30 August 2013

Fragmented Memory by Phillip Stearns




The Fragmented Memory is a triptych of large woven tapestries created by the artist Phillip Stearns. It is actually a snapshot of the artist computer’s physical memory that has been extracted from his computer. He used his system core dump and custom software for creating this pattern of Fragmented Memory. Core dump or memory dump contains of the stored state of working memory at a specific time. Phillip Stearns used three selections of the binary data and converted them to images using custom software and then grouped 6 bits into RGB pixel (a color model in which red, green and blue light are combined together to produce an array of colors) values. After that 64 hues in the images were mapped to a woven color palette. The resulting patterns were then woven by a computerized Jacquard loom and he was able to decode the original binary data to a creative woven textile. Phillip Stearns the one who is behind this project, is an artist working with electronics media from Brooklyn, NY. For him the main goal of making this artwork was to represent the collapses between textiles as a medium for imagery and computer technology and shows a visual representation of digital information.




Binary data can take on many forms: pits and lands in a thin film of metal, the alignment of magnetic domains on a metal platter, the presence or absence of charges on capacitive FET transistor gates, light and dark markings on a piece of paper, or different binding patterns in a woven textile. Each has its own materiality, physicality, scale, and temporal dimensions, as well as cultural significance.