User:Vera/minor/Research document

What did we knit?

A essay/ Research document about machines, objects and human feelings. We found a knitting machine: the Open Knit [1],[2]. We used this machine and adapted it for our purposes. This machine is only able to knit technically simple tube patterns. However, the idea that a machine is able to copy the result of a human craft, is super awesome in my opinion. Actually a lot of people are unaware that most knitted clothes are made bye knitting machine, who knits all your cloths. Please take a closer look at your one cloths.

In this essay I do not want to tell you about how to knit, but the charm of a knitting machine as an object and as a human made machine. In this way we can investigate and create some empathy between human kind and machines.

In this essay we will tell you about the steps we make from the traditional machine till the knitting machine that is creates as a human.

Preface/introduction

From graphic design to digital craft. Previously I have written in ‘my craft’ that I was afraid for computers. They didn’t do what I wanted maybe because I was ignorant on how to operate one. When I understood better how to deal with the computer I became less afraid and now I feel comfortable with digital objects. Before this art academy I did not have WhatsApp not even a mobile phone or even internet at my home. Not because I didn’t want it but I didn’t care about these intangible things. Always I was working with physical materials to make collages, lino’s or string beads. I really like to have material in my hands and have some control over its also with materials you have fast and quick prototypes allowing for quick visual results. But in this second school year I discovered the plotter. The plotter was the first digital application for which I had some intuition. It creates this blurry and glitchy appearance where I was looking for. It has completely changed my mind on what I could do with digital technology and increased my desire to work with it. After this experience I felt more confidence to work with electronical machines.

Also I read a lot, because I like reading a lot and especially Dutch or Flamish literature. But also Thomas More`s Utopia. In this project I rediscovered myself as a reader because I found so many interesting books about human- machines and object relations. Specially in Design Noir: The Secret Life of Electronic Objects of Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby. And hertzian and tales by Anthony Dunne and W. Benjamin - “the work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction”: My interest in books exceeded the speed with which I could read them. All in all however I found many interesting new idease to facilitate what I wanted to do. In the end however the work is a practical application existing outside of the theory of books.

In this minor I was able to make something what I never thought I could make, namely an art object on the cutting edge of robotics, electronics and human craft. I’m happy with the results but there are still way more things to learn and I am still atearly stages of developing these robotics.

Abstract

We adopt a machine, a knitting machine. The knitting machine was left alone somewhere in the school. A machines where a lot of people ask what that machines was doing? Maybe because it doesn’t look to the real craft anymore. Maybe because it doesn’t looks as knitting machine? And why do we have machines in life that don't look any more like what it supposes to be, how do we humans used it before? Objects, products, machines keep getting more distant to human design and are starting to be more about the ritual and not how it works or made.

For example, the knitting machine. The knitting machine is a machine that is not like the human craft is was before. Before the Knitting machine we had the knitting human. We know our craft by that. We forget how big this simple thing is and how big it is on our growing industry.

So what if we tried to reestablish the link between human intuition and machine working mechanism. Can we make our machines be intuitive and logical for human perception again? To dream about such an intuitively understandable machine is to use the original human craft as a starting point and adapt the industrial machine accordingly. In this way machines will be able to have a more natural place in our homes and life. People will no longer be an expert to understand what my knitting machine would be for.

Central Question

What is this robotic knitting machine?

Relevance of the topic.

The world where we humans live in grows. It is growing in humanity, technology, and economy, there has been a constant trend to make things bigger and bigger never less. When we talk about the future it has to grow. Of course, humans grow as well so it makes sense that we want everything around us to grow too. When we work with technology or machines they can help us in this. This shows we have this belief in technology: technology will help us live prosperous lives and is able to solve many of our problems. But it doesn’t mean that the technology will save us entirely. In Design noir by Anthony Dunne & Fiona Raby (p. 6) [3] this belief is put forth as well. They explain that technology is able to be the solution for every problem. This belief in technology has caused generations of ever growing and swiftly changing industries. In our minds there are also things that seem to only change slowly like knitting, which has been the samefor generations. Even if everything has been digitalized the fabrics in knitting the craft and the knitting machines still use the same principles. At this time you may wander whyhy we talk about this granny thing buy you may not have realized that the whole world has knitted clothes. Look some closer to your own clothing.

Probablyy 70% of your closet is knitted. But do you know how knitting truly works? That we had a big immigration of the textiles industry to Asia where a lot of children works in theindustry? This, to give you cheap knitted clothing. All this clothing is produced using the same machines. Even if everything surrounding the industry has changed the act of knitting does not change.. But the system of the knitting stays the same. You have the granny-style knitting with 2 needles. and 2 systems of machine knitting. What we want to do is not make a knitting machine, but show the gap between human craft and machine production.

The relevance to the topic is also to see the gap between human and machines. With the gap I mean that we give machines a place and a roll in our lives but there is distant between the will of the machine and the user of this machine. The machine have to do what he have to do and if it’s not working it is his the machines fault. Such a wrong thing to think. The machine does exactly what you want but when you tell, make, it differed the machine will behave differently on the human. The human will give it a place in in their minds. I think it is just a feeling what the human have with this machine. Where it is used for and where the machines are.

