Oiko-nomic Threads
Oiko-nomic Threads is a collective project by Afroditi Psarra, Maria Varela and Marinos Koutsomichalis, commissioned by the Greek National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST) and the National Documentation Centre (EKT) in Athens.
Oiko-nomic Threads is an installation for an algorithmically controlled knitting machine and open data.
Oiko-nomic Threads represents a system commenting on the notion of work through the production of a knitted textile.
By rethinking and redefining the functionality of an obsolete knitting machine and rendering it part of a new system, the creation of a generative textile is made possible. Its decoration emerges from the data visualization of the Manpower Employment Offices databases, using selected patterns originally from Greek folk art. The installation refers to the production methodology and creates conditions in which the knitting process remains accessible and contemporary. The knitted textile as a product becomes an active record of archival resources.
The detailed hardware and software documentation and the progress of the project is published in our GITHUB.
Live knitting performances
The work has been presented as an installation in numerous venues and has been activated by a series of durational performances of live knitting of the financial data. Below you can watch a 30-minute excerpt of one of these performances that took place at the Videobrasil festival in Sao Paolo in 2015.
Exhibitions
2017
Tetramatyka Festival of Audiovisual Art Lviv, Ukraine. Curated by Anton Lapov and Anastasia Nechiporenko.
2015
Videobrasil 2015 Southern Panoramas 19th Contemporary Art Festival Sesc_Videobrasil, Sao Paolo, Brasil. Curated by Solange Farkas.
WRO 2015 Test Exposure 16th Media Art Biennale, Wroclaw, Poland. Curated by Piotr Krajewski.
2014
ISWC Design Exhibition The 18th International Symposium on Wearable Computers, Seattle, US. Chaired by Troy Nachtigall.
Future Innovators Summit Ars Electronica 2014 C... What it takes to Change, Linz, Austria. Curated by Manuela Naveau.
No Country For Young Men Bozar Museum of Contemporary Art, Brussels, Belgium. Curated by Katerina Gregos.
Past Future - Future Part Transmediale 2014 Afterglow, Berlin, Germany. Curated by Sandra Naumann and organized by the Göethe Institute and the ArtUp! platform.
2013
A-Fresh, A New Generation of Greek Artists Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece. Curated by Daphne Dragona, Tina Pandi, and Daphne Vitali.
Publications
Koutsomichalis, Marinos & Psarra, Afroditi. 2015. Computer-aided weaving: from numerical data to algorithmic textiles. In Ng, K., Bowen, J.P., Lambert Ν. (eds) Proceedings of the Electronic Visualisation and the Arts (EVA) Conference (London, GB) pp. 122-123. DOI: https://10.14236/ewic/eva2015.59
Koutsomichalis, Marinos & Psarra, Afroditi & Varela, Maria. 2014. Oiko-nomic threads. In Proceedings of the 2014 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers: Adjunct Program (ISWC '14 Adjunct). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 59–64. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/2641248.2641281
Citations
Jaramillo, George & Mennie, Lynne. 2019. Aural Textiles. Hybrid practices for data-driven design. The Design Journal. 22. 1163-1175. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14606925.2019.1594982
Koutsomichalis, Marinos. 2019. Hertzian, Disruptive, Experimental Text Physicalizations. Proceedings of the Conference: International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA 2019) Gwangju, Korea.
“Oiko-Nomic Threads.” The Greek Foundation, 31 Oct. 2019, www.thegreekfoundation.com/art/oiko-nomic-threads
Jaramillo, George & Mennie, Lynne. 2018. Aural Textiles: Beyond Visual Pattern Making. Journal of Textile Design Research and Practice. 6. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/20511787.2018.1522077
Romano, Zoe & Cangiano, Serena & Bihanic, David. 2015. Open Sourcing Wearables. Empowering users through design: Interdisciplinary studies and combined approaches for technological products and services. Springer. ISBN: 978-3-319-13017-0. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13018-7
Press
Ζευκιλή, Δέσποινα. “Μαρία Βαρελά, Αφροδίτη Ψαρρά: ‘Όταν η Ψηφιακή Τεχνολογία... Κεντάει!".” Αθηνόραμα, Athinorama.gr, 29 Feb. 2016, www.athinorama.gr/cityvibe/article/maria_barela_afroditi_psarra_otan_i_psifiaki_texnologia_kentaei!-2512625.html
“Oiko-Nomic Threads.” TETRAMATYKA, tetramatyka.nurt.org.ua/en/oiko-nomic-threads-2
“OIKO-NOMIC THREADS.” WRO 2015 TEST EXPOSURE, WRO 2015, 28 May 2015, wro2015.wrocenter.pl/site/works/oiko-nomic-threads/
Schächtele , Kai. “Elektrofaden - Strickhack Und Surrstick: Afroditi Psarra Vernaht Handwerk Und Computerkunst”, Jan. 2015, Wired Germany, issue 21, p. 24.
“Partner Exhibition: Future Past - Past Future.” Transmediale, The Goethe-Institut, ArtUP! Media Art Platform, 25 Jan. 2014, transmediale.de/content/partner-exhibition-future-past-past-future