Film
SYN/ACK
Mail Art
Ancient Futures
(Nicole Yi Messier & Victoria Manganiello)
about the art
What happens when ancient practices are merged with modern technologies? This month’s art explores possible answers: a film by electronic musician and textile designer Phillip David Stearns and mail art by Craftwork Collective (Nicole Yi Messier & Victoria Manganiello).
Phil merges new and ancient technology by weaving tapestries generated from digital designs, artifacts, and glitches. In his film SNY/ACK, Phil uses hacked hardware to translate network traffic into a sonic and visual tapestry. Isolated lines of computer code multiply to create complex visual and aural patterns. If it seems raw, that’s because it’s meant to be as raw as possible — no effects, minimal edits, just the network code revealing its hidden aesthetic.
Nicole Yi Messier and Victoria Manganiello are two of the artists behind Craftwork Collective, a multidisciplinary studio for experimental craft techniques. The collective focuses on emerging technologies, manufacturing techniques, and novel materials to explore the nature of craft and its historical and cultural contexts. In their installation, Ancient Futures, textiles are woven with optical fibers that collect, store, and visualize stories and secrets shared by viewers. The project is a modern re-imagining of ancient textile traditions that have held humanity’s secrets across time and space.