+----------------------------+ | | | Meet me in the loom~ | | | | Experimental Weaving | | | | [February] | | | +----------------------------+
Dear interlocutors old and new,
Last Friday, as I walked home from the studio, I felt the wind carrying a rumor of springs past.
But this week it's solidly winter, the pipes froze, and I have a few words and images, figments and glimpses to share.
Spotted!! New M's and O's towels in use, from Anna (left) and Matt (right). I feel super lucky to see these single-breath-sized textiles living out there in the world. They're everyday backdrops, something materially specific (I can feel their making when I look at them) that can be used in any way, now acclimated to other hands. Especially because I've been weaving in isolation for close to a year, I assume that these intensely personal objects have never been thought about by anyone but me— proof to the contrary is thus teleportation, magic, transubstantiation.
First look: fabric scraps from the coat are now a detached hood, inspired by medieval Greenlandic patterns. Below right, a wool waffle weave with a highlighted grid of floats, destined for a pair of overalls. And below left, a linen turned twill sample I wove as our studio's contribution to a historic draft book study group. In the past weeks I've also dyed and woven my first denim and embossed my first harrateen. The world is wide. And next? I'm starting work on another tallit, again with a playful tack. At the next loom over, my friend Nelly has been fashioning her own ritual garments. Apparently a lot of people are interested, which I think makes sense because the one-at-a-time-ness of weaving infuses the cloth with a spirit or intention that says, this is for you (yes, you) in all the ways you need. Does that resonate?
Speculatively Computational. In the fall, a generous acquaintance asked me what the connections are between weaving and computing (historical, metaphorical, and ontological). It's only recently that I've been able to wrangle what feels related into a list. Please consider this a first-draft constellation:
- in loom-controlled weaving, each end (warp thread) is either above or below each pick (weft thread). so the weave structure of up/down at each point can be represented with black/white on a draft, or with void/solid on a punch card. since Jacquard looms influenced the earliest computers, which borrowed the necessarily binary punch card format, one could idly wonder if this is why computers were built with components that express binary states and Boolean logic.
- when threading, you store the data of each warp end in a heddle. you access that data with treadles to build the weave structure.
- weaving jargon compresses complexity; you have to fill in the blanks. last month, a student wanted to do a herringbone in inch-long stripes and asked how to thread it. i would think of it as straight draw for an inch, then stagger and reverse. that also suggests "why" it works in my mind. someone else might write out the whole 2-inch repeat. nelly won in terms of brevity though, explaining it as 4-3-2-1 x6, then 3-4-1-2 x6.
- weave structures are algorithmic. repeating functions gives the same results. their parts can be taken apart and recombined freely.
- looms are symbol manipulation machines. they give things names that make them easier to work with.
- weaving is discrete and largely bounded by its grid— it has a resolution, it's digital, in contrast to analog shaping systems, and that's why it can be codified into repetition. you have direct access to the atomic units of the substance (cloth).
- weaving gives you ways to count in parallel and in series, with error detection (a lot of parity-preserving operations)
- cloth is a very old operating system that runs software including relationality, signification, communication, pattern recognition, perception, and protection from the elements
- fiber itself is made of lots of little machines — plant cells, protein structures — that respond to tension, moisture, and agitation. weaving only works because those structures were painstakingly assembled by plants and animals. it's computers all the way down.
"Indeed, Ada considered Jacquard's cards to be the crucial difference between the Difference Engine and the Analytical Engine. 'We may say most aptly', she continued, 'that the Analytical Engine weaves Algebraical patterns, just as the Jacquard loom weaves flowers and leaves. Here, it seems to us, resides much more of originality than the Difference Engine can be fairly entitled to claim.' Ada's reference to the Jacquard loom is more than a metaphor: the Analytical Engine did indeed weave 'just as' the loom, operating, in a sense, as the abstracted process of weaving." (Sadie Plant, "The Future Looms: Weaving Women and Cybernetics")
Last and physically least, last month I finished a long-stewing redesign of my website, loom.sprig.site. There's now much more detail about individual pieces, as well as room for writing and videos to illuminate the weaving process and mindset. Encouraged by Gossip's whimsy, I approached it like a middle school science fair poster board, a transient document, and a learning exercise. Hopefully it's also an inviting stop for those curious about what I do—something hard to sum up in a static explanation! Let me know what you think.
Source-Viewer Tip: all the class names on the site are weaving words (some make more sense than others), because why be generic?
Thanks so much for reading, writing, hanging out, meeting me in the loom, etc. I hope your February is short and sweet and full of excitement. And as always, I would be happy hear from you; this loom is a capacious meeting place.
Until next time,
