White Cart Loom

Vicky Isley – Paul Smith / United Kingdom

Bournemouth–Boredomresearch

www.boredomresearch.net

White Cart Loom is developed in response to scientific research seeking to interpret and understand the data encoded in the biological process of shell formation in now endangered freshwater mussels. The project connects biodiversity with human creativity and its first expression through programming, with textile designers using the first programmable machine, the Jacquard loom. At Paisley Scotland, this process was used to explore the creative possibilities of the world-renowned Paisley pattern. The rapid industrialization of textile production contributed to habitat destruction, and freshwater mussels have become locally extinct. The opening of a space to reflect on the interaction between industrial processes and sustainability in a world populated by 7.4 billion human beings – each with a strong sense of unique identity -. Boredomresearch is integrating biology and computing to create a single pearlescent pearl for every human living on earth. In doing so, they have re-imagined the paisley pattern as if it had grown on the shell of a freshwater pearl mussel, reconnecting the design with its bio-inspired origins.