‌List of Figures

Fig. 1.1 Penelope laboratory with model of the Parthenon temple in the Museum for Casts of Classical Sculptures, Munich. Photo by Ellen Harlizius-Klück in 2019

Fig. 1.2 Clay weights attached to the warp on the warp-weighted loom (photo by Viktoria Lubomski in 2019)

Fig. 1.3 Penelope laboratory, preparation for the Homo textor pre-conference workshop (photo by Viktoria Lubomski in 2019)

Fig. 1.4 Pre-conference workshop in the Penelope laboratory at the Museum for Casts of Classical Sculptures, Munich (photo by Viktoria Lubomski in 2019).

Fig. 1.5 Denise Y. Arnold and Annapurna Mamidipudi discussing in the Penelope laboratory (photo by Viktoria Lubomski in
2019)

Fig. 1.6 Alex McLean preparing the Live Loom for presentation (photo by Viktoria Lubomski in 2019)

Fig. 1.7 Sketch of live coded warp-weighted loom that guided the Penelope project as a vision (drawing by Ellen Harlizius-Klück)

Fig. 1.8 Penelopean robots populating the stone floor of the Museum for Casts of Classical Sculptures, Munich (photo by Viktoria Lubomski in 2019)

Fig. 1.9 Track for 12 pairs of maypole dancers (graphics by Viktoria Lubomski in 2020)

Fig. 2.1 Reconstruction of painting on the leg of the Paris statue of the Aphaia Temple by Vinzenz Brinkmann and his team (photo by Ellen Harlizius-Klück in September 2019)

Fig. 2.2 Plaster cast of Paris sculpture with reconstruction in sprang-technique by Dagmar Drinkler (photo by Ellen Harlizius-Klück in 2019)

Fig. 2.3 Detail of pattern with artist grid from the skirt of a goddess at the Villa in Ayia Triada, Rodenwaldt 1919: 104

Fig. 2.4 Detail of fresco from Aya Triada with patterned skirt, Halbherr 1903, p. 10, https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9310#0216

Fig. 2.5 Two examples of textiles worn by cupbearers, depicted with the help of rectangular artist grids. Palace of Minos in Knossos, details from procession fresco, Archaeological museum of Heraklion, Crete, Greece (Photo made in 2015, Public Domain)

Fig. 2.6 Diagram of warp-weighted loom with side view of natural and artificial shed (drawing by Ellen Harlizius-Klück in 2020)

Fig. 2.7 Fabric made by interlacing groups of black and white threads alternating in warp and weft and producing a check pattern (photo by Ellen Harlizius-Klück)

Fig. 2.8 Draft for colour-effect pattern with picking scheme in black and white (hand draft from weaving student, private archive Ellen Harlizius-Klück), and detail of fresco from Knossos (Karetsu 2000: 242)

Fig. 2.9 Left: draft, or instruction scheme for lifting warp-threads (part of patron or draft); centre: sketch of result; right: fragment of funerary plate by Exekias. Diagram by Ellen Harlizius-Klück

Fig. 2.10 Meander fabric reconstructed by Ellen Harlizius-Klück on the warp-weighed loom, recto and verso side. Photo by Ellen Harlizius-Klück in 2009

Fig. 3.1 Two-dimensional matrix

Fig. 3.2 Extended matrix

Fig. 3.3 Final conceptual trap

Fig. 5.1 Procne & Itys, Athens Akropolis, late fifth century BCE (photo by Marios Philippides)

Fig. 5.2 Pedestal Krater, Athens, mid eighth century BCE (photo credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art Open Access Collection)

Fig. 5.3 Attic Lekythos with checkerboard pattern, mid fifth century BCE. Collection of Smith College (photo credit: Anthony Tuck with permission Prof. Scott Bradbury, curator of the Smith College Cabinet of Antiquities)

Fig. 5.4 Iliad graph at 775 point count

Fig. 5.5 Iliad graph at 775 point count and single short

Fig. 5.6 Perfect dactylic hexameter at 775 and single short

Fig. 5.7 Dactylic hexameter variation at 788 point count and single short

Fig. 5.8 Dactylic hexameter variation at 850 with single short

Fig. 5.9 Iliad introduction at 799 with single short

Fig. 5.10 Iliad introduction at 806 with single short

Fig. 7.1 Early Neolithic vases with simple geometric decoration (after Theocharis 1993, Plate IV)

Fig. 7.2 Middle Neolithic vases with textile patterns (after Theocharis 1993, Plates IV and V)

Fig. 7.3 Middle Neolithic jar with canvas decoration from the cave of the Cyclops (after Sampson 2008, Plate 3.4)

Fig. 7.4 Late Neolithic vases of the Dimini culture (after Theocharis 1993, Plate VIII)

Fig. 7.5 Vase lid decorated with a basket-weave pattern from Sitagroi, phase III (after Bonga Fig. 63.1)

Fig. 7.6 Final Neolithic storage jar with rope decoration from the Alepotrypa Cave (after Papathanssopoulos and others 2011, Fig. 163)

Fig. 8.1 Eurasian wryneck (Jynx torquilla) (photo by Pepe Reigada in May 2015; https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wryneck_by_Pepe_Reigada.jpg

Fig. 8.2 A wryneck expanding its tongue. Image from The natural history of British birds, or, A selection of the most rare, beautiful and interesting birds which inhabit this country: the descriptions from the Systema naturae of Linnaeus, London, 1794, 63; https://archive.org/stream/naturalhistoryof41797dono/naturalhistoryof41797dono#page/n63/mode/1up

Fig. 8.3 The snaky bird: a wryneck turning his head (photo by Solymári in August 2017, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jynx_torquilla_%C3%93csa_1.jpg

Fig. 8.4 A iunx-wheel and a iunx-bird? Drawing from Daremberg et Saglio, Dictionnaire des Antiquités grecques et romaines, Paris, 1817, 864, showing a detail of a fourth century BCE Apulian amphora from Ruvo held in London (British Museum, F331)

Fig. 8.5 Detail of the coiled body of one snake, at the corner of the East pediment of an Archaic temple on the Athenian Akropolis, around 570 BCE. The pôros sculpture, which was originally brightly painted, retains some traces of pigments (Athens, Akropolis Museum, inv. 37)

Fig. 8.6 Colour reconstruction by Vinzenz Brinkmann and Ulrike Koch-Brinkmann of the so-called ‘Persian horseman’ found on the Athenian Akropolis. The original marble sculpture, from the late sixth century or early fifth century BCE, is held in the Akropolis Museum (inv. 606) and retains remains of pigments (photo by Ana Belén Cantero Paz in 2010) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jinete_persa.jpg

Fig. 8.7 Plaster reconstructions of the Trojan archer from the pediment of the temple of Athena Aphaia in Aegina (one painted reconstruction, by Vinzenz Brinkmann and Ulrike Koch-Brinkmann, and one plaster cast covered with a garment woven by the textile conservator of the Bavarian National Museum, Dagmar Drinkler). The original marble sculpture, from the beginning of the fifth century BCE, is held in the Glyptothek in Munich (photo by A. Grand-Clément during the Homo Textor conference, in September 2019 in Munich)

Fig. 9.1 The poet Kabir with Namdeva, Raidas and Pipaji. Jaipur, early nineteenth century, National Museum New Delhi (Public Domain, Wikimedia.org)

Fig. 9.2 The conference ‘Anchoring Innovation’ in Chirala, attended by 300 weavers, activists and scholars (photo by S. Gopinath in 2018)

Fig. 9.3 Weavers in Chirala, Bandaru Gangadhara Saibaba from Chirala and Chanhsouck Phommalin from Laos (photo by S. Gopinath)

Fig. 9.4 Spinners from the North East and Kutch, Chirala conference (photos by Gopichandin 2018)

