Voices of Cork: The Knitting Map Speaks

by Kieran McCarthy

Above the earth there is a satellite, which looks down at Cork, and watches the movements of people and cars around the city. Down in the hub, small cameras watch the city in detail, and meteorological equipment tastes the weather. Through up to date technology, this information is transformed into a knitting pattern, which constantly shifts. Down in the city, there is a long room in the crypt of St. Luke's Church, where dozens of people knit for a year. "The Knitting Map" is an amazing project, so many things rolled into one, a textile project, art installation and, a community project. It is mammoth keeping everything going. With the community side, people need to feel rewarded and valued...setting up an atmosphere, which allows people to meet other people and yet the knitting gets done...then you have the textiles...the technology and its unpredictability...the fact that it's not a map of a place but a year...as an art installation and developing the artistic worth of it, finding a forum for it, making connections with other places that the craft of it can be recognized" (Elizabeth O'Dea, half-angel Company Administrator, 2005).
"The Knitting Map" is a fabric art and technology project, created over the 2005 calendar year, in collaboration with several communities, and a newly created community of knitters. Voices chart the memories, dreams and life experiences of the community of "The Knitting Map". The stories are fascinating, diverse and a cross section of the human experience.

• ISBN10: 1845885228
• ISBN13: 9781845885229
• Publish Date: 1 November 2005
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: The History Press Ltd
• Imprint: Nonsuch Publishing
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 144
• Language: English

Reviews

[wyvernfriend]

During Cork's reign as European City of Culture there was a knitting map organised. These are some of the lives of some of the people who took part, mostly female but a few male. As a knitting book it's not such a great read but as a social history and cross-section of knitters it's quite interesting. It's compiled by the organisers who appeared to be more interested in the process than the product. Still worth a look if you want to see into the lives of people in Cork in 2005. It certainly publicised knitting in Cork but this book felt vaguely disappointing, the stories seem to come out of nowhere with no clue as to the prompt that inspired them.