How do you show a 100m long piece without a 100m long plinth?

You might remember my piece '1 hours production = 1 ½ miles = 15 lengths' that a created for Lesley Millar’s show 'Cloth and Memory 2' at Salts Mill, Saltaire, West Yorkshire.  The piece contains my biometric data recorded whilst running in the Spinning room at the mill as a metaphor for woollen cloth production in the 19^th century.  I made the piece specifically for the space but have been thinking how I could also show you in other venues.  Its 100 m in length and whilst I had the luxury of a plinth that long at Salts Mill I know that is unlikely to be repeated.

So I have been thinking how I could show this piece again in another venue…..one without an enormous plinth!  

This year I will be showing the piece at Festival Of Quilts, NEC, Birmingham 1^st - 4^th August.  We will hang the piece from the ceiling letting it drop from the 15m ceiling and letting it rise again before wrapping it around the stand itself.

Doing the hand sewn hack sessions

The workshop at the Science Gallery London was extremely well attended, indeed oversubscribed with lovely enthusiastic people; a real mix of sewers and those with a keen interest in robotics or e-textiles.  It was quite a challenge for them as we wanted them to stitch sensors using a couching stitch.  It’s a tricky technique where you stitch down a thicker thread with a second thinner thread.  Some really struggled.  One man spent the whole morning really persevering and managed to stitch two sensors.  At the end of the session he pulled me to one side.  He said “Well that was really tough…..”  and I thought ‘Oh dear’ but then he continued “I have such a sense of achievement……I am off for cocktails to celebrate!”

We wont really know how successful the sessions have been until Sam Pitou has spent months testing them off, however what we do know is that initial results show that they are comparable to machine stitched ones.  Positive news.