Donut break

Figure 81: Damien explain her weaving while telling her story

Figure 82: Final weaving piece of Sheen and Srushti

Figure 83: Final weaving piece of Damien and Nandita

Figure 84: Final weaving piece of Devansh and Eric

Figure 85: Final weaving piece of Wuchen and Siddhi

Figure 86: Final weaving piece of Medha and Jean

Figure 87: Final weaving piece of Andrew and Jonathan

Figure 88: Visualization draft from Srushti

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Figure 89: “Hands-on weaving” workshop with MDes 2020 #5

VI

LOOM PREPARATION

P. 58-65

Figure 90: Jen Hiebert installing new warps on the TC-2 loom

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Figure 93: Stand supporting the warps

Figure 94: Deviding the warps into groups

Figure 91: Untangle of warps

Figure 92: Unorganized warps

Figure 95: Overview of TARP lab with warps installed on the TC-2 loom

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Figure 96: Untangle of warps

Figure 98: Another view of passing thread through eyelet

Figure 97: Jen passing a thread through eyelet

Figure 99: Deviding the warps into groups

Figure 100: Grouped warps

VII

FINAL TAPESTRIES

P. 66-85

Figure 101: Tassel of “little red car” tapestry

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Figure 102: Signage of TARP lab

Figure 103: Material Matters Lab

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Figure 104: TC-2 Loom in the TARP lab

Figure 105: Rear view of TC-2 Loom

Figure 109: Manual loom in TARP lab

Figure 106: Sign-in and out sheet

Figure 107: Inside TC-2 Loom

Figure 108: Manual of TC-2 loom

Figure 110: “little red car” tapestry being woven

Figure 111: Seven shuttles used in weaving

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Figure 112: Finalized tapestry of “little red car“

Figure 113: Image of little red car

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Figure 115: TC-2 Loom in operation #2

Figure 114: TC-2 Loom in operation #1

Figure 116: TC-2 Loom in operation #3

Figure 117: Reverse side of close-up tapestry

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Figure 118: Detail of close-up tapestry #1

Figure 120: Masking tape to fix the wefts for cutting

Figure 119: Detail of close-up tapestry #2

Figure 121: Retrieving close-up tapestry from TC-2 loom #2

Figure 122: Retrieving close-up tapestry from TC-2 loom #1

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Figure 123: Weaving of close-up tapestry #1

Figure 124: Weaving of close-up tapestry #2

Figure 126: Weaving of close-up tapestry #3

Figure 125: Unexpected visitor

Figure 127: Weaving of close-up tapestry #4

Figure 128: Weaving of close-up tapestry #5

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Figure 129: Displaying little red car tapestry

Figure 130: Displaying close-up tapestry

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Figure 131: Exhibition of transmedia storytelling

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Figure 132: Focused in weaving

©️ HAOLIN LIU 2020