1. State of the art, project management and documentation
About me
Over the past eight years, my educational journey has been shaped by art and design institutions in Paris. I recently finished my studies and for now, I define myself as multimedia artist-designer.
I work on constructing a specific language of technical fabrication, based on the observation and tension between artisanal know-how and practices, shaped by digital technology and industry. My studies are mostly tinted by textile design and materials (specialised in knitting machines) but my work focuses on the process of translation that new digital tools are able to generate and the creative potentials they bring about. In other words, I loved to jump from machine to another one, regardless of their types.
My master degree at Duperré school in Paris allowed me to explore this interest further. I like imagine every machines as a potential printer. When it materializes or dematerializes a gesture, a shape, a space, a pixel, a stitch, a line of code, a material, a surface, or a texture, the machine produces a compression or deterioration of the original object, manifesting an aesthetic unique to the technical tool.
Previous work
During my research years at school, I developed a fabrication loop process that intertwines my interest in the body, materials, traditional tools, and new technologies : both real and virtual. It allows me to combine industrial flat-knitting machines (Stoll) and “mechanical” flat-knitting machines (brothers), pottery, ceramic 3D printing, 3D modeling, photogrammetry, and virtual reality. To avoid the constraints of specialization I foster hybridization among these techniques. I strive to innovate and transcend conventional boundaries, thereby emancipating my look on the world from the established one.
PORTFOLIO ↓↓↓↓
Research & Ideation
Text I wrote for a phd abstract ↓
“I would like to clarify and continue a reflection on the interdependent relationships we weave and maintain with machines. I am fascinated by the translational capacity that the machine takes on. The real or virtual translation of a form, a gesture, a state, a material, a line of code, an idea. The machine is a bridge, a medium within the framework of production: it supports a process.
In an era where traditional linear learning is becoming rarer, and where the self-taught spirit is amplified by digital technologies and the Internet, I wish to think of hybridization, displacement, and hacking as countercultures of fabrication, for a bastardized design that breaks away from technical specialization. I believe in the breaking down of barriers between know-how and techniques, whether they come from industrial sciences, craftsmanship, or the digital world. How can techniques of different nature and application respond to each other? How can we demystify our relationship with new technologies, and more generally with technology itself, by clarifying the opacity to enter the gap? I am reflecting on free culture; the sophistication of technical machines makes it difficult to access the know-how and methods of fabrication that come from them: today's machines are black boxes. In a low-tech approach and self production logic, can we reclaim manufacturing machines? Can we imagine machines that replicate themselves to give birth to bastard machines with new know-how? “
INSPIRATIONS ↓
https://textiles-lab.github.io/
The Carnegie Mellon Textiles Lab extends the state of the art in textile design and fabrication. We seek to collaborate broadly both inside and outside the Carnegie Mellon community.
Our space in Wean 1334 houses a state-of-the art knitting machine, computer-controlled quilting machine, prosumer-level jacquard loom, and various small textiles fabrication tools and supplies.
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https://markjgillespie.com/Research/solid-knitting/index.html
"Abstract : We introduce solid knitting, a new fabrication technique that combines the layer-by-layer volumetric approach of 3D printing with the topologically-entwined stitch structure of knitting to produce solid 3D objects. We define the basic building blocks of solid knitting and demonstrate a working prototype of a solid knitting machine controlled by a low-level instruction language, along with a volumetric design tool for creating machine-knittable patterns. Solid knitting uses a course-wale-layer structure, where every loop in a solid-knit object passes through both a loop from the previous layer and a loop from the previous course. Our machine uses two beds of latch needles to create stitches like a conventional V-bed knitting machine, but augments these needles with a pair of rotating hook arrays to provide storage locations for all of the loops in one layer of the object. It can autonomously produce solid-knit prisms of arbitrary length, although it requires manual intervention to cast on the first layer and bind off the final row. Our design tool allows users to create solid knitting patterns by connecting elementary stitches; objects designed in our interface can—after basic topological checks and constraint propagation—be exported as a sequence of instructions for fabrication on the solid knitting machine. We validate our solid knitting hardware and software on prism examples, detail the mechanical errors which we have encountered, and discuss potential extensions to the capability of our solid knitting machine."
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https://www.merelkarhof.nl/work/wind-knitting-factory
The Wind Knitting Factory ↓↓
"‘Wind Knitting Factory’ is a wind powered knitting machine that is attached to the facade of a building. The blades embrace more than a meter in diameter, and the wind that is cached by the mill drives the machine. Like that a long scarf gets knitted along the building downward. When it is windy the machine knits fast and with less wind the machine knits slowly."
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Open Knit ↓
"At design school Gerard Rubio watched fashion students struggle with old knitting machines. In contrast to the revolution that made 3D printers affordable, computer controlled digital knitting machines have been out of reach due to their high costs and size.
This gave Gerard an idea: What if he could make low-cost automated digital knitting machines for everyone? He set out to build OpenKnit."
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Nodus Machine ↓
"THE NODUS MACHINE PROJECT: "The Knot-Making Machine" The creation of a facilitation tool for creation, learning, and innovation in the field of lace-making."
References
Non-exhaustive list of artists, studios, designers, and labs that inspire me. →click on the name to open the associated website ←
Basketclub / Olaniyi studio / Ernesto Neto / Clairewilliams / Studio jibbe / Celine Breton / Bold-design / Nodus project / Soft Connection Lab / Cecile Feilchenfeldt / Work of hands / Hito Steyerl / Hella Jongerius / Data Paulette / unstable design lab / Simone C.Niquille / [Ruth Azawa] / Freddie Robins / Jeanne Vicerial / Bertjan pot / Gwenola Wagon /
Tools
- [Markdown](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown)
- [MkDocs](https://www.mkdocs.org/)
- [Bootstrap386 theme](https://gitlab.com/lramage/mkdocs-bootstrap386)
Documentation workflow
The first week of Fabricademy program is dedicated on familiarising ourself with Gitlab, an online & open-source documentation platform. This is how we will share our researchs each week during the program. It seemed to me more easy to do all the documentation locally, to have the possibility to work without internet connection.
The are multiples steps to follow :
Step 1 --- You will find this "step by step" on every student's Gitlab :)
If you want to see your changes on a local website (without Internet), you need to create a SSH Key