[spectre] Open Source Embroidery: Craft and Code at HTTP Gallery

[marc garrett]

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.