The Critical Crochet Workbook, created by Graduated PhD Student Mikhaila Friske, prompts you to consider how crochet can encode stories and data, to provoke critical reflections on the materiality (and limitations) of data.
An example prompt from the workbook. The data from this prompt is later used to generate a crochet pattern.
You can download the workbook and companion publications below:
Critical Crochet Workbook A book full of activities that introduce you to crochet, data collection, and combinations and reflections of the two.
Companion Crochet Log Book You can use this log book to take additional notes as well as keep track of your crocheting both about and outside of the activities within the activity book.
Loom Pedals are an open-source hardware/software interface for enhancing a weaver’s ability to create on-the-fly, improvised designs in Jacquard weaving. The Loom Pedals include a set of modular foot pedals that communicate between a TC2 digital loom and the AdaCAD software. Shanel Wu led the project with the support of an OSHWA Trailblazers Fellowship and will present this research at TEI 2024.
The loom pedals enclosure and hardware. The hardware communicates foot presses to a server that updates the design software and sendings the modified pick to the TC2. The loom pedals communicate with a “player” in AdaCAD that update the design that is currently being woven. We envision this system offering more than just presses. Like guitar pedals, we imagine different ways that knobs and sliders could be augmented during weaving to bring the playfulness of treadles the complexity afforded by jacquard weaving.
This project aims to form connections across design research labs in human-computer interaction who are hosting artist residencies as part of their research activities.
A group of us met in July 2023 in conjunction with the annual conference on Designing Interactive System to share our insights and strategies for supporting “mutual benefit” when engaging artists in our research practices. You can view the full list of participants and outcomes at:
A Table Weaving is a collaborative project that creates space to make sense of and meditate upon the energy and physical infrastructures required to power the “cloud”. Community members were invited to join the space and encode data into cloth via weaving while listening to an ambisonic soundscape. The event ended with a public celebration where we invited audience members to join us in finishing and unveiling the tapestries created during the community weaving for discussion.
Setting up the installation for a Table Weaving, open Dec 6-8 2023 for community participation.
Community members were invited to follow lift plans that specified the number of repeats based on the values in the data set. Participants came though the space for 2 days and spend about a hour on the looms translating the patterns into cloth. At the final closing event, we cut off and revealed the cloth. The piece in the foreground encodes data about the total size of data stored on the cloud from 2010 and projected into 2025.
Collaborators
Laura Devendorf (she/her)
Laura Devendorf is an assistant professor in the ATLAS Institute and the Department of Information Science at the University of Colorado Boulder where she works and teaches at the intersection of engineering and critical design. She directs the Unstable Design Lab, where she works closely with artists, students, and researchers to develop both provocations and software for textiles design.
Jacqueline Wernimont(she/her)
Jacqueline Wernimont is Distinguished Chair of Digital Humanities and Social Engagement and Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies at Dartmouth College. As a digital media scholar who specializes in mathematic and computational media and their histories, her work includes creative-critical making of multisensory immersive works which she describes as data visceralization.
Steven Frost (they/them)
Steven Frost (they/them) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Media Studies at CU Boulder and an interdisciplinary fiber artist. Their research focuses on textiles, queer studies, pop culture, and community development in public spaces.
Brook Vann(they/them)
Brook is a new media artist based in Boulder, Colorado. Brook explores gender and queerness in their work through motion-capture, sound design and data analysis. They use these various technologies to better understand the abundant and subtle translations between body, space and movement and how they affect gender performance. They have received an MFA in the Kinetic Imaging department at Virginia Commonwealth University in 2021.
The Unstable Design Lab is hosting its fourth experimental weaving residency with the goal of developing new techniques and open-source resources that can co-evolve weaving and engineering practice. Our theme for the 2025 residency, Expanding Experimentation, speaks to our desire to expand how we think about “experimentation” in weaving, looking beyond complex structure to invite explorations around politics, textility, and materiality of weaving. To consider, for example: the politics of craft/technical knowledge within material practice; how weaving animates different stories about technology; legacies of craft as they are felt across different bodies and geographies.
The chosen resident will work with the Unstable Design Lab, as well as researchers from the ATLAS Institute and University of Colorado more broadly, to create a series of swatches and/or resources that take up the theme of “expanding experimentation” in varied forms that can be deployed, adapted, and engaged by a broader public. The key outcome of this residency should be knowledge that can emerge between the resident and the Unstable Design Lab researchers, that can be shared in various forms such as publications, exhibition pieces, open-source recipes, software files, and/or work books.
