moth
Author’s Reasoning: How Communication Theory Works in Design and Contemporary Art
In design and contemporary art, communication theory works less like a set of rules and more like a way of thinking. Rather than helping us transmit clear, fixed messages, it helps us understand how meaning is created, negotiated, and sometimes misunderstood. Art and design rarely function as a straight line from sender to receiver. Instead, they operate through dialogue, context, and interpretation.
As presented in the communication theory course, communication is understood as a process of meaning-making. Designers and artists work with symbols — materials, textures, colors, forms — that audiences interpret through their own experiences and cultural backgrounds. Because of this, meaning is never fully controlled by the author. What the artist encodes into an object may be decoded in unexpected ways, and this gap between intention and interpretation is not a problem but a vital part of communication.
Communication theory helps explain why ambiguity, instability, and even confusion are so powerful in contemporary art. These elements introduce «noise» into the communicative process, challenging ideas of clarity, efficiency, and perfection. In this way, communication becomes an open process rather than a closed statement, allowing multiple readings to exist at once.
Presentation for a general audience
«Moth» is a destructive fabric laboratory.
If silkworms are known for creating fabric, moths are known for destroying it — and this act of destruction is at the heart of our practice. We create custom-treated canvases that appear torn, corroded, dissolved, rusted, moldy, aged, or decomposed. Each piece carries visible traces of time and erosion. Some fabrics feel as though they have survived years of neglect, while others look fragile, almost as if they might disappear at any moment.
«Moth» is made for artists, performers, and creators who are not searching for perfection or long- lasting materials. We do not promise durability or conventional beauty. Instead, we offer fabrics that already contain tension, damage, and history. Our materials can become part of artworks, installations, performances, stage design, or experimental fashion. By choosing «Moth», you choose disorder as a creative starting point. We help you destroy fabric so that you can build meaning from what remains.
Presentation for a professional audience
«Moth» operates as a material research laboratory focused on controlled fabric destruction as an expressive tool.
Positioned at the intersection of contemporary art, material experimentation, and critical design, the brand treats fabric not as a neutral surface but as a carrier of time, vulnerability, and ideology. Through processes of tearing, corrosion, chemical aging, and visual decomposition, material damage becomes an intentional design parameter rather than a defect.
The laboratory embraces controlled unpredictability and resists conventional standards of durability and finish. Each canvas is developed through collaboration and conceptual alignment rather than efficiency or mass production. As a result, the materials function as semiotic objects that evoke entropy, memory, loss, and resistance to industrial perfection.
«Moth» aligns itself with interpretive and critical design practices, where objects are understood as communicative events rather than commodities. The distressed fabric does not deliver a single message; instead, it invites interpretation, embodied experience, and reflection.
«Moth» does not communicate perfection. It communicates time, loss, and the beauty of things falling apart.
How Communication Theory Informed the Brand Presentations
The communication strategy of «Moth» is directly informed by the theoretical framework presented in the online course. At its core, the brand adopts an interpretive rather than an objective approach to communication. Instead of attempting to control how audiences understand the work, the brand allows meaning to emerge through interaction, context, and interpretation. The semiotic tradition plays a central role in the brand’s identity. Destroyed fabric functions as a system of signs: tears suggest vulnerability or violence, rust and mold evoke time and neglect, and decomposition points to impermanence. Even the name «Moth» works symbolically, reversing the familiar narrative of fabric production and reframing destruction as a creative force.
The phenomenological perspective is reflected in the emphasis on experience. The fabrics are meant to be encountered physically and emotionally. Meaning develops through touch, visual instability, and material fragility rather than explanation. This reinforces the idea that communication is not only cognitive, but also sensory and embodied.
Socio-cultural and critical traditions are present in the brand’s resistance to dominant values such as productivity, cleanliness, and permanence. By aestheticizing decay, «Moth» questions industrial and capitalist ideals of perfection and durability, positioning material breakdown as a form of cultural critique.
Finally, the rhetorical tradition explains why the brand speaks differently to different audiences. The general presentation relies on metaphor and accessible language, while the professional version uses theoretical and disciplinary terms. This adaptation reflects an awareness of audience, context, and communicative purpose, while keeping the core meaning consistent.
Craig, R. T. Communication Theory as a Field // Communication Theory. — 1999. — Vol. 9, No. 2. — P. 119–161.
Hall, S. Encoding/Decoding // Culture, Media, Language. — London: Hutchinson, 1980. — P. 128–138.
Barthes, R. Mythologies. — New York: Hill and Wang, 1972. — 159 p.
Goffman, E. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. — New York: Anchor Books, 1959. — 259 p.
Communication Theory: Bridging Academia and Practice: online course materials.
Все изображения из личного архива авторов.
