Papers by Ellen Harlizius-Klück
<em>"We build our computers the way we build our cities -- over time, without a plan, ... more <em>"We build our computers the way we build our cities -- over time, without a plan, on top of ruins." Ellen Ullman (1998)</em> The above quote refers to the historical layers that make up our computer operating systems, where newly developed user interfaces are successively placed on top of the old ones, creating a kind of palimpsest. Behind the graphical user interface we find a text-based one, then a programming language, then a low-level assembly language, then machine and microcode, until we eventually meet with physical electronic circuits. The conventional timeline for computing technology as a whole begins earlier still, with the discovery of the electronic transistor a century ago. Each of these layers has had its heyday as the dominant user interface of its time, and indeed each has been used to make algorithmic systems for, or indeed as, art. There is much artwork to be recognised throughout this period, but if we keep digging, there are many more ruins to be found. Through research during our European Research Council project PENELOPE, we find that algorithms have been present in everyday life for millennia. In the following we will explore some examples which support this claim, with focus on our recent work while resident at the Textiles Zentrum Haslach in Austria.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), May 12, 2017
To refer to the Jacquard loom as a precursor of the computer is a common narrative in histories o... more To refer to the Jacquard loom as a precursor of the computer is a common narrative in histories of computing beginning with Ada Lovelace comparing the punched card operated loom with the calculating engine designed by Charles Babbage: "We may say most aptly that the Analytical Engine weaves algebraical patterns just as the Jacquard-loom weaves flowers and leaves." But this does not mean that Jacquard invented the algebra of patterns. He only constructed the first widely known and used mechanism replacing the drawboy by punched cards to feed pattern information into his mechanism. To control a weave means to decide whether a warp thread is to be picked up or not. Weaving has therefore been a binary art from its very beginning, applying operations of pattern algebra for millennia. Jacquard's cards were the end of this story rather than its beginning, reducing the weaver to an operator who had to step on a single treadle repeatedly. This article argues that algebra is already involved in operating shafts or heddles on ordinary looms, that this algebra was applied tacitly until the first weaving notations were developed, and that these notations make the tacit algebra of patterns recognizable to nonweavers: inventors and engineers.
A short essay on the philosophical dimension of weaving as an epistemic instrument and its relati... more A short essay on the philosophical dimension of weaving as an epistemic instrument and its relation to code. Included in a publication along an art project of Emilio Vavarella, launched by RAMDOM
First some god breathed the thought in my heart to set up a great web in my halls and fall to wea... more First some god breathed the thought in my heart to set up a great web in my halls and fall to weaving a robe—fine of thread was the web and very wide; and I straightway spoke among them: ‘Young men, my wooers, since goodly Odysseus is dead, be patient, though eager for my marriage, until I finish this robe—I would not that my spinning should come to naught—a shroud for the lord Laertes against the time when the fell fate of grievous death shall strike him down; lest any one of the Achaean wom..
The PENELOPE project aims at integrating ancient weaving into the history of science and technolo... more The PENELOPE project aims at integrating ancient weaving into the history of science and technology, especially digital technology. It encompasses the investigation of ancient sources (texts and images) as well as practices and technological principles of ancient weaving. Based on the fact that weaving is a digital art/technology from the very beginning, we explore the technological principles and the tacit knowledge involved in the patterning process by setting up a PENELOPEan laboratory whe..
In September 2018 the Bolivian weaver and media artist Sandra de Berduccy will visit the PENELOPE... more In September 2018 the Bolivian weaver and media artist Sandra de Berduccy will visit the PENELOPE Team in munich. She will work in the PENELOPE laboratory and produce an interactive textile installation while the Project team (Ellen Harlizius-Klück and Giovanni Fanfani) will explore the algo-rhythmic and arithmetic properties of ancient pattern weaving and choral lyric. De Berduccy learned from South Americam master weavers and combines traditional Andean weaving techniques with conductive th..
This Friday morning a new weaving project took off in our laboratory at the Museum for Plaster Ca... more This Friday morning a new weaving project took off in our laboratory at the Museum for Plaster Casts: Sylvia Wiechmann, a weaver who founded the Damascweaving workshop in Munich twenty years ago, now weaves coptic tunics on our warp-weighted loom. Sylvia Wiechmann has experience in reconstructing historical textiles like roman tunics and patterns made in samitum. We began today with making the starting border at the sleeve from where the whole tunic is woven in one piece by adding more wa..
