Housework Commons: Textile Rhetorics II

Jocelyn Ho

Image credit: Jocelyn Ho

• Format: Live Performance
• Session: concert-3
• Paper PDF link
• Presence: In person
• Duration: 10

Abstract:

Housework Commons, a feminist activist project under the Women’s Labor initiative, transforms domestic tools into Embedded Acoustic Instruments (EAIs) using sensor technologies. It reimagines unpaid, undervalued domestic labor—traditionally private—as a shared act of activism, addressing global gender inequality in domestic work through public engagement with gendered objects. Housework Commons includes two custom instruments:

1. Embedded Iron v.3, based on an early-20th-century ironing board and iron, uses machine learning and sensors to alter pitch based on the iron’s position and sound quality (timbre) depending on fabric color and texture. The board acts as a resonator with a transducer and speaker.
2. Rheostat Rotary Rack, inspired by a rotary dryer, features rheostats, a rotary encoder, and an 8-speaker base. Hanging clothing triggers pitches based on weight, while rotating the rack by hand or wind adds select frequencies.

The performance of new composition, Textile Rhetorics II for two performers, will feature Embedded Iron and Rheostat Rotary Rack with other objects from the domestic sphere. Central to Textile Rhetorics are woven textile scores and fabric banners that contain living testimonies from women. These testimonies were collected during a past workshop with a mothers’ group, and additional banners will be created during the proposed NIME workshop (separate application). These create a “living archive” installation, a dynamic site where the performance unfolds.