SERI(a) 3: Along the Lines is a new issue of the publication series by the State Silk Museum in Tbilisi. SERI(a) is an extension of the museum, whose main purpose is to research and preserve the material and immaterial legacies of its predecessor, the Caucasian Sericulture Station. External curators edit and release this publication irregularly. SERI(a) was conceived by the artist Olaf Nicolai in Tbilisi in 2019 and serves as an international platform for the museum’s various publishing efforts and is itself a kind of archive for diverse documents on sericulture.

The third issue of SERI(a) contains three travelogues across Eurasia. Artist and writer Pieter Paul Pothoven revisits his trip to Badakhshan (Afghanistan), where he traced the unknown logistics behind the most precious deep-blue pigment, Lapis lazuli. Filmmaker and researcher Olya Korsun encounters a craftswoman in Margilan (Uzbekistan) in a setting that combines both the real and the constructed. And artist and human geographer Rouzbeh Akhbari tells the story of an abandoned silk-producing factory in Gilan (Iran) and explains how it turned into a migratory bird’s refuge.

Tim Ingold has developed the framework that served as the main inspiration for the third issue of SERI(a). In his writing – alongside other topics – he focuses on the knowledge and wisdom kept in our bodies. According to Tim Ingold, an endless array of simple and not-so-simple acts constitute a human being. Walking, talking, listening, playing an instrument, cooking, dancing, and creating a silk tapestry—all of the actions executed by our bodies at every moment contain enormous knowledge, which is usually left unnoticed and unappreciated.

In order to better understand this tacit knowledge, Ingold focuses on the concept of a line: the basic and universal element that connects every- thing to everything, and everybody to everybody; a neural impulse that moves at the speed of light from our brains to our fingers; our imagination that can connect an unpleasant political event to a distant historical event; a mundane walk from your home to your work. Everything is made along lines.