Telar

Telar is a study about weaving.

Weaving is one of the oldest crafts in the world. It's been part of our history for almost 30,000 years.

We are used as species to continuously see patterns generated by millions of binary decisions between colors. These patterns are part of the social DNA of almost every human culture, and their complex aesthetics generated by the most simple inputs are fascinating to me.

This piece, inspired by the mechanism of the Jacquard Loom — which is widely considered the first computer — uses combinations of colors, series, threading, treadling, and tie-up patterns to generate a unique 360-by-360-thread Telar ("loom" in Spanish).

The algorithm called telar.js uses the hash to select some colors from preselected patterns and uses the input series to generate a base model with a starting pattern. After that, multiple iterations alter the model appending new tie-ups and modifying the threading or treadling and colors while keeping the design consistent. A resulting matrix containing each intersection then gets drawn on the screen resulting in a high-definition image the viewer can zoom in and see in detail.

This algorithm takes too many pseudorandom trait values as its inputs that naming them was meaningless, so I would prefer collectors to focus on the subjective aesthetic values of the outputs. Therefore I am hiding the features for this collection.

Press 'S' on your keyboard to save it as a 36 megapixels print. Use the arrow keys to flip between the face and the back of the fabric.