Making in the Dark: Diffractive Re-interpretations of a Sample Archive

Sample making and documentation are well established practices in digital craftsmanship. However, we rarely discuss how we return to these collections to look for starting points and new understandings. In this provocation, we propose diffraction as a way to describe how we revisit and reconsider samples in different times and contexts. In doing so, we can imagine what other knowledge might be present in them and interpret what else they might do. We use the example of the development of a filtering textile, based on a set of woven samples developed for other purposes and projects. Through this, we show how a relatively simple strategy can support us to investigate material samples and collections through a kind of makers’ science, in which both inspiration and proof may lie in the material samples themselves.