</unravel;> Issue 2: Histories or Tales of Future Times
In collaboration with ︎Ellen Jonsson
︎projectunravel.com




Degree Show project _ Knitted artwork + performance
68 cm x 25 m _ Lambswool, laptops, screen, Arduino
</unravel;> is a performance of the making of a knitted manifesto which unravels ideas and preconceptions of binarisms: craft and design, analogue and digital, female and male, zeroes and ones. ︎ Our aim is to challenge gender stereotypes of male-dominated computer hacking, and the domestic female ‘quick and easy’ hobby of knitting. ︎ By looping together conceptual threads, during our Degree Show, we connected the nodes in a network composed of our research and influences. The project also explores the communal spirit of a craft; a space in which people can share thoughts and opinions: craft as a vehicle for political change. ︎ For this project we hacked the Brother 950i Electroknitting machine -model 1984- and produced a 25 meters long knitted essay during our Degree Show.








The concept
Perfectly summed up in the word 'textus', text and textiles are deeply linked and interconnected with coding. Language and knitting are coded systems themselves: a set of rules and functions. In this process of interlacing yarns and ideas, the medium becomes the message. ︎ We found there was no better way to talk about binarisms than by using the binary system par excellence: weaving and the Jacquard loom is the first form of programming. ︎We asked ourselves: In what ways and to what extent can we pursue a mix of old and new technologies? What new perspective will the hybrid outcomes give us on design and communication? ︎ The text is a collection of extracts and quotes by authors that inspire us in our practices: Margaret Atwood, Sadie Plant, Marshall McLuhan, Monique Wittig, Donna Haraway, Anni Albers, Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze; just to name a few.
