According to the ancient Greek mythology, goddess Athena, protector of wisdom and the arts, gave people the
knowledge of weaving. 'Arachne', a young girl who prided
herself that she can weave better than the goddess, was
punished for her arrogance and disrespect by Athena, who
transformed her into a spider and cursed her to continually weave her web. The weaver 'Arachne', which in Greek means 'spider', gave her name to our loom.
The loom is a machine used for weaving. Weaving is the method of fabric production, in which two distinct sets of
yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles. The history
of the loom is great. Both in prehistory and antiquity various
types of looms are found in all cultures.
A crucial turning point of the history of the loom was when in 1801, Joseph Jacquard using the binary code, built the first automatic loom that could handle complex designs. The loom was controlled by a 'chain of cards', a number of
punched cards, laced together into a continuous sequence. Each card defined a weaving shuttle pass.
Unlike traditional looms, Jacquard loom allowed for individual
control of each thread, which then allowed the weaving of complex designs. Something similar happens in
the case of our own loom.
Exploded drawing of Arachne
Arachne is an interactive weaving system which consist of a DIY loom connected with a computer.
Arachne is controlled by a computer, through Arduino, which is connected with 16 motors that pull the warp. The software which is developed in "processing" analyzesany image and gives commands for weaving. The user is photographed, and then the image is analyzed in 16x23 black and white pixels. Finally, the weaving
begins.
The idea of a DIY loom that works with open source software, can easily be used by anyone under an experimental
as well as an educational process.
Weaving of Arachne with computer set-up
The project was exhibited in "Arduin & P rocessing Interfaces" Exhibition, Dynamo Project space, Thessaloniki and "Interfaces" - Exhibition of interactive installations BIOS, Athens.
In collaboration with Stavros Apotsos, Nassos Rossikopoulos-Pappas
Dynamo Project Space
Dynamo Project Space
©2019