Tineola Bisselliella (clothes moth)

Test setup (conducted by Insect Services, Berlin):

Thirty clothes moth larvae at different stages of development and 30 adult clothes moths are placed in one box on a pleated piece of silk fabric and in another box on a non-pleated piece of silk fabric (= four boxes in total).

The boxes prepared in this way (dimensions 17 x 13 x 6 cm) are closed with transparent lids (a gauze window on the side allows air exchange) and stored in darkness under standard breeding conditions for clothes moths (24° C room temperature, 60 % relative humidity).

The activity of the moths was documented photographically and on film for eight weeks.

The increase in surface area through pleating is used in a powerful and demonstrative way (see blog „Potenz(ierung)“).The clothes moths undermine this solely on the basis of their basic needs — by eating collectively, they deconstruct the powerful staging that materialises in the pleated silk.The search for the moths‘ preferred habitat on pleated and non-pleated silk questions the extent to which the textile enhancement of a fold can also offer protection. One of the most significant connections between textiles and the human (skin) body is the fold. It can be a (material) reference to the body and at the same time a (human) potential for movement and flexibility. Traces of feeding and waste further testify to the clear connection between body and material, with which the experimental time (here, lifetime) is also manifested in the material. References to the material properties analysed by Heidi Helmhold can be identified: textiles memorise, are body-affine and ephemeral.

Also of interest are transubstantiation processes, forms of incorporation of spatial constitutions, and circular processes of production (silkworm/mulberry silkworm) and dissolution (clothes moth). In addition, parasitic strategies are examined that emphasise the threshold and design the textile surface analogously to the skin.

The project was initiated with Thomas Neumann.