Following endless digital threads of information and being in constant touch with ‘hardware,’ it is easy to forget one’s bodily presence and situatedness. Weavings, just like computer coding, are complex automated nettings. Only the point of rupture—a dropped stitch, like a bug in the code, a systemic error—redirects the attention outside of the machine by requesting a manual intervention.
To experience a gesture of repair and an analogue form of ‘networking,’ as a literal and tactile activity, we initiated two hole mending meditations conducted online, with participants at home, to relax the senses while focusing on fixing holes in garments and touching soft textiles. To feel the impact each detail has on a structure as a whole: disruptions in the weave of a garment cause holes to grow. By tracing the dropped stitches and patching up obvious ‘bugs,’ we remediate and re-activate unappreciated clothes without erasing traces of our bodies inhabiting them.