KATHERINE BENNETT
Cyberfiber: Crafting and Coding Experience

Interview by Harriet Cherry Cheney

“Sometimes I’m too tech for fiber circles. I’m too art for tech circles. I’m too avant garde for art circles.”
- Katherine Bennett

It’s impossible to describe Katherine in a few words but let me take a stab here: creative coder; sculptor; constructor; media artist; interactive engineer; magician, and provocateur. She was formerly a visiting assistant professor at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering. I remembered Katherine’s two presentations to TSGNY members. To say the least, I found her intriguing and technologically intimidating. Above all, I wanted to know more.

TSGNY: I’ve read that your work is “temporal, lived, social, gadget-driven, and a matter of software coding.” Does that mean you’ve abandoned formal concerns of material, scale, and composition?

KB: Not at all. Fibers and dimensional surface design get me excited these days. I’m fascinated with what image algorithms churn up for me. I love looking at the images and figuring out the creative process. It opens up new techniques and a new visual language. I’m fascinated with machine knitting and felting. I’m also drawn to creating material from which to create other materials. So, for example, I would knit a cord with which to knit a larger structure. I just took a workshop with Angelika Worth at Felters Fling. I’m in love with her work, process, and practice. It’s wildly different from my own yet there is so much to draw on for my own practice.

TSGNY: After seeing your work at our last pre-meeting, I must ask you about the cocoons? They made me want to crawl inside… especially with the inviting addition of the lights.

 KB: I think of technology as the nervous system to my pieces. I use sensors to take input from the world and create a processor unit, i.e., a computer program that can make decisions and execute tasks. These tasks might consist of turning lights on and off, making sounds, or using video. I am more interested in what technology can provide than for its inherent visual appearance (sound, light, image v. lightbulb, screen, computer chip). I use fibers to create structures in which to embed the technology/nervous system. The appearance and the softness of the fibers are more important than the technological components.

TSGNY: Because your pieces encompass elements of craft, code, and installation, I’m curious about the area/areas of study that led you to where you are?

 KB: My first degree was in psychology. I didn’t study art as a serious endeavor until late in my undergraduate work. I took a sculpture course and a foundational 3-D course and loved it! I never left the studio. From there I studied sculpture in the UK and was hooked. I was absorbing all sorts of processes and construction methods related to making dimensional objects and spaces.

Katherine Bennett, “Sleeping Thoughts”

As I was creating sculptures, things started getting larger and larger. I was building cardboard structures by ripping the board up and gluing it back together. Because the structures took up so much space, documentation became critical. I needed to talk about the piece to those who were unable to see it in person. I photographed them at night with lights illuminating the structures. That got me thinking about light , as the edges of the cardboard pieces lit up. I thought about making an environment with lights floating in space. This led to Sleeping Thoughts.

After that, I thought about controlling the lights — turning them on and off — and working with sensors. This led to studying technology more as a way to design systems that can take input and control output along with working with time and data. Working with others to help achieve the technical aspects was frustrating. This led me to pursue graduate work in the Art and Technology Department at The School at The Art Institute of Chicago, where I attained deeper knowledge and more independence to achieve my own vision.

Near the end of my time in Chicago, I began to think more about textiles and fibers and intertwining them with the systems I was building. Seeing the work of colleagues at the UArts in Philadelphia — and discovering wool — opened up my world to surface manipulation and fibers that related to my early sculpture work in the UK.

I’ve, most recently, been machine knitting and felting large structures for a piece called
Luciferins.

TSGNY: In what ways do your studies in psychology influence your work?

KB: I’ve always been interested in people and how we relate to each other.  I even worked on a crisis hotline as an undergraduate. I am less interested in the “science” of our bodies and more interested in our social relations. I create systems to reflect the systems we exist within: social structures; technological networks and applications, and political systems. There is always an input, output, and flow within these systems; they constantly flex and change. Computers and code enable an amplification of thought.

“I create systems to reflect the systems we exist within: social structures; technological networks and applications, and political systems.”
- Katherine Bennett

TSGNY: Are you trying to convey a warning about technology in your work? Would you consider yourself an activist?

