Aliased Quarry/Diffraction Query
Hand-woven textile and digital AR application
36 inches by 144 inches with accompanying digital tablet
While weaving is often thought of as mimetic of a binary system, a more complex allusion can be found in the weaving of electricity and magnetism which results in visible light. The warp and weft threads can then represent the individual phenomena which combine to create the structure of electromagnetic radiation. Light is most perceptible as a phenomena —separated from the commonplace effect of illumination— when it interferes with itself. When two wavefronts overlap, a phenomena known as interference creates patterns which are visually similar to moiré patterns. In a complementary way, a subtle pattern in a weaving can waver in-and-out of perception when it is combined with another opposing pattern. Defined by patterns created in the overlapping of wavefronts —including the electromagnetic waveforms of perceptible light— diffraction exhibits a function of splitting varying wavelengths into individual parts which appear as defined colors. Diffraction and interference can occur without human intervention in a crystal matrix, which again alludes to the structure of weaving— a theoretically perfect repeating series which creates an emergent whole. The pattern coded into the presented weaving was calculated from diffraction produced by x-ray crystallography. This woven quarry is activated by an augmented reality application presented in concert with the weaving on a digital tablet device. The viewers' augmented reality portal queries the woven pattern and returns a 3D representation of a crystal which contains the matrix structure interpreted to create the woven diffraction. The woven pattern is then mirrored, stretched, and diffracted off the surface of the digital crystals, infinitely recombining the pattern within the weaving based on the viewer’s intra-action. The position-and-perception-dependent effect recalls the inextricable role of the observer in scientific experiments.
This work was installed at Supplyframe Design Lab in Pasadena, CA for the exhibition "Simulations and Materializations", September 2018 and at form & concept in Santa Fe, NM for "Beyond Punch Cards", May - July 2019