Material and Production

PENELOPE

The PENELOPE project explores the contribution of ancient weaving to the history of science and digital technology. We investigate ancient source texts as well as practices and technical principles of ancient weaving, for example in the PENELOPE laboratory at the Museum for Plaster Casts of Classical Sculptures, Munich.

Content

PENELOPE: A Study of Weaving as Technical Mode of Existence

Funded by

[Translate to English:] Das Projekt PENELOPE wird gefördert durch einen ERC Consolidator Grant der Europäischen Kommission im Forschungs-Rahmenprogramm Horizon 2020 (Projekt Nr. 682711)

Edited by

Dr. Ellen Harlizius-Klück
Ehem. Leitung ERC-Projekt PENELOPE; Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin
Dr. Giovanni Fanfani
Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter
Dr. Annapurna Mamidipudi
Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin

Project description

The PENELOPE project explores the contribution of ancient weaving to the history of science and technology, particularly digital technology. The project involves both the study of ancient source texts and the practices and technical principles of ancient weaving. We are reconstructing these in our PENELOPE laboratory at the Museum for Plaster Casts of Classical Sculptures, Munich, on replica warp-weighted looms.

Weaves consist of threads that cross over or under each other, making weaving a digital and even binary technology. The PENELOPE project will demonstrate that there is a previously unexplored contribution of weaving to the emergence of science in ancient Greece.

The project takes an interdisciplinary and partly experimental approach. In one of our experiments, the PENELOPE performance, we compare recurring rhythmic cycles in two temporally distant forms: the ancient Greek text genre called epiplokē and Tidal Cycles, a live code for music developed by team member Alex McLean. Despite their distance in time, they meet in the idea of pattern as rhythm, illustrating an early method of algorithmic pattern generation that relates to the principles of weaving (hidden in the word epiplokē). Six pattern-matrix-controlled and tablet-woven PENELOPE robots act as dancers.

The PENELOPE lab at the Museum of Plaster Casts is open to the public and consists of two warp-weighted looms, loom equipment and tools, as well as the pattern matrices, and a live-codable loom. There we invite weavers to participate in joint experiments.

Podcast: Gewebte Zeiten. Der Code der alten Griechen

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The PENELOPE Laboratory in the Museum for Plaster Casts of Classical Sculptures, Munich, at the beginning of the project in 2017 Photo: Deutsches Museum / Ellen Harlizius-Klück | Ellen Harlizius-Klück

The PENELOPE Laboratory as part of the exhibition “Lebendiger Gips” on the occasion of the 150-year anniversary of the Museum for Plaster Casts, October 2019 through January 2021. Photo: Deutsches Museum / Ellen Harlizius-Klück | Ellen Harlizius-Klück

Workshop in the PENELOPE Laboratory on the occasion of the opening of the HOMO TEXTOR Conference Photo: Deutsches Museum | Viktoria Lubomski

Presentation of four pattern-matrix versions at the opening of the HOMO TEXTOR Conference. Photo: Deutsches Museum | Viktoria Lubomski

Pattern-matrix for 5x5 repeats, developed by FoAM Kernow. Wooden tokens with a dark and a light side serve as input medium for the simulation of the lifting of warp-threads. The screen simulates the result when applied to alternating blue and white threads. Photo: Dave Griffiths | Dave Griffiths

Pattern-matrix for 8x8 repeats, developed by FoAM Kernow. The light and dark circles on the tokens indicate points where to lift warp-threads. Applied to alternating white and blue threads, the result is a meander pattern. Photo: Deutsches Museum | Annapurna Mamidipudi

Construction of a pattern-matrix from felt for 4x4 or 8x8 repeats. Photo: Deutsches Museum | Ellen Harlizius-Klück

The live-programmable warp-weighted loom developed by Alex McLean. Photo: Deutsches Museum | Viktoria Lubomski

Project team member Alex McLean explains the live loom at the opening of the HOMO TEXTOR Conference. Photo: Deutsches Museum | Viktoria Lubomski

textile PENELOPE-Roboter — The textile PENELOPEan robots, developed by FoAM Kernow for performing ancient choral dances around a maypole. Photo: Deutsches Museum | Viktoria Lubomski

Interactive pattern, woven by Sandra DeBerduccy in the PENELOPE Laboratory. Photo: Sandra DeBerduccy | Sandra DeBerduccy

Sylvia Wiechmann’s reconstruction of an Egyptian children’s tunic in the PENELOPE Laboratory. Photo: Deutsches Museum / Ellen Harlizius-Klück | Ellen Harlizius-Klück

Events

Algomech Symposium 2017, Sheffield
Algomech Symposium 2019, Millenium Gallery, Sheffield
Kick-off-Workshop PENELOPE, Mai 2017, Kerschensteiner Kolleg
Workshop-Poster
Proof-of-Concept-Workshop Penelope, Juni 2019, Kerschensteiner Kolleg
Workshop-Poster
HOMO-TEXTOR-Konferenz, September 2019, Kerschensteiner Kolleg
Flyer

Publications

[Translate to English:]

Harlizius-Klück, E.: Das Penelope-Labor. In: Lebendiger Gips: 150 Jahre Museum für Abgüsse Klassischer Bildwerke München. München 2019, S. 166–171
Harlizius-Klück, E.: Der Stoff und die Ordnung des Kosmos. Zur Bedeutsamkeit des textilen Mustertransfers im frühen Griechenland. In: Wagner-Hasel, B.; Nosch, M.-L. (Hrsg.): Gaben: Waren und Tribute: Stoffkreisläufe und antike Textilökonomie. Stuttgart: Steiner 2019, S. 397–430
McLean, A.; Bell, R.: (2019): Pattern, Code and Algorithmic Drumming Circles. In: Fourth International Conference on Live Coding (ICLC2018) 2019
Harlizius-Klück, E.: Digital Sieves. In: Baert, B.: About Sieves and Sieving, Berlin/Boston: DeGruyter 2019, S. 95–103
Fanfani, G.: Craftsmanship and Technology as Chorality. The Case of Weaving Imagery in Archaic and Classical Choral Lyric. In: Dionysus ex Machina 9 (2018), S. 6–40
McLean, A.; Fanfani, G.; Harlizius-Klück, E.: Cyclic Patterns of Movement across Weaving, Epiplokē and Live Coding. In: Dancecult. Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture 10 (2018), S. 5–30
McLean, A.; Harlizius-Klück, E.: Fabricating Algorithmic Art. In: Golding, S. (Hg.): Parsing Digital. Conversations in Digital Art by Practitioners and Curators, Austrian Culture Forum London. London 2018, S. 10–21
McLean, A.; Griffiths, D.; Harlizius-Klück, E.: Digital Art – A Long History. In: Proceedings of International Conference on Live Interfaces, Porto 2018, S. 71–77
Harlizius-Klück, E.; McLean, A.; Jefferies, J.: Introduction: Weaving Codes – Coding Weaves. In: TEXTILE Journal of Cloth and Culture 15 (2017), S. 118–123
Harlizius-Klück, E.: Weaving as Binary Art and the Algebra of Patterns. In: TEXTILE Cloth and Culture 15 (2017), S. 197

Further links

[Translate to English:] Weitere Publikationen des PENELOPE Teams
https://zenodo.org/communities/penelope/
[Translate to English:] Wissenschaftlicher Blog des PENELOPE-Projekts
https://penelope.hypotheses.org