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Friday, Sept. 18, 2026

9:00–9:15am · Welcome Remarks
von Kuster Hall

9:15–10:15am · Symposium Presentations
von Kuster Hall

Fabrics of the Stage (chair: Emily Abrams Ansari^*, Western University)

• Elaine Fitz Gibbon (University of Oklahoma), “Textilic Partners: Music, Cloth and Im/balance in Mauricio Kagel and Ursula Burghardt’s "MUSIK für Tasteninstrumente, Orchester und Stoffe" (1989)”
• Jane Sylvester (University of Missouri, Kansas City), “Costume, Commodity, Craft: The Armani Così and the Fashioning of Contemporary Opera”

10:15–10:30am · Coffee Break

10:30–11:30am · Symposium Presentations
von Kuster Hall

Textile Technologies (chair: Natalie Miller^*, Western University)

• Jung-Ah Kim (Queen’s University), “Listening to the Loom: Sound and Embodied Knowledge in Warp-Weighted Weaving”
• McKenna Sheeley-Jennings (Western University), “From Loomwork to Pedalwork: Performing Technology and Femininity in the Nineteenth Century”

11:30am–12:30pm · Lunch Break

12:00–5:00pm · Art Exhibition
artLAB, Visual Arts Building

Stitching & Rhythm: Textiles and Music Inspired Artwork from McIntosh Gallery’s Permanent Collection

Curator: Tricia Johnson

12.30–1:30pm · Fridays@12:30 Concert Series
von Kuster Hall

The Sounds of Women’s Work

Part of the Don Wright Faculty of Music’s Fridays@12:30 concert series, this chamber concert with a musical exploration of traditional women’s textile work features the music of Canadian composers Cecilia Livingston, Omar Daniel^*, and Ann Southam

2:00–3:00pm · Symposium Presentations
von Kuster Hall

Depicting Music in Fabric (chair: Sheri Nault, Western University)

• Caleb Herrmann (University of Chicago), “Cantologies in the Weave: Violeta Parra's Textile Theories of Song”
• Jonah Francese (University of Chicago), Natalie Farrell (Ball State University), and Rachel Chery (University of Chicago), “Sewing a Simulacra: Quilting Cotton, Commodification, and Faux-Legible Music”

3:00–3:30pm · Coffee Break

3:30–5:30pm · Community Gathering
artLab, Visual Arts Building

Stitching & Rhythm

In this drop-in event for the community, participants will be able to view the art exhibition “Stitching & Rhythm”, listen to live craft-inspired music, and stitch musical analyses of one of these works.

5:30pm · Reception
Cohen Commons, Visual Arts Building

Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026

9:00–10:00am · Introduction to “between systems and grounds”
von Kuster Hall

Olivia Valentine (bobbin lace making) and Paula Matthusen (live electronics) 

10:00–10:30am · Coffee Break

10:00–4:00pm · Installation
Music Building room 114

between systems and grounds

Olivia Valentine (bobbin lace making) and Paula Matthusen (live electronics) 

In this interdisciplinary performance, electronic sounds shape the continually-growing textile, while the textile-making sounds trigger new music in an artistic feedback cycle.

10:30am–12:00pm · Symposium Presentations
von Kuster Hall

Analytical Analogies (chair: Kristen Wallentinsen, Rutgers University)

• Lee Cannon-Brown (McGill University), “Ann Southam's Knitted Rows”
• Natalie Miller^* (Western University) and Lauren Shepherd (University of Nebraska-Lincoln), “Patterning Sounds and Stitches: Analogy and Repetition in Crochet and Music Notation”
• Jessica Narum (Baldwin Wallace University), “Tight-knit, loose-knit: Mapping the Conceptual Blends of Music Theory and Fibre Arts Metaphors”

12:00–1:30pm · Lunch Break

12:00–5:00pm · Art Exhibition
artLAB, Visual Arts Building

“Stitching & Rhythm: Textiles and Music Inspired Artwork from McIntosh Gallery’s Permanent Collection” (subject to change)

