Interference 2005

Digital thread control is the first real innovation within hand weaving since the Jacquard loom was developed in the 18th century. My first meeting with digital thread control in 2000 was like being given a new tool, which I had to size up and test in all possible ways till it eventually became an integral and familiar part of my world.

Digital subject processing made it possible for me to pursue my fascination of the phenomenon: interference. For a long period I was working with identical patterns in layers, examining the interference between them. When a layer is turned a little bit, the patterns interfere and create new patterns - a kind of mechanical patterning known as moiré. I pursued it in many different ways - as outlines, as solid stripes, as dots and in different colours. When I started to make solid coloured layers with holes, strange and beautiful three-dimensional forms manifested themselves as I turned, evolved and twisted the perforated layers. I was spellbound - they were pictures out of this world.   I was able to reconstruct elusive, optical three-dimensional phenomena in my computer. I manipulated these patterns into the shapes I wanted and used them as motifs for my first exhibition project with a specific theme: “Interference” in 2005.

In the woven material the two layers are underscored by different structures on a white background. The complexity of the subject matter is incompatible with the traditional loom. It is here that the digital thread control comes in as a direct extension of digital subject processing, and makes feasible what up until now had been impossible. I started weaving “interference” in 2004 when, needing bigger equipment to realize the big tapestries, I bought a TC1 thread-controller.

I reworked one of the motives into the upholstery fabric ‘Interferens’ for the company Kvadrat 2007.