!!Con 2021 - Crocheted! Computer! Graphics! by Patrick Stefaniak

Crocheted! Computer! Graphics! by Patrick Stefaniak Making 3D graphics and creating textile art are surprisingly similar! In this talk I will show the work from my MFA thesis exhibition, CLOTH^3, which includes a videogame, a giant crocheted cube, and a series of 3D prints to explore the connections between these two disciplines. These threads are both historical, hearkening back to early computers like the Jacquard loom and circuits made by hand, and material, in the rendering of shapes from scattered points into lines - faces - volumes. By taking a craft approach to videogame design we can queer the gender configurations of labor like crocheting or programming and create new ways of working and playing. Patrick Stefaniak is currently an MFA student in Digital Art + New Media at UC Santa Cruz, earned a BFA in Digital Art from Indiana University in 2015, and has worked in New York as a Creative Technologist. He works with 3D games, virtual reality, video performance, installation, writing, hole punching, crocheting, and 3D printing to think about rendering, perception, labor, queerness, and fun.