Victoria Manganiello is a textile artist, educator, producer and collaborator based in Brooklyn, New York, and an Artist in Residence at the Australian Tapestry Workshop in 2022. She works primarily with weaving, spinning and dyeing, and increasingly experiments with machine knitting, e-textiles and cooking which have all brought new materials, dimensions, and stories into her woven works. She works with a range of natural and synthetic materials she spins herself; natural bath and vat dyes, fibre reactive and acid dyes, and metallic, conductive yarns.

Material Technology explores intersections between materiality, technology, geography and storytelling through traditional textile-based media alongside technological interventions and e-textiles. This is manifested in a collection of ideas expressed through swatches, textile sketches and experiments; charting Manganiello’s process driven practice from purely analog forms to the inclusion of computer programming and modern technological elements.

Fibre optics, copper and conductive threads are incorporated into the warp and weft of pieces created on cloth looms and knitting machines. Modern electronic technologies are intertwined with the more traditional weaving technologies, both systems essential. Another dichotomy is the feminine associations of weaving and the masculine of computing and electronics. Manganiello reminds us that loom and machine weaving is at its core programming and technology – the Jacquard loom created the foundation for computer programmes of the future.

Through making, Manganiello aims to connect to the environment where she sources organic materials for dyes and pigments and connect to the plants and animals through hand spinning natural fibres. Manganiello is interested in the societal disassociation between the resources and materials we consume and wear and their origins, and what human toll goes into their creation. 'Material Technology' shows us the materials and technology that have gone before, and posits solutions for the future, woven together in the here and now.

Victoria Manganiello's residency is supported by the City of Port Phillip and the American Australian Association.