The Open Source Embroidery

The history of computing as craft began with the Jacquard loom (1801), the first programmed machine which used binary punch cards to design woven patterns. The loom inspired Charles Babbage in his design of the Analytical Engine, often described as the precursor to the modern computer. Flare Productions’ documentary film about Ada Byron Lovelace, To Dream Tomorrow (2003) highlights the significance of her extensive notes about the Analytical Engine, and her insight into the potential of the machine to operate not just as a calculator of numbers but also as a computer of symbols and information. Richard Hamilton also featured Ada Lovelace in a poster campaign to save free public entry for the South Kensington Museums in London (1998). Issues of access to code and culture are still pertinent questions of our time.


The Open Source Embroidery exhibition brings together individual and collectively made artworks by artists, crafts people, computer programmers and html users which explore the relationship between craft and code, physical and digital space. The artworks experiment with interdisciplinary approaches to modifying patterns, the DIY culture of hacking and sampling in sound, GPS and mobile technologies.

Open Source Embroidery is curated by Ele Carpenter, HUMlab Research Fellow in partnership with BildMuseet, Umea, Sweden. The exhibition has been developed by BildMuseet and the Museum of Craft and Folk Art, San Francisco