Dr. Pathitta Nirunpornputta
Abstract :
The Doll House of Curiosity explores memory, inheritance, and material transformation through the encounter with an old silk once belonging to a grandmother, creased, timeworn, and long kept in a mother’s cabinet. Rediscovered during the grandmother’s funeral, the fabric surfaced among objects passed on to family members, carrying traces of domestic history and silent affection embedded in its folds.
Instead of cutting or restoring the material, the fabric was scanned and layered with new digital motifs—floating eyes that drift across planes of recollection. These eyes evoke curiosity and remembrance, questioning the afterlife of objects: when the body departs, where do the things that once surrounded it go?
Through the synthesis of digital process and textile memory, the work reconfigures inherited material into a contemporary visual language. Layers of image and emotion merge the tactile and the ephemeral, the personal and the technological.
The Doll House of Curiosity embodies the spirit of “Synthesis: Aesthetics”, revealing how aesthetic experience can arise through the interplay of memory, technology, and emotion. By reimagining the intimate relic of everyday life, the work becomes a quiet reflection on loss, continuity, and the beauty that lingers between what remains and what transforms.
Objectives :
- To examine the connection between material memory, emotional inheritance, and sustainability.
The project seeks to explore how inherited textiles can become mediators of memory and emotion, linking the intimate act of keeping with the broader notion of sustainability. By engaging with the silk once belonging to a grandmother, the work examines how memory resides within material, and how creative re-interpretation can extend the emotional life of inherited objects. This inquiry reflects on the cultural and personal dimensions of sustainability, where preservation, sentiment, and transformation coexist.
- To experiment with the synthesis of traditional silk weaving and digital layering techniques.
The process aims to merge craft traditions and contemporary digital design through iterative experimentation. By scanning, re-weaving, and digitally overlaying motifs derived from the original silk, the project investigates the dialogue between touch and technology, between the handmade and the algorithmic. This synthesis seeks to generate new aesthetic possibilities that honour traditional craft while embracing digital innovation.
- To transform leftover and discarded textiles into a new form of aesthetic reflection that values continuity, care, and responsible creation.
The project reuses silk fragments and fabric remnants to create a “portable house of memories” — a symbolic artefact that embodies emotional and environmental care. Through practice-led exploration, it demonstrates how acts of making can function as preservation and renewal, fostering an ethical relationship between maker, material, and memory.
Conceptual Framework :
The conceptual framework of The Doll House of Curiosity is grounded in the intersection of memory, materiality, and sustainability, forming a dialogue between the emotional, the tactile, and the ethical. Personal memory acts as the point of departure—represented by the inherited silk fabric that carries traces of time, affection, and domestic intimacy. This memory material becomes a living archive, embodying the relationship between family history and creative continuity.
Material transformation functions as both process and metaphor. By re-weaving fragments of old silk and combining them with discarded textile remnants, the work redefines value through reuse and renewal. The act of making—folding, stitching, layering—serves as an inquiry into how care and continuity manifest within material practice. The framework therefore aligns sustainability not only with environmental consciousness but also with the emotional endurance of objects and the preservation of personal narratives.
Through the integration of craft and digital processes, the project explores how aesthetic expression can emerge from synthesis: between analogue and digital, between the handmade and the algorithmic, between the remembered and the reimagined. In doing so, it proposes that emotional inheritance and ecological awareness can coexist as parallel forms of creative responsibility, revealing how beauty arises from the intertwining of memory, technology, and transformation.
Process / Methodology :
The creative process adopts an autoethnographic and practice-led approach, intertwining personal memory, domestic craft, and digital experimentation. The exploration began with the rediscovery of an inherited silk fabric—an intimate object tied to familial memory. This material became a site of reflection on inheritance, loss, and continuity.
Inspired by The Enchanted Doll’s House (Robyn Johnson, 2002) and recollections of Sylvanian Families dollhouses cherished in childhood, the work revisits the dollhouse as a metaphor for containment and memory. The house becomes both a physical and emotional structure—a symbolic archive of moments once lived.
To translate this idea, various craft-based and experimental techniques were explored, including paper folding, quilting, and miniature architectural modelling. These were combined with digital design processes, where conversation with AI tools was used to generate patterns for a wearable “bag-house” prototype—a portable form that metaphorically carries “a home of memories” beyond domestic boundaries.
Through the act of making, reflection, and digital synthesis, the process reimagines sustainability not only in material reuse—such as weaving old silk fragments and leftover textiles—but also in preserving emotional heritage. The methodology, grounded in self-reflection and iterative creation, merges craft, technology, and storytelling to materialise a dialogue between memory, sustainability, and imaginative continuity.
Techniques and Materials :
Techniques:
The work integrates both traditional and digital techniques through a reflective and experimental making process. Methods include scanning and digital layering of textile patterns, paper folding inspired by dollhouse architecture, and quilting techniques derived from domestic craft traditions. The practice of reweaving silk fragments and fabric leftovers connects to sustainable making, while AI-assisted pattern generation is employed to design a prototype of a fabric bag inspired by the structure of a dollhouse—transforming an object of play and memory into a portable art form. Each stage of the process merges handcraft, digital intervention, and emotional reflection.
Materials:
The material selection draws from a combination of inherited, personal, and reused textiles, creating a multi-layered archive of domestic memory. The core handwoven silk—originally belonging to the grandmother—was intentionally not cut or altered; instead, it was scanned and transformed into new digital textile motifs to preserve its integrity. Alongside this, the project incorporates fabrics from the mother’s long-kept textile collection, as well as pieces from the artist’s own collection, reflecting intergenerational continuity through material culture. Leftover and scrap fabrics from previous works further support the project’s sustainable ethos, allowing discarded fragments to gain renewed meaning. Additional materials include:
- Reused handwoven silk inherited from the grandmother (scanned to create digital textile layers rather than being physically altered)
- Fabrics from the mother’s personal textile collection
- Fabrics from the artist’s own accumulated collection
- Leftover and scrap textiles from past fashion and textile projects
- Digitally printed fabric layers derived from scanned silk motifs
- Cotton threads, quilting materials, and domestic craft supplies
- Paper and lightweight interfacing for architectural folding structures
- Digital design tools and AI-based pattern generation software
Result / Conclusion :
The project culminates in a textile-based installation and a series of experimental bag prototypes that merge memory, sustainability, and imagination. Through the synthesis of re-woven silk fragments, digital layering, and craft-based construction, The Doll House of Curiosity becomes a portable space of remembrance — a “home” that carries emotional residue beyond its original boundaries.
The making process reveals that sustainability can be experienced not only through material reuse but also through the continuity of affection and memory. By transforming discarded fabrics into new tactile forms, the work demonstrates how craft, digital technology, and personal reflection can coexist to generate a new aesthetic language of care and transformation.
Ultimately, the project concludes that the act of making — guided by autoethnographic reflection and practice-led experimentation — becomes a method of preservation: of materials, of memories, and of self. The work situates itself within the framework of “Synthesis: Aesthetics”, offering an intimate exploration of how beauty, memory, and sustainability interlace through the emotional and material layers of creative practice.
References :
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