Irene Posch is an artist + designer currently based in Austria. She describes herself as “a researcher and artist with a background in media and computer science.” Through the pieces she creates, Irene is aiming to explore how technology can be integrated with traditional craft, and how this integration can be potentially beneficial to daily life and society as a whole.
Irene’s craft, specifically, is fibers. Her best known (and most documented) project is The Embroidered Computer, a large cloth spread embroidered with gold and accented with glass and metal details. The gold wire embroidery connects each beaded module which responds to electrical currents passing through. Irene’s goal with this project is to make the computational process something to be displayed rather than hidden away within the housing of a device.
Another of Irene’s functional fiber explorations is an installation entitled The Knitted Radio, which illustrates the process of creating a wearable knit sweater which is also a functional FM radio. The installation aims to encourage viewers to consider the potential for technological goods to be more “human,” created objects rather than mass-manufactures products.
As The Knitted Radio introduces, Irene finds it important that the concepts of her work are shared with others. Her current project is a set of created tools for the production of hybrid, technologically functional textiles.
Among this set you’ll find needlework probes,
a measuring tape that tests electrical currents,
and a pincushion voltage supply!
Irene has participated in a number of exhibitions of her work across the globe, and has researched and designed alongside a number of institutions, including the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, and the V2 Institute for the Unstable Media in Rotterdam. Currently, Irene is a Professor of Design and Technology/Textiles at the University of Art and Industrial Design Linz.
Sources: