Description
Damian Magee Weaving Record (with punch) - 2018The technologically sophisticated handlooms utilised punch card for translating designs into binary code, making them proto-computers. In the 1960's magnetic tape gradually replaced punch cards as the primary medium for storing computer data. Today, only the last of the master weavers retain the historical knowledge and idiosyncratic computational and engineering skills required to operate these looms. Working in collaboration with one of the only remaining master damask linen weavers in the island of Ireland, with unique access to a loom granted by The Irish Linen Centre, we endeavoured to weave cassette tape as a means to record the weaving process. The tape preserves its original function as a recording medium by existing as a document of its own transformation from line into form. foregrounding the relationship between material, weaver and loom, all mechanical and gestural processes that embody the legacy of the linen industry disappear into the cloth. Meanwhile, the punched out card that formulate the zero's or one's of new linen designs continue to accrue as physical by-products. Fusing archaic mediums with similarly archaic technologies, complex historical narratives unfold through culturally encoded materials and industrial processes.
| Period | 3 Aug 2018 |
|---|---|
| Event title | Linen Biennale N.ireland: A Celebration Of The Past, Present and Future Of Europe's Oldest Textile. |
| Event type | Exhibition |
| Location | Portadown, Northern IrelandShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | Regional |
Keywords
- Linen Biennale Collaboration