This residency is best suited to applicants who are comfortable leading their own design and creation processes. While we are happy to share our skills and equipment, there is no dedicated technical support provided to the resident. The resources available to the resident include a desk in the Unstable Design Lab, priority access to a TC2 digital jacquard loom (3W warped at 60 ends per inch), access to other weaving, spinning, sewing, and knitting equipment in the lab, access to traditional and novel weaving materials, programming support for some custom software needs in AdaCAD, and access to the fabrication facilities at the ATLAS Institute.
To help facilitate potential collaboration around shared interests, the organizers will schedule meetings with various researchers during the first weeks of the residency to help the resident form connections and identify the key themes and challenges of the lab. As a collaborator in the Unstable Design Lab you will be working among artists and researchers across many domains of research. You would share immediate lab space with PhD students Deanna Gelosi, Eldy Lazaro, Etta Sandry as well as undergraduate researchers Lily Gabriel and Caleb Loewengart.
Expectations
The resident will be expected to work at least 30 hours per week evolving concepts that address the artist’s interests as well as the curiosities and topics of the Unstable Design Lab team. We expect residents to work in-person, within the lab as much as they are able.
With the resources provided, we hope that this is a generative experience for the resident with outcomes that may include swatches, finished works, performances, events or workshops, etc.
The selected resident must be willing to share any techniques or resources they develop as open-source/publicly accessible documents to both the collaborators and public more broadly. This often includes the production of a catalog to commemorate the residency.
Stipend, Housing and Timeline
Stipend*
$9520 USD
Airfare Reimbursement
$450 USD
Materials**
$500 USD
* the stipend will be taxed by the US government and this may have significant impact for international applicants
** materials budget does not go directly to artist, but is to be spent by the lab during the residency on supplies determined by the artist.
The residency scheduling is flexible but should total 12 weeks, taking place between January and May 2025 in Boulder, Colorado. The resident will receive $9520 as a stipend, $450 towards airfare to and from Boulder, and a materials budget of $500. The artist will be responsible for locating housing and travel to and from the university. International applicants are welcome to apply but should note that the stipend will be lower due to taxes taken by the US government on international workers.
A Note for International Applicants
We welcome international applications. If you are of non-US citizenship, please make note that the stipend will be particularly affected by US taxes on international workers as well as some fees for VISA processing in your country of citizenship. As we reach the later stages of the application process, we may use this information to provide you with more specifics on the taxes you may incur as well as verify with the host university that you would be eligible to work within the institution. We can provide flexibility in the residency dates to support applicants who may be facing additional challenges obtaining a VISA and/or traveling to the US. For more information on the particular program through which we host residents, visit: https://www.colorado.edu/isss/cu-departments/hiringhosting-international-students-scholars/international-scholars-j-h-e-pr/j-1-3
Organizers
Laura Devendorf Director of the Unstable Design Lab Assistant Professor, ATLAS Institute & Dept. of Information Science website
Steven Frost Faculty Director of the B2 Center for Media Arts & Performance website
Etta Sandry Former Experimental Weaver in Residence and PhD Student at CU Boulder website
Selection Committee
The selection committee and organizers will work together will determine the finalists. The organizers will ultimately select the chosen resident.
Sarah Rosalena (she/her) Assistant Professor of Computational Craft and Haptic Media, University of California, Santa Barbara www.sarahrosalena.com social: @sarah_rosalena
Student crafted electrical connectors using household objects.
We’ve been fine tuning the content for an introductory course at CU Boulder called “Experimental Textiles”. The course introduces those unfamiliar with weaving to how woven structure can be usefully deployed to improve or otherwise augment electro-mechanical systems. It introduces those familiar with weaving to basic principles of electro-mechanical systems that can be harnessed in woven cloth. Topics include resistive sensing, electromagnetic actuation, and integrating color change with resistive heat or UV exposure.
After receiving 148 applications, forming a shortlist of 21 applicants, and then interviewing 5 finalists, we (the organizers and wonderful selection committee) are happy to announce that Etta Sandry will be our 2022 Experimental Weaver in Residence.
We chose Etta because her practice resonated strongly with our mission for the residency: to collaboratively produce techniques in response to specific engineering challenges. As a recently graduated MFA student at Concordia, Etta’s practice demonstrates an attention and commitment to sampling and exploring the unique structural formations of multi-layer weaving. We see her aesthetic strongly resonating the values of a craft-practice in its attention to and sharing of drafts, hand crafted mounts that invite engagement and play, and use of bold colors of wool and cotton. It was this aesthetic and attention to documentation that attracted us the most, helping us to conceive of the samples we might create as deeply resonant with craft and practice-based methodologies as opposed to the synthetic feel of prototypes concerning the “future.” Ultimately, we saw this aligning with the arguments made after our lest residency to the field of human-computer interaction. Namely, that when it comes to innovation practices, technologists could more strongly look to craftspeople as stewards of material knowledge and technique and to see them as equally as technical as the bits and electrons that make up engineering practices.
