The "Net"

In the context of migration, the textile metaphor of the net is often used, be it migration or refugee networks. They play a central role in this discourse, which I would like to elaborate a little in the following.

The knotting of networks

In the systematics of textile techniques Annemarie Seiler-Baldinger defines nets as perforated knitted fabrics made of one thread by entangling or knotting. Out of this garments with great elasticity and strength were made such as turbans, veils and caps. The knotted fabrics also served as hunting or carrying nets or respectively for fishing. The wide-meshed textiles were made by hand or since 1867 by machines.[2] The special thing about nets is that they can be stretched in all directions. They can be extended or reduced at any time. This flexibility is possible because all linking points are equally distributed over the surface. Therefore, there are no superordinate fixed structures.[3]

At the latest since the development of the World Wide Web, the metaphorical use of this fabric structure to describe relationships in society, politics and culture has been more than obvious. Through globalization and digitalization (Industry 4.0) everything seems to be interrelated or in exchange with everything else. Today, the network is the epitome of universal connections, as the exhibition "Netzwerk” (network) at ifa Stuttgart 2018 also emphasizes—a symbol that explains the world. This old familiar textile pattern makes the new complex interconnections of today's global social and technical processes understandable. It becomes conceivable that networked structures can be limitless combined and changed.[4]

A historical review

The net is used worldwide in many mythologies and religions as a metaphor for capture. People, demons or even the sun can be subdued with it. However, in the meaning of networking to create relationships it is rarely used. This begins only with industrialisation and the mass movements of capital, people and goods caused by it. Instead of being trapped in the net, people now associate equal contacts, temporary affiliations and wide-ranging connections in a positive sense. Networking suggests decentralization and a worldwide democratization of the most diverse areas of society with a previously unknown variety of possible cooperations. Or in the words of Günter Fröhlich: "The new net terms (which have largely lost the meaning of the safety net) assume flatness, equally strong threads, evenly knitted stitches, equality of knots, and at the same time convey a feeling of (not too restrictive) belonging. The net is a metaphor for effortless and at any time reversible socialization; "networking" stands for socialization ‘light’." [5] Fröhlich therefore considered that it is also a strong ideological and illusionary idea that denies both the costs and the compulsory nature of socialization. The only realistic gaps in the network are those resulting from wide-meshed relationships and disparate living environments, the lack of knowledge concerning the surrounding areas and the close-meshed acting of society, politics and the economy.[6]

In the 1970s and 80s, the net metaphor was regarded as an expression of social changes in the name of revolution. In protest and alternative movements transnational networks were established to provide moral support through expressions of solidarity and to strengthen actionism. At that time networking became the key term for resistance against the establishment, but was also used in economic and military actions.[7]

Cildo Meireles, La Bruja 1, 1979-81, Installation with over 6000 kilometers of wool threads and a broom; © Photo by Haupt & Binder

The installation La Bruja 1 (1979-1981) by Cildo Meireles, which was created at the time of the military dictatorship in Brazil, is part of this discourse. In one corner there is a broom, from whose bristles black wool threads first flow into the room only to become intertwined in a tangled web, which changes the character of the room through its haptics. The net spreads like a carpet over several rooms, which the visitors have to walk on. Their steps are softly cushioned, the sound of their stamping partially swallowed. As you walk through the work one could take up different points of view. Threads also come from above ready to form new connections and to thwart predetermined ways of looking at things. The broom reminds us of the process of sweeping to create cleanliness and order. The jerky and sweeping action could tear the net or the broom could get caught in it and come to a standstill. This symbol can be understood in relation to Brazil as an expression of solidarity and resistance in the struggle against a political order of oppression. The black net stands for the silent, secret underground team spirit. It can come from anywhere to overthrow the system of injustice.[8]

"We live ’in the metaphor’
of the net."[9]

Ancient textile techniques have been incorporated into language as pictorial ideas. Again and again they illustrate complex relationships. Net metaphors influence thinking and acting through numerous images and chains of association, thus creating realities. If the contents change new realities can be created.[10] The net metaphor serves as a projection for great hopes to democratize the world. In view of the prevailing confusion in a virtual and fast moving world with anonymous umbrella organisations, the reference to textiles, crafts and manual work promises that there is still room for shaping society.[11]

The metaphorical use of textile techniques and structures in communication is also known as the "mythopoetics of textiles".[12] It refers to the knitting of stories. Every narrative construction always produces a little myth. The question thus rightfully presents itself: which one is created by the migration net or migration network. The metaphor connects the representation of migration with textile production. But if metaphors also structure the sphere they characterize, then the question arises which realities the imagery of the net in today's talk about migration represent or even create.

One example of myhtopoetic entanglements in view of migration is shown in the art installation Uncertain Journey (2016) by Chiharu Shiota. Red networks spray out of iron boat skeletons. They spread out vaporously in the space of the Blain Southern-Gallery in Berlin and connect the rowboats with each other. On the ceiling and the walls the filigree net forms wave arches that surround the visitors. For the woman artist, who grew up in Japan and lives in Berlin, the red yarn symbolizes life. That is why she associates it with blood streams. In Asia this imagery has a central meaning. The whole life runs along a red thread. In a way, it draws the path of life and is a symbol of fate. This idea is continued in the boats that symbolize travel.[13] According to Shiota, the installation is an expression of the uncertain drifting in

times of great change. New technologies of mobility and communication are modifying everyone's life so fast that no one really knows where the journey is heading.[14]

In Europe these and similar works by Shiota are often received in connection with migration. The red net and the boats remind many people of simultaneous reports

on refugees in public media, of the catastrophic