During an associate residency at KHOJ a large textile environment was developed that enables interaction, performance and response; it is an investigation in form and process through an expanded use of textile systems and materials. The ephemerality of textile systems creates a space that is dynamic, adaptive and responsive. An elastic surface formation needs to follow an organisational and material principle that defines its relation to the body and its spatial properties. Change is inherent in working conditions, family structures, modes of inhabitation, cultural aspects, social boundaries and identity. If architectural space is to reflect this, it needs to be understood as a second skin between people, a programmable surface.

The performative is addressed here as the organisational, structural and material expression of an “un-figured”, non-final form undergoing change in operation that stimulates sensation and experience. Through an immediate translation from typologies and dynamic principles of garments into material, structure, detail and fabrication a spatial shift is expressed through various surface formations. Instead of predetermined styles, forms or change options, intermediate or transitional stages are a key characteristic of a spatial textile device is that it incorporates interaction, adaptation, modification, response and differentation – all by the participation of users. An elastic space evolves with the presence of the body.

This “structural mesh” enables a change that processes a response between users, a social interaction and establishes a shared inhabitable environment. It is in that sense more than a geometrical operation, more than an animated, deformed surface: it is a principle that enables space to change form, to become unstable in order to offer an immediate spatial and relational experience.

As part of the global Triangle Arts Trust, KHOJ sees its role as an incubator for art and ideas, artistic exchange and dialogue in the visual arts. Through its programming KHOJ aims to assist and develop, forms of art such as media art, performance, video, environmental, public and community based art, sound and other experimental modes of cultural production.