threads of time - 12
i can't believe i've done a third piece for this! nor can i believe that we have almost reached the end of the project
in a few days we hand in our pieces so that the exhibition can be set up for opening on june 10th - so i've finished everything in good time and it's all packed up and waiting - it feels odd for me to be all sorted out in time, no last minute rush or panic as the deadline looms ..... when i think of the struggle my teachers had to get homework out of me!
a few weeks back i started thinking about how technology influences the way we record, store and share information - the parchment scrolls from the archive, written in their archaic language and scripts, with tally sticks recording debts to be settled for both parties - coloured fluid, a smooth portable surface, wooden sticks and a knife ...... low tech to us but standard technology at the time - so i started work on a piece about the way information has been encoded and recorded with different technologies: yarn with knots and beads, punch cards and tape, mark making on & in surfaces, electronic recording involving complex equipment
and it ended up like this:
the backs of the labels are made from fabrics i used in the first two pieces (scripts and scrolls), they are attached to my own version of tally sticks with yarns made of linen, paper and cotton - the yarns are knotted and beaded, two of them have dates in knots which refer to Threads of Time - the label fronts include a Q code (for Threads of Time), a bar code and punch tape (some of which is encoded with the word Wittewronge) - all propped in a hopsack which refers to the brewery which helped finance the Wittewronge's progress - i wish i had some hops to top it off with, maybe i'll find some
i really like that i've used such a mix of technology to make this, from whittling sticks to digitized computer embroidery, it's been a really involving piece, fitting all the references together in a way which pleases me - i feel happy with this
and i'm still thinking ........ about the relationship between access to information and access to the relevant technology - like how books got cheaper after the introduction of paper and movable type while increasing literacy also increased the demand for books - how limiting access to information can affect individuals, societies and cultures
this project has sparked so much for me, although it is drawing to an end i feel i have enough to keep me going for quite some time if i keep unwinding this thread
PS a large part of the fun of making this piece came from the codes used - finding out how the original information was encoded to produce the pattern - applying that process and transferring the patterns into various media - it became an intellectual challenge as well as a practical one
in a few days we hand in our pieces so that the exhibition can be set up for opening on june 10th - so i've finished everything in good time and it's all packed up and waiting - it feels odd for me to be all sorted out in time, no last minute rush or panic as the deadline looms ..... when i think of the struggle my teachers had to get homework out of me!
a few weeks back i started thinking about how technology influences the way we record, store and share information - the parchment scrolls from the archive, written in their archaic language and scripts, with tally sticks recording debts to be settled for both parties - coloured fluid, a smooth portable surface, wooden sticks and a knife ...... low tech to us but standard technology at the time - so i started work on a piece about the way information has been encoded and recorded with different technologies: yarn with knots and beads, punch cards and tape, mark making on & in surfaces, electronic recording involving complex equipment
and it ended up like this:
the backs of the labels are made from fabrics i used in the first two pieces (scripts and scrolls), they are attached to my own version of tally sticks with yarns made of linen, paper and cotton - the yarns are knotted and beaded, two of them have dates in knots which refer to Threads of Time - the label fronts include a Q code (for Threads of Time), a bar code and punch tape (some of which is encoded with the word Wittewronge) - all propped in a hopsack which refers to the brewery which helped finance the Wittewronge's progress - i wish i had some hops to top it off with, maybe i'll find some
i really like that i've used such a mix of technology to make this, from whittling sticks to digitized computer embroidery, it's been a really involving piece, fitting all the references together in a way which pleases me - i feel happy with this
and i'm still thinking ........ about the relationship between access to information and access to the relevant technology - like how books got cheaper after the introduction of paper and movable type while increasing literacy also increased the demand for books - how limiting access to information can affect individuals, societies and cultures
this project has sparked so much for me, although it is drawing to an end i feel i have enough to keep me going for quite some time if i keep unwinding this thread
PS a large part of the fun of making this piece came from the codes used - finding out how the original information was encoded to produce the pattern - applying that process and transferring the patterns into various media - it became an intellectual challenge as well as a practical one
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