Known for her exuberant sonic investigations of everyday materials like wool and wallpaper, in this Sonic Trail Felicity Ford - AKA KNITSONIK – explores the textiles used in Richard Tuttle’s Turbine Hall Commission: I Don't Know . The Weave of Textile Language.

Listen to the sound of silk worms eating mulberry leaves, viscose being chemically synthesised, fibres being spun on a spindle and explanations about viscose rayon production.

Take this Sonic Trail with you as you explore the Tate Modern's Turbine Hall, thinking about how the vast swathes of textiles were made and the labour involved in their production/ their links to science, history and culture - connecting the wrap and weft of the Turbine Hall commission to the clothes kept in drawers and wardrobes at home

The KNITSONIK recordings feature sounds produced by a small colony of silkworms raised especially for this project; machinery in operation at the nineteenth century Whitchurch Silk Mill; Dr Beth Mortimer of the Zoology Department in Oxford University sharing her research into the particular properties of spider silk – especially how spiders listen to their webs; and Dr Sujata Kundu of the Materials Department in Imperial College revealing how viscose is produced within a laboratory. Finally, sections of old public information films explore how viscose rayon was presented during the last century, and recordings of silk and viscose fibres being spun on a spindle allow listeners to hear these fibres, close-up. 

knitsonik.com

Tate Modern - KNITSONIK AKA Felicity Ford - Sonic Weave . Exploring Silk and Viscose Through Sound

All commercially produced silk textiles originate in the bodies of silkworms. Every year, billions of these creatures are raised to produce all of the silk required by textile industries.
This piece celebrates these insects and is composed of recordings made during their short life cycle. Silkworm larvae hatch from eggs laid by an adult silkmoth. Each of these eggs is the size of a poppy seed. In the next four to six weeks the larvae grow to around three inches in length. To grow at such an amazing rate the silkworms require constant feeding. Silkworms only eat leaves from the mulberry tree. They convert nutrients from these leaves into liquid protein which they store in their bodies. When they are ready, they begin turning this liquid into silk. The silk emerges from glands beside their mouths they use it to spin themselves a cocoon. Each cocoon is made of a single thread of raw silk, which is three hundred to nine hundred metres long. 

Throughout August 2014, Felicity Ford raised a colony of sixty silkworms. This piece is composed from recordings of this colony devouring mulberry leaves and spinning cocoons. The sound of the silkworms eating grows louder as they grow and their jaws get bigger. Towards the end you can hear the silkworms making their cocoons. They create them inside small cardboard tubes, and you can clearly hear the silkworms straining against their own silk threads during this process.

Sound sources

young larvae (two to three weeks old) eating mulberry leaves
ambient living room sounds from the room where the silkworms were raised
older larvae (four to five weeks old) eating mulberry leaves
silkworms making cocoons inside cardboard tubes and straining against the silk threads
the sounds of heater in the room where the silkworms were raised

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Thomas May at the silkwormstore.com for email support, and to Elaine Stobo and Viv Canning for supplying mulberry leaves for the hungry colony.


01. KNITSONIK AKA Felicity Ford - Listening to Silkworms

This track includes edits from the soundtrack of an Encylopaedia Britannica Film: Synthetic Fibers: Nylon and Rayon (1949). This film reveals how modern science and technology have enabled the development of new artificial fibres for textile production. 

In Listening to Rayon Viscose #1 you can hear the description from the film of how rayon viscose is commercially produced. The reeling sound which resembles the sound of an old cinema projector is in fact a recording of the device that the Oxford Silk Group use to reel silk directly from Golden Orb Weaver spiders for research projects. This sound is included as a reminder that modern synthetic textiles like rayon viscose draw their inspiration from spider silk.

Sound sources

soundtrack from Encyclopaedia Britannica Film: Synthetic Fibers: Nylon and Rayon (1949)
motor on device used for reeling silk from Golden Orb Weaver spiders 

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to the Prelinger Archives for making Synthetic Fibers: Nylon and Rayon (1949) freely available and to Beth Mortimer of the Oxford Silk Group, Department of Zoology, Oxford University for allowing the reeling device to be recorded.


