4. Biochromes¶
Inspiration¶
History of indigo¶
The oldest known fabric dyed indigo, dated to 6,000 years ago, was discovered in Huaca Prieta, Peru. Many Asian countries, such as India, Japan, and Southeast Asian nations have used indigo as a dye (particularly silk dye) for centuries. The dye was also known to ancient civilizations in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Britain, Mesoamerica, Peru, Iran, and West Africa. Indigo was also cultivated in India, which was also the earliest major center for its production and processing.The I. tinctoria species was domesticated in India. Indigo, used as a dye, made its way to the Greeks and the Romans, where it was valued as a luxury product.
India was a primary supplier of indigo to Europe as early as the Greco-Roman era. The association of India with indigo is reflected in the Greek word for the dye, indikón (Ἰνδικόν, Indian). The Romans latinized the term to indicum, which passed into Italian dialect and eventually into English as the word indigo.
In Mesopotamia, a neo-Babylonian cuneiform tablet of the seventh century BC gives a recipe for the dyeing of wool, where lapis-colored wool (uqnatu) is produced by repeated immersion and airing of the cloth. Indigo was most probably imported from India. The Romans used indigo as a pigment for painting and for medicinal and cosmetic purposes. It was a luxury item imported to the Mediterranean from India by Arab merchants.
In Japan, indigo became especially important during the Edo period. This was due to a growing textiles industry,[12] and because commoners had been banned from wearing silk,[13] leading to the increasing cultivation of cotton, and consequently indigo – one of the few substances that could dye it.
Because of its high value as a trading commodity, indigo was often referred to as blue gold.
Indigo is a challenging dye because it is not soluble in water. To be dissolved, it must undergo a chemical change (reduction). Reduction converts indigo into "white indigo" (leuco-indigo). When a submerged fabric is removed from the dyebath, the white indigo quickly combines with oxygen in the air and reverts to the insoluble, intensely colored indigo.
Archaeological evidence shows the use of dyeing for more than 5000 years, especially in India and the Middle East. The pigment was only extracted at the time from plants and metals, without or with minor modifications. Plants were the main source of dyes and were extracted from the roots, fruit, bark, leaves and wood, but few of them were used for commercial production.
Organic Indigo is a powder from the leaves of the indigo plant called Indigofera tinctoria. It is one of the oldest dyes known to humankind. It is the only natural blue.
Dyes from Cabbage¶
This week I worked on defining my final project idea and started to getting used to the documentation process.
Research¶
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Useful links¶
Code Example¶
Use the three backticks to separate code.
// the setup function runs once when you press reset or power the board
void setup() {
// initialize digital pin LED_BUILTIN as an output.
pinMode(LED_BUILTIN, OUTPUT);
}
// the loop function runs over and over again forever
void loop() {
digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, HIGH); // turn the LED on (HIGH is the voltage level)
delay(1000); // wait for a second
digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, LOW); // turn the LED off by making the voltage LOW
delay(1000); // wait for a second
}
Gallery¶
Video¶
From Vimeo¶
Sound Waves from George Gally (Radarboy) on Vimeo.