Oiko-nomic Threads

Abstract

Oiko-nomic Threads is a collective art project for an algorithmically controlled knitting machine and open data. The installation represents a system commenting on the notion of work through the production of a textile in real-time. By means of rethinking, modifying and redefining the functionality of an obsolete knitting machine and employing financial data from the databases of the Greek National Manpower Employment Offices as well as selected patterns inspired by Greek folk art, a textile is generated algorithmically. This way, the woven textile is to be understood as both a document of its own making as well as a dynamic base of archival resources which presents a computer-generated interpretation of the original financial data.