Motherboard is my approach to quilting as a new media artist.
The patches are embroidered with electrically conductive thread so each functions as a fabric circuit board. When stitched together, the piece collects and displays images of what is happening around it as an abstract quilt pattern. Sensors embedded in the quilt change the projected pattern based on the interaction of the viewer. I was playing off of the idea of quilts as a visual archive of memory.
I was also interested in reconciling two different ideas of production within this piece.
I think in many ways we are divested from the production of technology. Phones, computers, tablets, etc. are created by engineers in Cupertino and physically manufactured in a factory somewhere in China. When a new phone or computer or software update is released, we simply buy or update. We act as passive consumers of technology. Quilting for me became a metaphor for producing our own material goods and representative of a time when we more directly engaged in making our own tools, clothes, food, etc.
I wanted to reconcile those two ideas with this piece.