computerized Jacquard weavings with data-driven patterns created with EMG recordings of bodily movement
Artwork

Embodied Objects

2016
computerized Jacquard cotton weavings affixed to wood wall mounts
70 H × 53 W in (178 H × 135 W cm) each

Titles in series: Blink Twice, Swallow, Squint, Frown, Furrow, Smile, Undo

The frenetic patterns in the Embodied Objects weavings are formed from electromyography (EMG) data collected while performing tasks and expressions with my own body such as squinting, blinking and even unraveling a finished tapestry. The numerical EMG data was visualized in a custom program that was written to repeat, rotate, and randomly colorize the EMG waveforms with a grayscale palette. The series of digitally woven tapestries examines notions of labor and craft as they relate to material and technology. By combining hand and digital processes with traditional textiles and new media technologies, the series destabilizes and interrogates how each is categorized and valued. The narrative implications of these categories are mined for their potential to explore how technology, data, and cultural artifacts mediate our understanding of the human body. I often co-opt disciplines (textiles, medical diagnostics) steeped in exclusionary rules and traditions precisely to have a set of rules to break. By considering rules as “media", I attempt to challenge the historical systems that perpetuate these rules under the guise of expertise. Embodied Objects questions both the veracity of the meaning of the data driving the patterns well as the meaning of the values imbued in traditions of craft.

The frenetic patterns in the Embodied Objects weavings are formed from electromyography (EMG) data collected while performing tasks and expressions with my own body such as squinting, blinking and even unraveling a finished tapestry. The numerical EMG data was visualized in a custom program that was written to repeat, rotate, and randomly colorize the EMG waveforms with a grayscale palette. The series of digitally woven tapestries examines notions of labor and craft as they relate to material and technology. By combining hand and digital processes with traditional textiles and new media technologies, the series destabilizes and interrogates how each is categorized and valued. The narrative implications of these categories are mined for their potential to explore how technology, data, and cultural artifacts mediate our understanding of the human body. I often co-opt disciplines (textiles, medical diagnostics) steeped in exclusionary rules and traditions precisely to have a set of rules to break. By considering rules as “media", I attempt to challenge the historical systems that perpetuate these rules under the guise of expertise. Embodied Objects questions both the veracity of the meaning of the data driving the patterns well as the meaning of the values imbued in traditions of craft.

Arte Fuse

…Splan deftly weaves scientific findings into visually stimulating artworks…

Surface Design Journal

…The exigent urgency of Laura Splan’s conceptual work always feels one step ahead of us, much the way technology, which she employs to execute and symbolically illuminate her concepts, exists long before it is grasped by the masses…

ACRE Projects
SÍM Artist Residency
Thoma Foundation
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
Occurence Gallery