Analyzing cultural tilings

1
Analyzing cultural tilings

• Both frieze and wallpaper classification have
  been used to analyze cultural artifacts
• Incan and Maori strip patterns (Marcia Ascher in
  Ethnomathematics)
• African textiles (Washburn and Crowe in
  Symmetries of Culture)
• the patterns on the Alhambra (http//weasel.cnrs.h
  umboldt.edu/spain/alh/index.html)

2
Questions

• Does a culture make use of all possible
  classifications?
• Can works from different cultures by identified
  by the classifications they use?
• Is a break from a symmetric pattern seen as
  pejorative or part of the design ethic?

3
Examples

• Kuba cloth
• produced by the Kuba people (found in the
  Democratic Republic of the Congo)
• examples of raffia cloth weaving

From the African Conservancy Gallery