According to the ancient Greek mythology, goddess Athena, protector of wisdom and the arts, gave people the knowledge of weaving. 'Arachne', a young girl who prided herself that she can weave better than the goddess, was punished for her arrogance and disrespect by Athena, who transformed her into a spider and cursed her to continually weave her web. The weaver 'Arachne', which in Greek means 'spider', gave her name to our loom.

The loom is a machine used for weaving. Weaving is the method of fabric production, in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles. The history of the loom is great. Both in prehistory and antiquity various types of looms are found in all cultures.

A crucial turning point of the history of the loom was when in 1801, Joseph Jacquard using the binary code, built the first automatic loom that could handle complex designs. The loom was controlled by a 'chain of cards', a number of punched cards, laced together into a continuous sequence. Each card defined a weaving shuttle pass.

Unlike traditional looms, Jacquard loom allowed for individual control of each thread, which then allowed the weaving of complex designs. Something similar happens in the case of our own loom.

Exploded drawing of Arachne

Arachne is an interactive weaving system which consist of a DIY loom connected with a computer.

Arachne is controlled by a computer, through Arduino, which is connected with 16 motors that pull the warp. The software which is developed in "processing" analyzesany image and gives commands for weaving. The user is photographed, and then the image is analyzed in 16x23 black and white pixels. Finally, the weaving begins.

The idea of a DIY loom that works with open source software, can easily be used by anyone under an experimental as well as an educational process.

Weaving of Arachne with computer set-up

The project was exhibited in "Arduin & P rocessing Interfaces" Exhibition, Dynamo Project space, Thessaloniki and "Interfaces" - Exhibition of interactive installations BIOS, Athens.

In collaboration with Stavros Apotsos, Nassos Rossikopoulos-Pappas

Dynamo Project Space