Stay posted for more updates from the residency, set to take place early 2022 and for future calls for 2023 and 2024 artists in residence. Based on the amazing advice of our selection committee, we will also public a directory of experimental weavers compiled from our residency applications and collaborators working in this space and a series of public virtual talks in 2022. Stay tuned. In the meantime, we have published all shortlist applicants, finalists and committee members who have provided permission below.
This program has been funded by the National Science Foundation under grant # 1943109.
2022 Residency Finalists
Jessy Lu, jessylu.com, @lu_jue Jessy Lu is an artist whose work examines the relationship between textiles, computation, and femininity.
Melanie Olde, melanieolde.com, @melanie_olde Inspired by biomimetics, Melanie Olde is an Australian-based researcher and weaver, who investigates movement and sensory experience in three-dimensional cloth.
Victoria Manganiello, victoriamanganiello.com, @victoriamanganiello Victoria Manganiello is an artist, designer, educator, and organizer who uses weaving and textiles to make objects, facilitate experiences, and tell stories that explore how craft intersects with technology, gender, and food.
2022 Shortlisted Applicants
Ana Mosquera Duran, www.anamosquera.com, @anacaribu Ana Mosquera is a Venezuelan artist based in Philadelphia whose work revolves around digital data collection and the creation of simple methods of analysis that interrogate our daily use of technology.
David van Buskirk, dvbart-design.com, @dvbart_design David van Buskirk is a textile designer, weaver and fiber artist. I collaborate with the loom, be it a 20 harness compu-dobby or a primitive weighted warp to explore technical and artistic possibilities inherent in structure and materials.
Kathryn Walters 2021
Kathryn Walters, kmwalters.com, @kw.textiles Kathryn Walters is a PhD student in Smart Textile Design at the Swedish School of Textiles, with a focus on transformative woven textiles, exploring the behaviour of textiles as complex systems with responsive properties.
Kristina D. Aas, kristina-aas.com, Kristina D. Aas is a textile artist and educator based in Bergen, Norway. Her main focus is jacquard weaving on TC-2 and industrial looms.
Laura Splan, laurasplan.com, @laurasplan Laura Splan is an interdisciplinary artist who creates embodied interactions, tactile experiences and sensory encounters to connect materialities of science to familiar domains of the everyday.
Maija Järviniemi, jarviniemi.fi, @mollimaija Maija Järviniemi is a Finnish designer who’s practice sails from experimental weaving to material development and concept creation. Vivid colors and boundary pushing weaving techniques are characteristic to her work.
Nathalie Miebach
Nathalie Miebach, nathaliemiebach.com, @miebachsculpture Nathalie Miebach translates science data related to weather into woven sculptures and musical scores, using basket weaving as her main method of translation.
Raven Saga I am an interdisciplinary designer based in India. I love getting my hands on everything being it materials, softwares, interactions, etc. I explore beyond.
image credit: Mercedes Jelinek
Sasha Baskin, sashabaskin.com, @sashbask Sasha Baskin is a US-based weaver and lacemaker who makes work about the intersection of math, textiles, and digital culture.
Tatsuki Hayama, tomoe.me, @hayamatomoe Tatsuki Hayama is a Japan-based mathematician working on complex geometry. He is also interested in applying math to computer graphics, digital fabrication, and art.
Yun-Hsuan Chang, yunhsuanchang.com, @yunhsuan.c.textiles Yun-Hsuan Chang is a Taiwanese designer-maker who creates innovative woven textiles and uses intimate visual language to carry messages and tell unique stories.
Zoe Romano, zoeromano.eu, @zoescope_ Zoe Romano is a Italy-based independent researcher and craftivist working at the intersection between e-textiles, digital fabrication and care for social empowerment.
2022 Selection Committee
Kristina Andersen, Future Everyday, Eindhoven University of Technology website
Matt Bethancourt, Director, Whaaat!? Lab for Games and Experimental Interactions, website
Sarah Rosalena Brady, Assistant Professor of Computational Craft at UCSB, website
Annet Couwenberg, Fiber and Material Studies, MICA, website
Annapurna Mamidipudi, Scholar and Craft Researcher, website
