'My ideas stem from an interest in the innate and engineered similarities between man and machine and what it means to be human in a technologically homogenised world. In particular how our convergence with technology as a means to communicate and interact effects how we construct our idea of self....
With advice from network engineer Daniel Barella and independent curator and creator of the Open Source Embroidery project Ele Carpenter, I have developed a data fabric. This fabric is woven, using a homemade loom and network cable as a data thread, allowing safe transfer of information through the cable with no interference to the signal strength... Network cable is responsible for forming a connections, transferring data - the blood of the machine. I would like to propose incorporating the data fabric into the architectural fabric of the building, splicing it into the network, into the existing structure, beneath the surface. Fusing the ancient art of weaving with modern technological applications, the work becomes an integrated part of the system with functional as well as aesthetic properties.'
Though these ideas were never fully realised Ele Carpenter has continued to show a swatch of the work as part of the Open Source Embroidery project, exploring the interconnectedness of craft and code. This evolving body of work has led to her undertaking residencies with Isis Arts, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK; Access Space, Sheffield, UK and currently with HUMlab, Umea University, Sweden. And to showings for the Ether (Swatch) as part of Open Source Embroidery: Craft + Code at furtherfields's HTTP gallery, London, and at the HUMlab Syjunta, Sweden.
Images of the creation of the Ether (Swatch):
Images from the recent HUMlab Syjunta show in Umea, Sweden, acting as a conduit to transfer Ian Clarke's web based work PHP Embroidery onto the screen:
