crissxross » dressmaking

sizing up

crissxross — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 09:17:21 +0000

remixed for R3/\/\1X\/\/0RX from: dr ted orion morrow’s business card + Worx + Fitting the Pattern

flash8 source: sizingUp_fl8.fla (204 KB)

Fitting the Pattern

crissxross — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 15:17:32 +0000

Cutting through memories, pinning down facts, stitching fabrications, unpicking the past – an interactive, animated memoir, created in Flash, exploring aspects of my relationship with my dressmaking mother.

Life’s mysteries are rarely uncovered by a logical, linear process of deduction. You arrive at answers, ideas, suspicions, intuitions… haphazardly, in fragments. Over time you build the picture, piece by piece, shuffling and rearranging, until you start to see a pattern emerging. Fitting the Pattern attempts to replicate this experience, hence it’s a memoir in pieces for you to explore…

I gave a live performance of this piece last month at the Creative Writing and New Media MA showcase at the IOCT Salon at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK. That was fun!

Mapping and stitching – Ele Carpenter’s homepage inspires

crissxross — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 15:01:14 +0000

Another unusual way to present a home page. I love the simplicity of Ele Carpenter’s design and it’s so effective. I couldn’t resist clicking on those enigmatic bubbles. In some ways it’s similar to Matthew Mahon’s site, both are like mind maps, which is interesting because I’ve been thinking of redesigning my own site with a more criss-crossy, mind-mappy feel.

Another interesting thing about Ele’s site is that the Research bubble links to her Open Source Embroidery 2006 project (see photo below).

The Open Source Embroidery project brings together programming for embroidery and computing. It’s based on the common characteristics of needlework crafts and open source computer programming…

It’s interesting that I keep coming across connections between embroidery, textiles, dressmaking and women who create or write for the web. I don’t know why it should surprise me, the analogies are obvious – web, net, weaving, threads, interwoven networks, the computer and the Jacquard Loom… I suppose I’m surprised to find I have something in common with other webby women. My mother, Moyra, is an accomplished dressmaker and embroiderer and since I started making creative works for the web a couple of years ago I’ve had a notion about creating a piece based on our relationship, about what stitches us together. I must do it, once I’ve finished my other works in progress.

A few other links I’ve come across between women, textiles, computers and the web:

Noon Quilt

Web, Warp & Weft

Christy Sheffield Sanford interview in framed especially this reply to a question about perceived feminine qualities in her work.

And after looking at these pieces again, I can’t help but be inspired to sew my own pattern into the web XXXXXXXXxxxxxXXXXxxxx——///////\\\\\\\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\———– x x x x x —- but I’ll use more than cross stitch. Much more.