Fig. 9.5 The traditional fermentation vat using natural Indigo (photo Moody Chetananand in 2015)

Fig. 9.6 Weaving household in Vellasavaram village showing household engaged in different activities around the loom (photo by Margriet Smulders in 2012)

Fig. 10.1 Selection of Guaman Poma’s ‘streets’ (calles), for women, drawn in his early seventeenth century Nueva corónica y buen gobierno (ca. 1615), showing the first, second, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh streets. Source: Royal Danish Library, GKS 2232 kvart: f.215 [217]), f.217 [219]), f.221 [223]), f.223 [225]), f.225 [227]) and f.227 [229]. http://www.kb.dk/permalink/2006/poma/info/en/frontpage.htm

Fig. 10.2 Contemporary knotted tupu used to standardise sizes of weavings (photo by the author, Collection of the Instituto de Lengua y Cultura Aymara (ILCA), La Paz, Bolivia

Fig. 10.3 Archaeological (upper left) and modern (lower left) examples of the thread-wrapped rods, called musa waraña, used to standardise colour combinations, for example in the counts of the striping options shown in the scheme to the right. Source: British Museum Collection, London (Am1909,1207.150), and scheme by the author, Collection of the Instituto de Lengua y Cultura Aymara (ILCA), La Paz, Bolivia, respectively.

Fig. 10.4 Diagram of regional looms and weaving instruments, with their terminology, organised ontologically. Source: Scheme drawn by the author, Collection of the Instituto de Lengua y Cultura Aymara (ILCA), La Paz, Bolivia.

Fig. 10.5 Diagram of the learning pathways called thakhi, organised ontologically. Source: Drawn by the author, Collection of the Instituto de Lengua y Cultura Aymara (ILCA), La Paz, Bolivia.

Fig. 10.6 A sequence showing the young Qaqachaka weaver Silvia Espejo weaving warp crossing techniques (photo by the author, Collection of the Instituto de Lengua y Cultura Aymara (ILCA), La Paz, Bolivia)

Fig. 10.7 Skeins with graded tones of the natural green from the tola shrub, made in different immersions. Source: Photo in the Collection of the Instituto de Lengua y Cultura Aymara (ILCA), La Paz, Bolivia.

Fig. 10.8 Borders, plain pampas and the design areas (called salta) in a contemporary woven woman’s mantle or lliklla. Source: Photograph of a lliklla from the Museo de Textiles Andinos Bolivianos, La Paz (unregistered), integrated into a diagram by the author, Collection of the Instituto de Lengua y Cultura Aymara (ILCA), La Paz, Bolivia.

Fig. 10.9 Complex contemporary ‘reselected’ weaving techniques; Source: Drawn in the Sawu 3D programme developed by the Instituto de Lengua y Cultura Aymara (ILCA), in images drawn by members of the ILCA team, under the supervision of Elvira Espejo, La Paz, Bolivia.

Fig. 10.10 Figurative and geometric pick up counts in warp-patterned weaves and their resulting iconography. Source: Diagram drawn by the author based on images in the ILCA Collection.

Fig. 11.1 Yarn Recorder (2018); So Kanno, Ebru Kurbak (photo by Elodie Grethen ©Stitching Worlds)

Fig. 11.2 Oberlin Smith’s initial illustration in Smith 1888: 116

Fig. 11.3 CAD reproduction of drawing by Oberlin Smith first published in The Caveat of 4 October 1878

Fig. 11.4 The possibilities cone based on the illustration ‘PPPP’ in Dunne and Raby 2014: 5

Fig. 11.5 The lost possibilities cone (illustration by Ebru Kurbak)

Fig. 11.6 Drifting futures (illustration by Ebru Kurbak)

Fig. 12.1 The Live Loom, a hybrid, open hardware, warp-weighted hand loom, with 16 computer-controllable warp threads (photo by James Hendy)

Fig. 12.2 Euler diagram showing the logical relationship between vernacular, formal, manual and automatic forms of computation

