Madras checks in again at Yale

What are you doing with all these lungis? Harikrishnan’s father was puzzled when he saw his Yale student son among reams of colourful checked fabrics. But the architect and designer was doing more than buying lungis; which were actually fabric in Madras Checks; termed so regardless of whether they are manufactured in villages in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh or in a factory in the US.

Vignesh, a fellow at the Yale Center for Collaborative Arts and Media Studio, is on a mission to revive the ubiquitous Madras Checks, using generative art techniques, supported by Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking (Tsai CITY) at Yale. It all started when he noticed certain contrasts, says Vignesh. “Ralph Lauren Madras Checks shirts sell for upwards of $1000 in the US while no one knows of the weavers who make them in India,” he says. “I have always been interested in experimenting with different mediums and exploring the possibilities of using technology in everyday life.”

And he had a very specific purpose – create avant-garde designs in Madras Checks and re-invent it, eventually bridging the gap between technology, artisans and businesses. Parallelly, he will be putting up an exhibition at Yale of the new designs and creating an open-source website which is already live — madras-checks.com. “It will serve as a digital archive and toolkit designed to document the process and provide open-source generative design templates that allow other designers, researchers, and enthusiasts to experiment with and reinterpret Madras Checks,” he says.


With this intent in mind, Vignesh, originally from Chennai, started out on his research, assisted by the Thinai foundation, an NGO and research organisation which supports local arts and crafts.


“We documented the history of Madras Checks, tracing its evolution from South Indian origins to becoming a global fashion statement. In the process, I collaborated with a clothing brand working with artisans and weavers from Erode to understand traditional weaving techniques and integrate these practices into an opensource generative design tool,” he says.


Interestingly, the fabric’s connection to Yale University, an Ivy League institution, stems from Elihu Yale, a British governor of Madras in the 17th century, who donated bales of cotton and other goods from Madras to a collegiate school in New Haven, which was later renamed Yale University in his name.


Using a pen plotter to mimic the weaving process, Vignesh has developed experimental algorithms that expanded the visual language of Madras Checks while staying true to their essence. “By tweaking the algorithm’s variables and adding more layers of thread, new patterns can be made.” The weavers, he says, were not just open to experimentation but excited about the new designs. “They had been working on the same set of patterns for generations, patterns that were dictated to them. But they wanted more; they just didn’t know how. And that inspired me.”



However, there are challenges as well as the new designs take the weavers longer than the ‘muscle memory’ ones, for which there are no immediate profits, says Karthik Prema Rajakumar, of the Thinai foundation. “But in the long-term, there will definitely be an impact, and right now, we are at a stage of experimentation.”



As part of the project, an exhibition of the Madras Checks from their archives was held at Dakshinachitra Museum earlier this year, which dates to the 1900s. While the exhibition at Yale is expected to be up in Sept next year, Vignesh also plans to take the designs to international exhibitions and biennales in the coming years.



Owing to its complex origins, involving colonisers and the colonised, Madras Checks could never be GItagged, says archaeologist and researcher Ezhil Madhii . “A GI tag is long overdue for Madras Checks as everyone knows where they originated from. But unfortunately there are a set of indicators which decide the procurement of such a tag. We need collective efforts from the part of the govt and other stakeholders as well, to work for the GI tag which the weavers deserve for the future of this fabric; as they have been working without incentive for years,” says Ezhil.



“Madras Checks is our shared heritage — a craft steeped in history. I hope to preserve its roots while pushing its boundaries,” says Vignesh.


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