Wæveform

A weave, a wave - and a wæveform

Wæveform is Paul Prudence's second release in a series of generative artworks that explore the use of text and symbols as material from which to weave fabrics of textual and algebraic patterns. The piece can be described as both a weave and a wave - and therefore wæveform.

Paul's focus in the area of textual experimentation has led him to create works with both mechanical typewriters and with code using generative systems. His typed work often feeds back into his coded work and the same is true in the other direction as he attempts to 'recode' a generative output back into typed form.

While Wæveform continues techniques and ideas formulated on manual typewriters, it adds dimensionality to the patterns to form carrier waves of encoded patterns formed of letters and signs.

As a writer and trained textile designer, Paul became interested in the metaphorical and etymological links between textiles and writing. For example, we talk of weaving a yarn or embroidering a tale. More so, writing and coding are both a kind of pattern making from a fabric of signs.

Another convergence is that both the word 'text' and 'wave' are etymologically tied to the word 'weave'.

'Text' - Late Middle English, from Old Northern French texte, from Latin textus ‘tissue, from text- ‘woven’, from texō ('I weave').

'Wave' - from Old English wafian 'to wave, fluctuate' and Middle High German waben "to wave, undulate" and “to weave"

So Wæveform plays on the interweaving of the origins of the words 'text', 'wave' and 'weave'.

There are also links between weaving and computation because early computers were programmed with punched-cards, a system directly taken from programmable looms. One of most elegant insights into the link between numerical computation and weaving was given to us at a much earlier date by Ada Lovelace, when in 1843 she referred to her friend Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine, with the following quote:

'The Analytical Engine weaves algebraic patterns, just as the Jacquard-loom weaves flowers and leaves'

The role of the generative artist creating a work to be published becomes paradoxical at a point. First they experiment with a wide bandwidth of compositions defined by random parameters that are mapped to a range of acceptable aesthetic outcomes. Then as they refine the work towards its final published form they must choose from a large range of possible outcomes those which fit the aesthetic remit of the work. At a certain point the artist moves from expansive experimentation to a form of self-curation. The challenge is always how to curate a system of randomness and surprise that is still aesthetically acceptable to the artist. To this end Wæveform was refined by a process of aesthetic natural selection in the hope that all outcomes meet the standards of the artist and the collectors.

The random dice god is notoriously fickle and never plays by the rules. Inviting serendipity to play a role in an artwork is always risky but I have decided to play along with the dice god's fickle habits. Anyone who mints an artwork with an Æ or æ glyph (taken from the title) in their mint will receive a physical typewriter drawing* as a free gift, mailed to them anywhere in the world. Probability says there should be around 10-12 drawings to be won in this edition of 200, but it could be more. Spin the wheel and throw the dice. Good luck!

All Drawings: Type on 180gsm, 14.8 x 21 cm, Edition of 1 Signed

*Two similar drawings are currently held in the Herbert W. Franke & Friends collection.

Paul Prudence is a writer and artist who originally studied textile design. His audio-visual work has been exhibited and performed internationally at intermedia arts festivals, since 2004. His writing has been featured in Reliquiae, Substance and Holo and he is also a regular contributor to Neural Mag - a critical digital culture and media arts magazine.