Artist Alida Sun Translates Digital Code Art into Woven Tapestries in Recent Exhibition

Berlin-based artist Alida Sun produces digital artworks almost every day through coding. She uses a self-designed audio-visual instrument that detects light and converts movements into geometric patterns, visuals, and sounds. Sun has maintained this daily practice for 2500 days, equivalent to nearly seven years.

Sun developed the system to make coding more engaging and less screen-intensive. The process incorporates physical movement to create restorative and enjoyable experiences. This approach transforms coding into a ritual that emphasizes awareness of the body.

In her recent exhibition titled RITES at Method Delhi, Sun explored the physical aspects of coding by translating digital artworks into tangible forms. The exhibition featured hand-woven and embroidered tapestries created in collaboration with women artisans from the Swami Sivananda Memorial Institute of Fine Arts & Crafts, a non-profit organization in Delhi.

These tapestries represent an effort to make code art more intimate and accessible.

The exhibition addresses the historical links between textiles and programming.

Modern computing traces its origins to weaving practices, which were traditionally associated with women's labor. For example, women in New England, US, wove copper 'rope' to store software code for the Apollo Missions, a technology known as core-rope memory that resembled textile work. Sun's project reclaims women's often overlooked roles in computational history.

The tapestries incorporate elements from Indian textile traditions, learned during the collaboration. Artisans added their own patterns, such as embroidered flowers, which influenced Sun's subsequent digital designs. The collaboration lasted two years and involved ongoing dialogue between Sun and the artisans, despite language and cultural differences.