'Fragmented Memory' is made by Phillip Stearns in the Textile Lab. The design was inspired by computer technology and the transmission and storage of digital information. Textile functions as a visual medium transmit the message. 

Fragmented Memory is a triptych of large woven tapestries completed in May 2013 in Tilburg, NL at the Textielmuseum’s Textiellab. The project uses digital practices and processes to blur the lines between photography, data visualization, textile design, and computer science. The result are works of visual art that serve to render visible the invisible processes mediating everyday experience.

A snapshot of my computer’s physical memory was extracted in a core dump (using OSXPmem). Three selections of the binary data were converted to images using custom software written with the help of Jeroen Holthuis. The resulting 64 hues in the images were then mapped to a custom woven color palette created by mixing 8 colors of yarn using variations on a satin weave. The resulting patterns were then woven on a computerized industrial Jacquard loom. Because of the direct mappings from binary data, to image, and from image to woven pattern, it’s actually possible to decode the original binary data sourced from my computer’s physical memory.