Curator: Tricia Johnson 

1:30–3:00pm · Symposium Presentations
von Kuster Hall

Weaving and Knotting Memory (chair: Rena Roussin^*, Western University)

• Morteza Abedinifard (McGill University), “Weaving Sound: Texture and Timbre in Hossein Alizadeh’s Gabbeh”
• Alyssa Cottle^* (Western University): “Sounding Wire and Wool: Constanza Piña’s Khipu: Electrotextile Prehispanic Computer (2018)”
• Yijing Li (Western University), “Exploring Eco-Feminism in Ursula Handleigh’s Craft alternative photography”

3:30pm · Performance
von Kuster Hall

winter harvest

Erin Konsmo (digitized fish-scale art) and Melody McKiver (viola and loop pedals)

Métis visual artist, Konsmo, and Anishinaabe musician/composer, McKiver, will offer a collaborative performance exploring the connection of their art practices to the land.

Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026

9:00am–4:00pm · Installation
Music Building room 114

between systems and grounds

Olivia Valentine (bobbin lace making) and Paula Matthusen (live electronics) 

In this interdisciplinary performance, electronic sounds shape the continually-growing textile, while the textile-making sounds trigger new music in an artistic feedback cycle.

9:00–10:30am · Symposium Presentations
von Kuster Hall

Identities of Place (chair: Alyssa Cottle^*, Western University)

• Lindsay Campbell (City University of New York), “Knitting Patriotism: The Life of Knitting Songs in the United States during the Great War”
• Hannah Snavely (Stephen F. Austin State University) and Isabel Mekis (“cantora” and embroiderer), “Rapelinos Somos: Archiving Local History through Song and Textile Work in Chile”
• Božena Čiurlionienė (The Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre), “Rhythms and Symbols in the Weave: Lithuanian Ethnic Sashes and the Music of M. K. Čiurlionis”

10:00–11:00am · Coffee Break

11:00am–12:30pm · Symposium Presentations
von Kuster Hall

Spiritualities and Spiritual Cosmologies (chair: Jeremy Francoeur, Western University)

• Jennifer W. Kyker (University of Rochester), “Music, artisan craft, and spiritual cosmologies in Zimbabwe's retso cloth”
• Victoria Romano (University of La Verne) and Hannah Snavely (Stephen F. Austin State University), “A Triptych on Tabitha: Patching Together an Oratorio”
• Stephanie Mueller and Klaus Erika Dietl (Dressed in Sound), “Sharper Than A Needle: Queer Textile Machines, Sonic Labour, and Non-Human Textile Practices”

12:00–5:00pm · Art Exhibition
artLAB, Visual Arts Building

“Stitching & Rhythm: Textiles and Music Inspired Artwork from McIntosh Gallery’s Permanent Collection” (subject to change)

Curator: Tricia Johnson

12:30–1:30pm · Lunch Break

1:30–2:30pm · Symposium Presentations
von Kuster Hall

Textilic Analysis (chair: Jonathan De Souza^*, Western University)

• Judith Ofcarcik (James Madison University), “Resilient Threads”
• Sophia Wetzel (University of Chicago), “Reading Patterns: A Reappraisal of Music Analysis”

2:30–3:00pm · Coffee Break

3:00–4:00pm · Symposium Presentations
von Kuster Hall

Tailored Swift and Fandom (chair: Norma Coates^*, Western University)

• Kate Galloway (Wilfred Laurier University), “Handmade Frequencies: Fiber Arts as Embodied Listening at the Intersection of Fandom, Sound, and Materiality”
• Lillia Whittington (Iowa State University), “Long Live”: Crafting Collective Memory Through DIY Concert Attire at Taylor Swift’s ‘The Eras Tour’

4:00pm · Closing Reflections
von Kuster Hall

^*Western Music faculty or postdoctoral fellow