Knit while decoding

The Tricodeur is a pirated knitting machine designed to subvert the sensible textile design. It is under experiment in Bordeaux this autumn.

Knitting is trendy. Hacking too. So why not reconcile both? The Tricodeur is a pirated and unbridled knitting machine, just to see what happens when you enter some code on one side and stitches on the other. A result that can ultimately be of interest to textile creation as well as more industrial production channels. The Tricodeur operates with programming methods such as real-time capture or the use of autonomous agents. Hence near unlimited variations of patterns, drawn by moving a pixel according to an external parameter (oh yes, even the speed of wind was tried out), by distorting a grid of squares, etc.

The project is led by the Sew&Laine association from Bordeaux and the experiments carried out by the designer Louis Eveillard. Following a residence of trials and creation open to the public early September, the project is planning an awareness time with the journalist Sophie Bramel on Thursday 9th of October at the Lim’Art school in Bordeaux (France). A three-day workshop to experiment and apply the techniques developed during the residence will follow, from the 10th to the 12th of October at Sew&Laine. The restitution of the work produced will be presented during the Bordeaux digital week from the 13th to the 19th of October. Sew&Laine has already tested out this crossing of disciplines with an interactive knitting synthesizer. Named Synth&Laine, this project was initiated during the 2013 Digital week in co-production with Les Morphogénistes, a collective of digital artists, and presented on the Iboat for the musical knitting aperitif les Pelotes Soniques #10.

And soon one might see hackers trading their knitting needles for a Jacquard loom.