Alpaca

Resources

An incomplete, occasionally updated collection of resources and events related to the Algorithmic Pattern theme. You can find more links via the forum.

Please get in contact if you have something to add!

Projects

  • Culturally Situated Design Tools (CSDT) – showcases many heritage algorithms, with a mission to improve education, justice, and equality through new STEM+C educational methods.
  • Sampler Culture-Clash – Sampler – Culture Clash is a collaborative project initiated by David Littler, bringing the two cultures of embroidery and DJ-ing together to see what might happen when the two cultures clash.
  • Stitching Worlds (2014-2018) – Lead by Ebru Kurbak and Irene Posch, Stitching Worlds blends the territories of textiles and electronics by investigating textile technologies as controversial means for manufacturing electronic objects. The investigation was conducted with critical and artistic intentions through the creation of past-, present-, and future-tense narratives. What if electronics emerged from textile techniques, such as knitting, weaving, crochet, and embroidery?
  • PENELOPE – Research project which ran from 2016 until 2022, lead by Ellen Harlizius-Klück aiming to integrate ancient weaving into the history of science and technology, especially digital technology. The project encompassed the investigation of ancient sources as well as practices and technological principles of ancient weaving.
  • Folding Electronic Textiles – Research project lead by Berit Greinke, investigating how novel soft circuits can be created through constructing electronic functionality as sculpted dynamic objects, rather than as plane surfaces.
  • Intelligent Instruments – Research project lead by Thor Magnusson, studying the impact of creative AI, conducted in the research domain of music, with a broad humanities basis, involving musicians, computer scientists, philosophers and cognitive scientists in key international institutions. Through a streamlined research collaboration protocol, we seek to explore the language and discourse of creative AI, addressing our changed notions of, for example, agency, autonomy, authenticity, authorship, creativity and originality
  • On-the-fly – a project promoting Live Coding practice, a performative technique focused on writing algorithms in real-time so that the one who writes is part of the algorithm. Lead by Hangar Barcelona in collaboration with ZKM, Ljudmila and Creative Coding Utrecht.
  • Kobakant DIY Wearable tech documenation – Excellent e-textile blog with howtos
  • Turing pattern project – collaborative UK-wide activity for primary schools to learn about Turing and use his mathematical ideas to understand more about patterns in nature, lead by Natasha Ellison
  • Low-cost Jacquard handloom – an inexpensive tabletop loom that offers fully computational patterning while maintaining the flexibility of handweaving, by Lea Albaugh.
  • African scholars in fractal inquiry – a curated list
  • Text Visualization Browser – a visual survey of text visualization techniques
  • The TimeViz Browser – a visual survey of visualization techniques for time-oriented data
  • AdaCAD – Experimental drafting tools for experimental weavers, by Laura Devendorf

Events, periodicals and podcasts

Algorithmic Pattern Salon – our own event exploring algorithmic patterns in research and practice. The first edition takes place November 2023.

Computational aesthetics/arts technology

Textiles and craft

Computer science, Mathematics and HCI

Patterns in nature

  • SMB – Society for Mathematical Biology Annual Meeting

Online discussion forums

  • Alpaca forum – our own forum hosting discussions around the Algorithmic Pattern theme.
  • Critical Craft Forum – has an active facebook group
  • Lines – similar to scanlines, leaning more towards the audio side of electronic art.
  • New Media Curating – email-based discussion for those involved in curating, exhibiting, archiving or interpreting new media art.
  • Scanlines – “a friendly place to discuss diy video and audio projects, electronic-based art, and related interests” – leans towards video art.
  • TOPLAP – Temporary Organisation for the Promotion of Algorithm Programming