02. KNITSONIK AKA Felicty Ford - Listening to Rayon Viscose

This track is composed from sounds recorded during an experiment in synthesising rayon viscose in a laboratory in the Department of Materials, Imperial College, London. It was created with Dr. Suze Kundu, teaching fellow and nanochemist, and the method used is the cuppramonium process. In this process, paper is dissolved in a solution of copper sulphate and ammonia, and then extruded into a solution of sulphuric acid. This changes the material qualities of the cellulose fibres in the paper. The new fibres can be used to produce a light, silky fabric.  

Sound sources

fume hood mechanism for extracting harmful fumes during experiments
copper sulphate solution being created
glass beakers and stirring rods
sulphuric acid and ammonia solutions being diluted 
measuring cylinders being filled with distilled water
vacuum pump for separating solids from liquids
magnetic stirrer
glass pipette extruding dissolved cellulose fibres in sulphuric acid

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Dr Suze Kundu and the Department of Materials, Imperial College, London for providing this amazing insight into the production of rayon viscose.


03. KNITSONIK AKA Felicity Ford - Rayon Viscose Synthesis

The Whitchurch Silk Mill in Hampshire has been producing silk textiles since 1815, when William Maddick  developed the mill as it is today. Maddick was a silk manufacturer from Spitalfields. Since his time, the mill has passed through the hands of many successive owners, and different types of textiles have been produced there including ribbons, serge, material for shirting, and legal and academic gowns. During World War II, silk was woven at the mill for insulating electric cables. Though the mill now uses mains electricity to operate most of its machinery, there is a restored water wheel at the mill which continues to distribute power through the building via line shafts.

Sound sources

old mill clock striking noon
ducks and geese on the River Test
water wheel and millrace
line shaft distributing power from the water wheel to machinery throughout the mill
bobbin-winding mechanism for putting silk onto bobbins prior to weaving
warp beam winder turning 
Marie Page, weaver, weaving silk cloth on a 1960s power loom 
Marie Page, weaver, weaving silk cloth on a Victorian power loom 

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Sue Tapliss and all the staff at Whitchurch Silk Mill for permission to record around the mill, and especially to Marie Page, weaver, for operating the looms so they could be recorded.


04. KNITSONIK AKA Felicity Ford - Silk Mill Rhythms

Have you ever wondered whether spiders can hear or how sounds might travel through their webs? Do you imagine the sounds of a fly hitting a web to be loud or scratchy? How do you think a spider hears those sounds? This recording explores these questions.

The sounds were recorded with Dr. Beth Mortimer in the Oxford Silk Group laboratories in the Zoology Department of Oxford University. You can hear Beth throwing flies into a spider web while a vibrometer is trained on a single strand of spider silk. The vibrometer is a laser that takes precise measurements of vibrations through surfaces and translates them into waveforms that can be heard. One set of ordinary microphones picks up what is happening in Beth’s laboratory, while the vibrometer makes it possible to hear vibrations travelling through the spider silk.

Sound sources

atmosphere in greenhouse where Oxford Silk Group keep a population of Golden Orb Weaver spiders
electronic machinery in Dr. Beth Mortimer’s laboratory
vibrometer recordings of flies hitting spider webs
Golden Orb Weaver spider inside specimen jar
Beth Mortimer catching flies and throwing them at spider webs
Dr. Beth Mortimer describing her research

Acknowledgements

Dr. Beth Mortimer is researching how different spider webs vibrate to transmit information to the spider; this recording was made with her help and is shared with the kind permission of the Oxford Silk Group, Department of Zoology, Oxford University who also provided the image of the spider web. 


05. KNITSONIK AKA Felicity Ford -  Listening to Spider Silk

Our Sonic Trails are pieces of sound art, they let you listen to recordings and compositions created by artists. Some allow you to experience somewhere entirely different to your surroundings, like the clicks and songs of whales and other under water animals while you’re walking through the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern or a choir singing in the Duveen galleries at Tate Britain. Some allow you to imagine the process that went into making a sculpture and some uncover hidden sounds which can normally only be heard at night. 