Knitting Data
Perhaps the best jumping off point for the concept of visualizing data through knitting is project Skyknit. Optics research scientist Janelle Shane works with Neural Networks, feeding them information until they begin to create on their own, a process similar to teaching and learning language. If you give a neural network enough sentences, it will begin to string together its own. In 2018, Shane trained a neural network in the structure of knitting patterns-- a dense code that looks impenetrable to those of us who aren't in the know (a line of knitting might look something like 'Row 16: *C4B, C4F, p2* around'). Eventually the neural network began to write patterns, and a group of knitters on popular crafting site Ravelry accepted the challenge and proceeded to create them in the real world. This example of how knit patterns easily translate into codes and vice versa inspires us to look at other ways knitting and data have collided. Read more about Skyknit here.