Sorry for any cross posting!
Open Source Embroidery: Craft and Code at HTTP Gallery
An exhibition facilitated by Ele Carpenter
Preview Friday 16th May 6-9pm
17th May – 15th June 2008
Open Fridays to Sunday 12-5pm
http://www.http.uk.net/
This exhibition explores the connections between the collaborative
characteristics of needlework, craft and Open Source software. This
project has brought together embroiderers, patch-workers, knitters,
artists and computer programmers, to share their practice and make new work.
The centre-piece of the exhibition at HTTP Gallery is the HTML Patchwork
developed in response to the popularity of quilting in Sheffield, the
result of a participatory project initiated by Ele Carpenter in
partnership with Access Space. The patchwork is built on open principles
of collective production and skill-share where each person contributes a
part to the whole. The final work is a collectively stitched patchwork
quilt of HTML web-safe colours with embroidered codes, and a wiki
website, where the makers of each patch identify themselves and write
about their sewing process. Each patch is personalised by the sewer,
often including embroidered web addresses.
In an interview with Jess Lacetti, Ele Carpenter said about the project:
"The same arguments about Open Source vs Free Software can be applied to
embroidery. The needlework crafts also have to negotiate the principles
of 'freedom' to create, modify and distribute, within the cultural and
economic constraints of capitalism. The Open Source Embroidery project
simply attempts to provide a social and practical way of discussing the
issues and trying out the practice. Free Software, Open Source, amateur
and professional embroiderers and programmers are welcome to contribute
to the project."
The project was developed by Ele Carpenter when working as an artist in
residence at Access Space in Sheffield and Isis Arts in Newcastle upon
Tyne. Access Space is an open access media lab using recycled computers
and open source software. Anyone can drop in and use the lab to develop
their creative projects.
The exhibition at HTTP Gallery in Harringay, North London, includes
works by 11 artists and makers alongside the collectively made HTML
Patchwork quilt and wiki. Other works in the exhibition include Susanne
Hardy’s Knit-a-Blog, a collective knitting project made by contributors
from across the UK and USA, Iain Clarke’s PHP Embroidery, which explores
the open source PHP programming language as a form of self-generating
weaving, as well as artworks by Paul Grimmer, Tricia Grindrod, Jake
Harries & Keith o’Faoláin, John Keenan, Trevor Pitt, Clare Ruddock,
James Wallbank, and Lisa Wallbank.
The HTML Patchwork has been created by people at: Access Space, Art
through Textiles, The Patchwork Garden, The Fat Quarters, Stocksbridge
Knit n Chat, Totley Quilters, Isis Arts, and the Banff New Media
Institute at the Banff Centre for the Arts, Alberta, Canada.
Further info:
www.http.uk.net
www.open-source-embroidery.org.uk
www.eleweekend.blogspot.com
www.access-space.org
Contact:
Lauren Wright, HTTP Gallery
laurenATfurtherfieldDOTorg
HTTP Gallery
Unit A2, Arena Design Centre
71 Ashfield Road
London N4 1LD
+44(0)79 8129 2734
HTTP Gallery is Furtherfield.org’s dedicated space for exhibiting
networked media art. Furtherfield.org is a not-for-profit, artist-led
organisation. Based in North London, we provide an online and physical
platform for creating, exhibiting, commissioning, and discussing
networked media arts.
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