Textiles as a Type of Decorative and Applied Arts: Constructing a Definition

Abstract

The article is devoted to the construction of the concept of “textile as a type of decorative and applied arts” in Russian art history. An accurate and fully formulated definition helps to build a coherent scientific theory. The need to develop a theory of textiles is long overdue, due to its significant role in the life of society. The difficulties of definitions of textiles as an object of research are related to its interdisciplinary nature and the need to take into account all qualitative characteristics. In the course of the work we analyzed groups of domestic and translated bibliographic sources: reference editions, works of theorists and historians of decorative and applied arts and art textiles. It has been revealed that domestic publications have not yet formulated a universal concept of textile, which would reflect its essential qualities. The methodological argumentation, with the help of which definitions are constructed, has not yet been applied to textiles as a type of decorative and applied arts. In order to form a universal concept, we propose to turn to the proven methodological tools of the method of two-level triadic decoding of categories of the theory of dynamic information systems, which has already shown its heuristics in different fields of knowledge. Identification, comprehension and structuring of fundamental aspects of textile as a kind of decorative and applied arts in the course of consistent application of this method allowed us to formulate the following definition: textile as a kind of decorative and applied arts in the format of dynamic information system is an object or a set of objects of a certain purpose (utilitarian, symbolic, decorative), made of fiber (natural, artificial, synthetic) by means of technology (manual, industrial). The full definition of the category expands and deepens the formal-logical definition that existed earlier in the scientific literature. The present study allowed not only to construct a conceptual apparatus, but also to identify the main categories of the definition, to designate the elements and subsystems of the phenomenon for a more detailed study and formation of the theory of textiles.