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TextDraft 1.0.1

This work reconfigures weaving as a generative writing system, translating typed language through the centuries-old “name drafting” algorithm to explore how memory, language, and gendered forms of knowledge are encoded, transformed, and preserved.

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"TEXTDRAFT / Weaving with Text" is a generative/interactive webpage project which has been published in THE HTML REVIEW proposes to think together about the traditional fields of weaving and language to reveal alternative possibilities. It explores the transformation and preservation of memory and recording, imagining a symbiotic relationship between language and weaving systems. The project focuses on the role of weaving as a socio-cultural repository of memory and the metamorphosis of language created through weaving, especially by women throughout history.

The project considers the transformative potential of weaving in the realm of gender roles. It aims to archive daily or periodic concerns and situations, as women do through history by weaving, and reverse it through today’s communication tools. This approach not only empowers expression itself through new forms of storytelling, but also contributes to a larger discourse on gender equality and social justice, ultimately creating new possibilities. In line with technological advances catalyzing cultural change, the art of weaving is explored as a conduit for analogous social change. The project proposes an avenue for amplifying narrative and discourse of gender equality and social justice.

“THE HTML REVIEW is an annual journal of literature made to exist on the web. It is edited by Maxwell Neely-Cohen and Shelby Wilson.

Their efforts have been covered by Frieze Magazine, MIT Technology Review, Longreads, and the German radio program Netzkultur. There have been public performances and displays of work we have published at CultureHub, Rhizome, the de Young Museum, and The Net Gala.”

— THE HTML REVIEW

Year
2024
Software
JavaScript, HTML, CSS
Publication
THE HTML REVIEW Edition, Issue 03
Online
thehtml.review/03/weaving-web/
Images
Webpage screenshots
Screenshot of THE HTML REVIEW issue 03 index page, listing contributions including Merve Mepa’s TEXTDRAFT – Weaving with Text
Screenshot of the TEXTDRAFT web interface: a text field containing the word “commons”, buttons, and a black-and-white woven draft grid
Screenshot of a page from the project showing an annotated drawing of Lovisa Nylander’s loom and a quoted passage by Sadie Plant
Close-up of a black-and-white woven text draft pattern generated by TEXTDRAFT