Oiko-nomic Threads

Weaving has always been associated with hard domestic work and holds a considerable place in the course of Greek tradition. In the preindustrial era, the loom played a key role in domestic economics and later, only a few decades ago, the knitting machine was associated with domestic revolution. In both cases, the weaving is a symbol which underlines domestic production as a core element of development.

The installation Oiko-nomic Threads represents a system commenting on the notion of work through the production of a textile. By rethinking and redefining the functionality of an obsolete knitting machine and rendering it part of a new system, the creation of a real time textile is made possible. Its decoration emerges from the data visualization of Manpower Employment Offices databases, using selected patterns inspired by Greek folk art.

The installation Oiko-nomic Threads refers to the production methodology and creates conditions to keep the weaving process accessible and contemporary. Woven as its product becomes an active base of archival resources.

Oiko-nomic Threads is a collective project by Marinos Koutsomichalis, Afroditi Psarra and Maria Varela realized with the support of the National Documentation Center (EKT) in the framework of ‘Creativity: Iinnovative Models of Production and Access’ (CIMPA) project and exhibited at the National Museum of Contemporary Art – EMST.

Blog Posts on Oiko-nomic Threads

Photo documentation Aggeliki Hatzi, Grimius Inevitabilis.

• dimensions

  Variable: approximately 7m x 3m x 2m.

• technical specifications

  Knitting machine (Brother kh-950i), micro-controller, programming (c++), computer, 2 screens, wires, threads, open financial data, computer-generated imagery, performer

• exhibition

  TETRAMATYKA Festival, National Academy of Fine Arts, Lviv, UA (2017); curators Anton Lapov, Anastasia Nechiporenko | 19th Contemporary Art Festival Sesc_Videobrasil, São Paulo, BR (2015); curator Solange Farkas | 16th WRO Media Art Biennale, Wrocław, PL (2015); curator Dominika Kluszczyk | Ars Prix Electronica, Future Innovators Summit [textiles only] Linz, AT (2014); curator Hideaki Ogawa | No country for young men, Curator Katerina Gregos, Bozar Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels, BE (2014); | Transmediale 14, future past–past future, curator Sandra Naumann Berlin, DE (2014); | National Museum of Contemporary Art, Afresh, curators Daphne Dragona, Daphne Vitali, Tina Pandi, Athens, GR (2013)

• acknowledgements

  Thanos Eleftherakos, Knitic, Daphne Dragona, Tina Pandi, Daphne Vitali, Prodromos Tsiavos, Aggeliki Hatzi, Foni Peponoula, Manolis Brother