2007 Rockefeller New Media Foundation Proposal
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Knitoscope Sampler explores the relationship between digital technology and pre-industrial craft through software that translates digital video feeds into stitched animations about the labor movement. Knitoscope is customized to import a digital video file, lower the resolution and in real time generate a scanned stitch that corresponds with the videos' pixel color. Knitoscope Sampler will involve collaborating with existing artisans to develop and collect patterns of stitches, including geometries, pictograms and lettering for the Knitoscope database. These patterns will be used to narrate stories about the labor movement through video interviews with activists, historians and textile workers. The animation will be exhibited with chart patterns collected from craft communities, as well as traditional samplers and artifacts that will be documented and accessible on-line. The title "Knitoscope" is based on Edison's early animation technology the kinetoscope, which was a "coin operated peep show machine...watched through a magnifying lens". Knitoscope Sampler uses new media to innovate the ,tradition of storytelling through textiles.