Preprint: Algorithmic Patterns on the Live Loom

Algorithmic pattern is an expansive practice running across the arts and crafts, that is ancient, yet core to the advance of contemporary creative technology. In this chapter I introduce the Live Loom as a case study in algorithmic pattern, bringing together the ancient weaving technology of warp-weighted looms with the contemporary technology of computer programming languages. The Live Loom is (perhaps literally) a tangle of old and new, and by attempting to untangle its threads and wires from around its physical wooden frame and metaphysical syntax trees, I explore algorithmic pattern as an ancient, technological and developing craft tradition.

I introduce the Live Loom in terms of its many layers of physical qualities starting with the threads themselves, their warping, the crossings of warp and weft threads, then progressing into metaphysical representations of drawdowns, syntax trees and procedures. In so doing, I explain how interactive notations reveal what is normally hidden by notation - a lively world of threads that compels us to reconsider our relationship with technology as craft.