Sydna Mundy

This item is an exploration into the convergence of digital and physical making. Crochet is one of the few crafts left that hasn't been automated. It has also been well-established as an accessible basis to explore negative curvature surfaces. Crochet's capability to rationalize non-uniform surfaces and and the strict requirement to do it by hand were the inspiration for this project. My intent is to demonstrate the necessity of keeping craft present in our swiftly advancing design world. My partner, Alexander Kaplan, and I studied the use of crochet patterning in parametric design and vice versa. His background in computation and mine in fiber arts led to an investigation of form, function, and scale. We used the concepts inherent to hyperbolic form-making in crochet to develop a code that could generate those same forms in the computer. The code allowed us to explore design flat notations of patterns and simulate how the forms relax in real, dimensional space. This allowed for rapid iteration of unpredictable geometries that could then be used as a pattern for rebuilding the forms by hand. I validated the program by building the models at several scales and with various materials. The superscale pieces turn out to be soft and resilient; stretching well, while retaining the curvature distinct of this class of constant negative curvature shapes. Though I was investigating the architectural possibilities of large-scale, woven forms, I became interested in the wearable nature of the models as they often disappeared off my desk to comfort my cold or distressed classmates. Following the thread of this emergent use, I let my classmates decide how this form should be worn and interacted with. This series of photographs shows the myriad stylings they chose for my largest piece.