We began working on version 4.0 of the project! For us, this entails combining elements of versions 1.0 and 2.0, so that the practices developed for the bobbin lace system and those for the CompuDobby system may begin to commingle.
To do this, we collaborated with Jason Shaw who replaced the brains of the computer for the CompuDobby with a microcontroller such that the loom can be directly controlled via Paula’s sound processing system. This also enables Olivia’s weaving to directly trigger events in Paula’s systems based on which harnesses get lifted by the loom via different tie-up patterns. To play with this, we began working with different synth patterns (based off version 2.0), percussive patterns (based off version 3.0), and field-recordings (utilized from recordings made for musicbox version of version 1.0). The result is a series of audibly different layers of multiple stages of the project.
Many thanks to Jason Shaw. Having a direct tie-in (pun intended) to the weaving mechanisms of the CompuDobby loom has been a vision of the project for years, and we are excited to begin this next phase.