Weaving as Binary Art and the Algebra of Patterns

Abstract

T o refer to the Jacquard loom as a precursor of the computer is a common narrative in histories of computing beginning with Ada Lovelace comparing the punched card operated loom with the calculating engine designed by Charles Babbage: "We may say most aptly that the Analytical Engine weaves algebraical patterns just as the Jacquard-loom weaves flowers and leaves." But this does not mean that Jacquard invented the algebra of patterns. He only constructed the first widely known and used mechanism replacing the drawboy by punched cards to feed pattern information into his mechanism. To control a weave means to decide whether a warp thread is to be picked up or not. Weaving has therefore been a binary art from its very beginning, applying operations of pattern algebra for millennia. Jacquard's cards were the end of this story rather than its beginning, reducing the weaver to an operator who had to step on a single treadle repeatedly. This article argues that algebra is already involved in operating shafts or heddles on ordinary looms, that this algebra was applied tacitly until the first weaving notations were developed, and that these notations make the tacit algebra of patterns recognizable to nonweavers: inventors and engineers.

Material syntonicity: Examining computational performance and its materiality through weaving and sewing crafts

“…Fiber crafts occupy a pivotal role in the history of technology innovation (Plant, 1995). For example, the punch cards used in early computers were inspired by the Jacquard loom, which utilized punch cards to program fabric patterns (Essinger, 2004;Fernaeus et al, 2012;Harlizius-Klück, 2017;Plant, 1995). A lesser known but equally compelling example of the connection between weaving and computing is the core rope memory used in the Apollo mission computers and produced by women who wove wires around magnetic ferrite cores (Rosner et al, 2018).…”

“…Surprisingly, despite the historical role of fiber crafts as precursors to and components of the earliest computers (Essinger, 2004;Fernaeus et al, 2012;Harlizius-Klück, 2017;Plant, 1995), fiber crafts are noticeably underrepresented in computer science education (Kafai et al, 2010). It remains underexplored how materials, such as fiber crafts, actively materialize the performance of computer science concepts and, thus, drive domain learning.…”

Cyclic Patterns of Movement Across Weaving, Epiplokē and Live Coding

“…Here we do not refer to the inventions of the industrial age, but the fundamental, structural crossing of warp and weft, with its extremely complex, generative properties to which we have become largely blind since replacing human weavers with powerlooms and Jacquard devices. It is clear that weaving has been a digital art from the very beginning (Harlizius-Klück 2017).…”

“…For it is not possible either to think or to know anything without this". For a comprehensive investigation of Pythagorean arithmetic and weaving with reference to Plato see Harlizius-Klück (2004). 4 For more on dyadic arithmetic, see: <http://www.praetexta.de/psephoi/e_psephoi_01.html>.…”

Fabric-Based Computing: (Re)examining the Materiality of Computer Science Learning Through Fiber Crafts

“…On the one hand, the domestic associations of fiber crafts have been utilized to prevent women and other non-dominant populations from entering Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields (e.g., Barber [2]). On the other hand, fiber crafts-particularly weaving-have been recognized for their connections with computation (e.g., Essinger [5], Harlizius-Klück [8]) and as a precursor of the earliest computers with the Jacquard loom (e.g., Plant [14]). Today, fiber crafts still present sources of inspiration for the future of computing (e.g., Fernaeus et al [6]).…”