Artist Residencies and Workshops

Since April, I've been in residence at UIC/Mana Contemporary, as a Public Engagement Maker.

They've provided me with a fantastic studio to work in, access to the Makerspace on UIC's campus, plus the great privilege of working with UIC New Media Professor Sabrina Raaf.

On May 2, UIC featured me at their booth at the Northside Mini Maker Faire at Shurz H.S., where I demonstrated the knitting machine and showed my work (pictured above). And I'm currently working on plans for a special free series of the Women's Electronics Workshop at Mana. 

Additionally, my application for eTextile Summer Camp was accepted, and I'll be flying to France in July for this amazing week-long event, held 250km outside of Paris in the Loir Valley. I'm particularly excited about participating in the Swatch Exchange, and look forward to bringing home a large collection of e-textile samples to share.

Mechanical Tide

My friend Marta recently captured this photo of University of Chicago grad students playing with my sculpture, Mechanical Tide, in the lobby of the James Franck Institute. It's been on display there for 7 years now. 

The marbles shift in interesting patterns until they don't. So someone has to reset them from time to time to keep the pattern going. Apparently this group of grad students has taken on the role.

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Extraordinary Effort, Spectacular Failure

Extraordinary Effort, Spectacular Failure opened last Friday, March 6, a group show from the Hatch artist incubator program at Chicago Artists Coalition.

I have a new piece in it, a column of knitted Kevlar and circuits, suspended on an embroidery hoop from the gallery's 14' ceiling. In order to protect the delicate circuitry, I soldered the piece onsite. Ultimately, it turned out better than I could have hoped, and really pops at night.

I feel like this is a sketch for a larger work so I don't quite have a title for it. I'll likely develop the project further as part of my upcoming Public Engagement Maker Residency at UIC/Mana Contemporary.

If we missed you at the opening, join us for the closing event, Thursday March 26.

***New City reviewed and recommended the show here.




ATTiny84 & the Tiny Programmer

I like programming my ATTinys with the Tiny Programmer. (How can you not love a tool the size of a stick of gum?) But I couldn't find info for mapping the pin connections for the ATTiny84. So I did a little research. Here are the connections:

ATTiny84  --->   Tiny Programmer

  • 1  ---> +
  • 14 ---> -- (minus sign)
  • 4  ---> (unlabeled)
  • 7  ---> 0
  • 8  ---> 1
  • 9  ---> 2

Works great. 

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Passap Knitting Machines: Donation and Deep Clean

Last month, I received a phone call from Mary, one of the clever ladies who runs the InterKnit Machine Knitters Club. Someone was getting rid of some Passap Duomatic knitting machines, and would I like one? Heck, yeah! I replied, and could you also grab one for Pumping Station: One?

So, two days later Mary drops off two very heavy knitting machines, and several very heavy boxes of carriages, accessories, tension rods, and books. The machines are ancient, crusted with yellowed oil and blackened lint. Luckily, one of the books is "Be Your Own Passap Paramedic", which gave us a starting point to deep cleaning these machines.

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