Fig. 12.3 Lift plan for tabby weave

Fig. 12.4 The Live Loom interface, showing code on the left, a menu of available words (functions and values) to its upper right, and the resulting weaving lift plan to its lower right

Fig. 12.5 Braid (recto)

Fig. 12.6 Braid (verso)

Fig. 12.7 Lift plan waves

Fig. 12.8 L-shapes

Fig. 12.9 Vertical lines

Fig. 12.10 Diagonal squares

Fig. 12.11 Diagonal bricks

Fig. 12.12 Plusses

Fig. 12.13 Double weave braid

Fig. 12.14 Braid detail (swapped layers)

Fig. 12.15 Double weave draft

Fig. 13.1 Still from Caroline Radcliffe and Sarah Angliss’ rendition of ‘The Machinery’, where repetitive clog dancing mimics the movements and sounds of industrial machines (photo and video by Jon Harrison in 2018)

Fig. 13.2 Still from ‘The Machinery’ as a three-channel video installation, with Caroline Radcliffe performing the clog dance surrounded by repeated and mirrored screens-within-screens, representing repetition in labour (photo and video by Jon Harrison in 2018)

Fig. 14.1 Maypole dancing at a carnival in Llanfyllin, Wales, 1941; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maypole#/media/File:Llanfyllin_carnival_and_maypole_(7131389767)

Fig. 14.2 Braiding machine, late nineteenth century, Wilkinson Machine Shop, Rhode Island; https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Braiding_machine_in_Wilkinson_Machine_Shop.jpg

Fig. 14.3 Experiments to explore complexity of braid morphologies; Flora Robotica; Courtesy Phil Ayres, Centre for Information Technology and Architecture, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation

Fig. 14.4 Modèles de Tresses anciennes et nouvelles; twenty-two illustrations showing different plaited hair pieces. Etching. Croisat et Heyer, 1840. Wellcome Collection

Fig. 14.5 Felicity Irons, braiding with English freshwater bulrush, scirpus lacustris (photo courtesy of F. Irons)

Fig. 14.6 Ingrid Crickmore, diagram to demonstrate the making of a 5-loop braid (Image courtesy of I. Crickmore)

Fig. 14.7 Raoul Auger Feuillet’s dance notation for a Rigadoon by Isaac, first published in Orchesography or the Art of Dancing … an Exact and Just Translation from the French of Monsieur Feuillet. By John Weaver, Dancing Master. Second edition. London, ca. 1721 (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Feuillet_notation.jpg)

Fig. 15.1 Final robot form (photo by David Griffiths in 2019)

Fig. 15.2 Symbols used to describe these two tablet orientations. The blue warp thread is used as an indicator (photo and graphics by David Griffiths in 2019)

Fig. 15.3 Symbol used to describe tablets in an Icelandic double weave orientation, where we can use two wefts in the two sheds provided in the warp (photo and graphics by David Griffiths in 2019)

Fig. 15.4 Full notation for a Penelopean robot (see text) (photo and graphics by David Griffiths in 2019)

Fig. 15.5 180° servo rotation represented as symbols (graphics by David Griffiths)

Fig. 15.6 Track for 12 pairs of maypole dancers (graphics by Viktoria Lubomski in 2010)

Fig. 15.7 Remote robot programming interface to be used alongside video conferencing so you can see your robot respond to your code changes (screenshot by David Griffiths)

Fig. 15.8 A code example including the use of a magnetometer sensor for orientation detection (screenshot by David Griffiths)

Fig. 15.9 Opening performance for ‘AWAY | TAKIY – Raise the Curtain for Weaving’ at the Museum for Casts of Classical Sculptures, Munich (photo by Giovanni Fanfani in 2018)

Fig. 15.10 Maypole performance at Algomech 2019, Wintergarden of Millenium Gallery, Sheffield (photo by Giovanni Fanfani in 2019)

Fig. 15.11 Remote maypole coding-dancing as part of a lecture on weaving and code (screenshot by David Griffiths in 2021)