 KB: I’m drawn to how technology shapes us and fosters our interactions. Technology has some wonderful uses but some are concerning. For instance, I’m concerned about the extent of technology listening to us and recording our micro-movements and decisions. We end up sharing data, often unknowingly. This may seem insignificant, but when magnified, it’s scary to think of the mounting data being collected about each of us. I think about how these things shift our behavior as a culture.

TSGNY: Can you tell us about your latest work in progress and your current residency?

 KB: Influenced by the cultural shifts that algorithms create, Luciferins is part of a series that explores technology’s effect on our interrelations and understanding of time. Fiber structures enshroud delicate custom interactive systems. The structures become alive with moments of light and sound, reflecting on the transition to post-humanism. 

Inspired by bioluminescent fish and the plethora of invisible network traffic that surrounds us—the installation is an interactive environment of hanging fiber structures, filling a 10 x 10 foot space. Depth cameras will be used to sense viewers in the space, as well as the fibers structures themselves. Many fiber structures will be distributed throughout the space, creating a layered environment that envelops the viewer’s body. As viewers move through the environment, the fiber structures closest to them will illuminate with graphical animations. After a short period of time in one location, a graphical portal opens to show network communication packets, which are also invisibly traversing the space. The data is sonified and interlaced with shortwave radio recordings, which play in a surround sound system. The portal opens only for a few seconds before returning the room to its normal state. 

Luciferins makes our digital networks perceptible when they are often imperceptible. The infrastructure that facilitates communication largely remains hidden. Luciferins’ network becomes perceptible by movement of the body. It gives viewers a sense of the invisible activity that surrounds them, just as a swimmer would make a dwelling of sea sparkle appear by swimming through it. Luciferins seeks to not only be an experience, but to open up the conversation about control and privacy in one of our last frontiers. The piece allows for an alternative experience of abstract concepts concerning technology; it enables viewers to connect it to their everyday lives.

The name Luciferins is a generic term for the light-emitting compound found in organisms that generate bioluminescence. The BBC’s Blue Planet did a beautiful series on the ocean and the variety of life living in the depths of the ocean. The episode on bioluminescent fish is mesmerizing. Dinoflagellates are single-cell plankton: tiny marine plants, animals or bacteria that float in the water. They light up upon agitation. 

Katherine Bennett’s simulation of graphics for “Luciferins” (work in progress). She did a graphics overlay over her studio setup of the fibers.

“My residency at Harvestworks, in NYC, will support the sound development; “Luciferins” will have multi-channel sounds using field records of nature and machines. I have also been awarded a grant from Fiber Art Now to support the project. I’ll use this to buy the wool yarn to machine knit the fiber structure.”

TSGNY: Can you tell us your impressions of TSGNY, how it serves you, and what we can do to attract younger members?

 KB: I really loved the speakers at the first few meetings. I love hearing about process, techniques, and problems… especially with regard to making large pieces. I would like more dialogue with other members. It’s a bit tough getting members to talk to people they don’t know.

Maybe there can be project nights, or bring in a piece and break into small groups to do a rotated chat with everyone in the group about their pieces.

 I do think a high caliber of speakers, who are comfortable talking about their work in front of an audience — and — activities between members would inspire young members. Is there a faculty or student discount? Are the meetings advertised at schools and programs that teach about fibers and textiles? Is there a contact between TSGNY and the Textile Arts Center? Or cross activities between them?

The gallery shows are great, as is the sharing of newsletters and information about fiber-related shows. Perhaps more links and resources on the website would track more people in. Or even running workshops. I’d be happy to do a soft circuit workshop if there is an interest.

(NOTE) Katherine’s other residences include Jentel; Vermont Studio Center (full fellowship), and Weir Farm. She has been awarded grants from: The Ohio Arts Council, Individual Artist Fellowship; Richard Kelly Grand, Illuminating & Engineering Society; The Puffin Foundation LTD, and Faculty Development, The University of the Arts Artist Fellowship.

katherinebennett.net