PHANTOM ORNAMENT

Both elegy and celebration, Phantom Ornament invites the Alcova Miami community into a conversation about cultural heritage, transformation, and the soul of a disappearing design tradition.

Phantom Ornament is a poetic installation that reimagines the legacy of embroidery — once the engine of innovation in Switzerland’s textile industry and a cornerstone of its economic prosperity. Composed from sound recordings of historic Swiss embroidery machines, evolving ornaments emerge as shifting light forms from a precious, last-of-their-kind textile. These luminous patterns evoke historic embroidery motifs — ephemeral, intangible, and in constant motion.

Suspended between extinction and resurgence, Phantom Ornament honors a vanishing industry while positioning embroidery as an ever-evolving, radiant medium. A ghostly continuation of artisanship, embroidery transcends thread as resonance and light, forming a spatial experience that weaves meaning between the material and the immaterial. It unveils the social and economic forces that once drove groundbreaking innovation in textile design — and suggests how they might inspire new forms today.

»By recording the sounds of the last remaining operational embroidery machines, a hidden language is revealed — between human and machine, rhythm and result, pattern and improvisation. What does the heritage of embroidery look like today? How can it remain relevant for the future? And how might we discover new ways of embroidering textiles?
These guiding questions shaped my research, culminating in an audio-visual installation that translates self-generating ornamental patterns — composed from sound recordings of historic embroidery machines — and responds to their unique sonic qualities, which once produced some of the most iconic designs in textile history.«  — SELMA ALIHODŽIĆ

Selma Alihodžić is an architect based between Basel and Tokyo. Her multidisciplinary practice spans architecture, site-specific installations, and cultural mediation, engaging deeply with the memory and material language of form. Bridging artisanal craftsmanship, advanced fabrication, and experimental design, she creates immersive environments attuned to built and ecological intelligence. Her research-driven, empathetic approach integrates precision and artistry. Presented internationally—including at the Venice Architecture Biennale, Seoul Biennale, and Biennale Svizzera del Territorio—her work reflects a sustained commitment to cultural exchange, interdisciplinary collaboration, and material poetics.