Yesterday I went to the State Collections of Antiquities in Munich in order to prepare the warp-w... more Yesterday I went to the State Collections of Antiquities in Munich in order to prepare the warp-weighted loom for a forthcoming exhibition on ancient dress. Our loom is meant to demonstrate the work-in-progress of a complex weave like the one that Penelope might have woven. It integrates a small tablet-woven starting border and selvedges with a broad tablet-woven top followed by a double weave. There are difficulties in presenting such a state of work-in-progress because the woolen threads wi..
Technikgeschichte
This paper refers to two new approaches to conceive the relationship between technological innova... more This paper refers to two new approaches to conceive the relationship between technological innovation and society as one of anchoring: The TASC concept (Technologies as Anchors for Societal Conflicts) aims to show how societal conflicts are anchored in technologies that, as such, are not responsible for the conflict. The ‘Anchoring Innovation’ research program of the Dutch Research School in Classical Studies (OIKOS) aims to explain how technological in- novations were anchored in ancient society. Our paper trials these concepts along the threads that connect the social and the technical in the weaving of contemporary India and archaic Greece. The first part of the paper examines the Indian government’s efforts to provide technological upgradation to a community of weavers who insist on their loin loom that is embedded in their local ecology, making them appear backward and ignorant of innovation. In the second part, we examine how innovation in ancient Greece was anchored in the so...
Algorithmic and Aesthetic Literacy, 2021
Der Essay diskutiert verschiedene Missverständnisse über die Weberei der Penelope, die Frage des ... more Der Essay diskutiert verschiedene Missverständnisse über die Weberei der Penelope, die Frage des Wertes, des Ortes der Weberei und unserer Vorurteile über weibliche Handarbeiten ausgehend von der Präsentation einer Geweberekonstruktion in der Halle des Abgussmuseums in München. Akzeptierte Version eines kulturphilosophischen Essays über Bilder. Seitenzahlen stimmen eventuell nicht mir der publizierten Version überein.
This contribution is part of a joint experiment on representing the sustainable development goals... more This contribution is part of a joint experiment on representing the sustainable development goals in a way that yields their complexity and helps understand their interdependencies. The project was led by Verena Winiwarter, the methodological and practical exploration was done by Charlotte Holzer and a reflection on the possibilities of problems contributed by Ellen Harlizius-Klück. It was financially supported by the Austtrian Academy of Sciences.
Weaving is presented in this paper with relation to the four key categories of computational thin... more Weaving is presented in this paper with relation to the four key categories of computational thinking: decomposition, pattern recognition, abstraction, and algorithms. The role of weaving for the development of theoretical concepts is underestimated, because we perceive weaving as a minor craft with little technological challenge and impact. Where technological progress is measured in terms of gaining time from dull and tedious repetitive tasks, weaving appears to be the archetype of such repetitive work and thus as the more technological the faster it goes. We address this framing of perception by presenting ancient weaving as the earliest binary and digital technology. The PENELOPE project (ERC CoGrant no. 682711) aims to develop a theory of weaving as part of a deep history and epistemology for digital technology. In explicating the mathematical and computing principles invoked in weaving, we furthermore explore weaving as a kind of education that has the potential to engage taci...
This contribution describes the Penelope Laboratory in the Museum for Plaster Casts, Munich, as p... more This contribution describes the Penelope Laboratory in the Museum for Plaster Casts, Munich, as part of the exhibition "Lebendiger Gips - 150 Jahre Museum für Abgüsse Klassischer Bildwerke München". The Lab demonstrates the practical part of the research within the PENELOPE Projekt, hosted at deutsches Museum, Munich.
A digital representation is one based on countable, discrete values, but definitions of Digital A... more A digital representation is one based on countable, discrete values, but definitions of Digital Art do not always<br> take account of this. We examine the nature of digital and analogue representations, and draw from a rich pre-industrial and ancient history of their presence in the arts, with emphasis on textile weaves. We reflect on how this approach opens up a long, rich history, arguing that our understanding of digital art should be based on discrete pattern, rather than technological fashion.
Performance Research, 2020
Weaving the SDGs – a reflection on quadrangles and embodied practices, 2021
KIOES Opinions are published by the Commission for Interdisciplinary Ecological Studies (KIOES) o... more KIOES Opinions are published by the Commission for Interdisciplinary Ecological Studies (KIOES) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW). KIOES publishes current opinions written, initiated or invited by KIOES related to topical subjects on an irregular basis in KIOES Opinions. The target audience includes scientists, policy makers and the public. Opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author(s), and they do not necessarily reflect in any way those of KIOES or OeAW.
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Papers by Ellen Harlizius-Klück