GRID INPUTS

Statement

Grid inputs are shared among digital and textile outputs. “Invisible” charts, like paper graphs with blocks of colors, or matrices with numerical values, output data in a similar fashion: as individual, color-coded pixels or stitches arranged specifically on a larger grid (in the form of a textile or digital display). By creating work in these mediums, I am demonstrating the shared origin in textile design and computational data storage.

Background

Grid inputs became an accidental but necessary aspect of my process, starting with the knitting machine. I started by gridding the shapes of a garment and the colors of an intarsia design on graph paper. I used the Brother KH-891 machine, a non-electronic machine that uses a punched card for input. I experimented with punched cards, but became frustrated with the limitations of the design. Designs can be made a maximum of 24 stitches wide.

I later acquired an electric Brother KH-910 machine, which uses a larger, more modern input - a mylar card, or mylar sheet. This allowed me to work with a larger amount of pattern data. The mylar sheet can hold a design 60 stitches wide by 150 stitches tall. These dimensions became helpful constraints in my work and eventually determined aspects of Tigerbob Playing Cards, Undulation, and Tigerbob Mystery Garden.

The electronic hardware on these machines are more than 40 years old and prone to breaking down. It was not long before the mylar card reader became unusable. I replaced the card reader for a hardware/software hack called AYAB. This community project was created to provide alternative control of the Brother KH-9xx series with a computer as the input.

Working my way up from manual hand-charted graphs to non-electric punched cards, then to electronic mylar card readers and finally to the AYAB hack, gave me insight about how textiles and their corresponding grids became instrumental to the design of data storage and modern computing. 

Working back and forth along this chain of digital art and physical outputs made me realize they are both parts of the same whole. “Invisible” graphs or charts, in the form of matrices with numerical values, or blocks of color represented on paper, are interchangeable with their digital or physical counterparts.

Research

A number of textiles are represented by colored marks on paper, like weaving drafts and counted-thread embroidery; however, these charts must be manually read and translated directly by human operation. It was not until the invention of the jacquard loom that charts became readable by machinery, in the form of the first punched cards. 

It was interesting for me to discover that Susan Kare, one of the artists who designed work for the early Macintosh computer, created the work with textiles in mind. Susan Kare had no prior experience working with computers, and found inspiration from what she knew (quote below).

Presentation

On this page you will find a selection of grid inputs I use in my work. I also include examples of how these grids appear output as knitted structures or digital art.

• INTARSIA CHARTS

• MYLAR SHEETS

• COMPUTERIZED INPUT (AYAB)

• GRAPHS FOR DIGITAL OUTPUTS

• PROTOTYPE: CTRL+C, CTRL+V AND GOOGLE SHEETS

Further Reading

DESIGN & PROCESS: Review the DESIGN: PIXEL ILLUSTRATIONS section of this page for a behind-the-scenes look.

19th century hand painted French textile pattern/chart.
(courtesy of Tihngs)

 A page from a book a weaving drafts called “A Handweaver’s Pattern Book, Revised Edition” first published in the 1940s by Marguerite Porter Davidson.

Except from Alex Soojung-Kim Pang “Interview with Susan Kare.” Making the Macintosh, February 20, 2001.