Bio
Anette Millington is an artist and designer whose practice is centered on pattern. Anette’s work includes textile sculptures and wall hangings, as well as collaborative design projects that link craft and technology. Her particular focus is textile embellishment, considering relationships between communication and ornamentation. Signaling through pattern and symbol, as found in nature and in cultural practice, is a central element of her inquiry. As an art and design educator, Anette specializes in reflective pedagogy, materials-based thinking, and interdisciplinary methods.
Anette is Associate Director of the MFA Textiles Program and Assistant Professor of Fashion Systems and Materiality at Parsons School of Design. Prior appointments include the School Associate Dean for First Year, the interdisciplinary year of study completed by every undergraduate student at Parsons. Anette has worked in museum education at the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Arts and Design, and the Brooklyn Museum. Her work is currently on view at the Center for Craft in Asheville, NC, in the exhibition Material Reasoning which highlights recipients of the Center’s Materials-Based Research Grant recipients. She has been reviewed online by the blog Hyperallergic, and in print by the Boston Globe. Anette attended the School of Visual Arts for her MFA and received a BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art.
CREATIVE PRACTICE
I create textile sculptures and wall hangings to codify personal memory and mark space. The psychological and spiritual aspects of the pieces are abstract- using pattern and geometry to conceal, transform, protect, retain and release. I work through multiple layers- drawing and painting by hand, making digital surface designs, quilting the textile and sewing 3-dimensional forms. The works are built as blocks- into wall hangings and large interior and exterior sculptures. I use additional techniques- coiling and embroidery, digitally design and machine woven jacquard, beading, to extend ideas.
My material research centers on embellishment, exploring links between communication and ornamentation. Signaling through pattern and symbol, as found in nature and in cultural practice, is a central element of my inquiry. As is the way in which tools and technology impact the formulation of meaning in material form. My research is undertaken by making, beginning with a question or play prompt that is explored in physical prototypes, samples and digital sketches. The outcome of the work is both new materials and design speculation, articulation of craft thinking, and teaching methods.
Current research projects of note include Response Patterns, a project undertaken with the support of the Center for Craft's Materials-Based Research Grant, to invent environmentally responsive embellishment methods for textiles. Working with a collaborating designer and architect, we invent environmentally responsive embellishment methods for textile. Processes include silk screening with photochromic pigment and 3D printing. Another ongoing project is Coded Textiles, which uses computation to generate new possibilities for print, embroidered and woven design. The project mines the intersection of embellishment, semiotics and machine thinking and includes collaboration with creative coders to develop digital sketches, textile outcomes and participatory workshops.
Higher Education Courses Taught @ Parsons School of design
MFA Textiles Major Studio Embellishment
Fashion BFA Design Studio Materiality
BFA Creative Technical Studio
Integrated Studio 2 Fashion
Integrated Studio 1
Digital Surface Design
Drawing and Imaging
Graphic Design 1
2D Design
Drawing