The Dark Dark Ages : Ontological Speculations in Text and Textile

The work The Dark Dark Ages consists of textile explorations and a book. A central aspect of the work involves using text and textile as a foundation for formulating and expressing ontological speculations as a kind of alternative historiogra- phy. I use the intersection of text and textile as a way to explore concepts such as reason/speculation and truth/ myth, but also to reimagine material and materiality. The title refers to the idea of the Middle Ages as a spiritually and intellectually dark period in our history. This character- ization is nowadays considered inaccurate and misleading, which is central to my concept. The project can be said to build on a misunderstanding of history and, from there, attempts to patch together a narrative. The paper is designed somewhat like a lexicon, with words listed and described. The words loosely follow the alpha- betical order – a system that maybe seems well structured and represents a kind of linguistic logic, but which doesnot necessarily correlate with the world it describes. In the text, I speculate about other perspectives to start from when attempting to describe the world.