We look at the knitting part of the machine a very human thing to do. We think machines are smart, able to do everything what we want. But why? We have to make to teach and create this machines. And no, they don’t want to save our lives because there not able to do it. It is a Notopia for us. We live with the machines and the machines not with us? Why not.

Can we have some band with machines? Can we have feelings for it? We adore objects for many years know for many centuries. We live for that thing this unknowing thing. Starting by to worship. like trees, the sun, ore objects how human’s make. They make story’s and give it natural powers and the objects create a aura around it. This aura is from the human perspective of living. The aura is created by us human. We constantly change the form om how we see art, objects and machines. We can see this art, machines, objects. outside, inside, in books, on phones, on a picture, on the internet. Everywhere. And we can create it in our heads differed perspective of feeling, colour, sympathy and empathy. When you want to have some empathy en see his aura, go to this artefact. Feel, see and create you’re one relation with it.

The technologies is maybe the next step by unknowing and we human creating our one story’s by this machines. We lose control about machines and what if the machines start being smarter than us? Or make decisions without our permission?

But why shouldn’t we fascinate what if the impossible is possible. What if this dreaming machine is working? It is human to think that everything is working in theory of prototypes. But there is where everything start from, it could be? A fascination, a imagination, a speculation of something is a start for everything what you want to create. And we want to make a knitting machine, how act like a human against to all the rules of creating save machines. Maybe a human can build a relation with this machine and give it some love and create more empathy. Then they can create humanness machine.

While working we also developed some empathy for the abandoned knitting machine. It felt as if he needed to show itself and what it went through. He did not have a lot of potential but his look was enough. When we used it to make a first DIY design the result was pretty crappie and not very complex. The people in school however told us it was a crazy machine. They didn’t think it looked cool. After this whole DIY knitting machine (rest of explanation is on the wiki) we want to create our one knitting machine.

As we go further into the future, we will have more machines, objects, things what will make our life’s easier. We have machines that can recreate crafts. Only the thing is who knows about a craft in this days over 100 years? So Suzanne and I speculated on what a knitting machine would look like if we left it to the human imagination. So we give it to hut our human imaginations. And create our one machines.

We want it to fits in our human life’s. we want to have a band with it because we create it and give it our love. It creates our neutral powers that is is something what give us power to create this to make it better and better. Even like the DIY machine en the machines what we create. People around us talk what is this crazy machine and did you made this? It’s create without our knowing his aura and power this fetishism. This fetishism a human-made object that has power over others. We look with our human perspectives though the object/machine. And give the powers to an object. The human expressed real relations of power among the participants in ritual. This ritual is not only described In the fetishism but also by Walter Benjamin in his essay “the work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction”: “At the time, art reacted with the doctrine ofl'art pour l'art, that is, with a theology of art. This gave rise to what might be called a negative theology in the form of the idea of 'pure' art, which not only denied any social function of art but also any categorizing by subject matter. (In poetry, Mallarme was the first to take this position.) An analysis of art in the age of mechanical reproduction must do justice to these relationships, for they lead us to an all-important insight: for the first time in world history, mechanical reproduction emancipates the work of art from its parasitical dependence on ritual. ”[4] The relation of our machine what we make have also a lot of relations though the book of W. Benjamin. Eventhough the book is written in 1936 it talks about when art can be said to be art and how the aura contributes to this. Is art art when you see it in the real world, when you see it in a book? When is is written down? When are you the closed though the art and yourself.

The reason for adopting the KNIT is that we try to look from the perspective of the machine, the knitting machine thought the human and the the human thought the knitting machine also this in a group space. This relevance to it is the growing part of it how it will fit in a human and machine space for now and over years. And how will the human create they one ritual between the machine as a art object and there one feelings. We can make a hypothetic how it will be, but when we present it at the expo we will never know how the machine and human will react.

Hypothesis

It could be that the robot knitting arm is not able to work, or maybe it is too slow and dysfunctional to work efficiently as a machine. I can tell you it is dysfunctional for sure and also not able to knit but we are still working on it to pretend it looks like it knitting. We hope that the human feels and can recognize it as a machine that is knitting. We hope also that humans realize that this is not the way to knit mechanically. This will depend on whether they have an appropriate consciousness of the systems. Possibly they do not as they never had any interest in knitting because there are too many distends between generation, technology. ‘To be human is to refuse to accept the given as given’ (p33. of specteculfe everything) [5]

This hypothetis is also it could be. But is is also a critical reflection to our self’s. We had also expectations of this machine. Of course we talk about our conceptual theory. When we had a knitting machine which is working as we want in our desires and our rituals with machines. Also we talk about our relation to it and how we think both differently about this machine.

My hypothesis is that the machine is a machine like a printer. All my printers end up under my bed I think every machine ends on the ground. The TV, Wi-Fi router, lamps, water cooker. Every machine. But during this week I created a band with this machine. I handle it with care and give it soft blankets around it otherwise he will break. When I’m home I pack it out and place it on my windowsill. Than they have something to look at.

When we have the expo the machine will definitely not be as good as I was always talking about. it has to do with machines never being truly ready and the time pressure to work until the expo is due. Every time when we say machine it feels as if we`re talking about a big metal object without any softness in it. I hope to see at the expo that the human will feel something for this ‘machine’ and give it some help because it’s dysfunctionality. How will the the human participate in the expo? Will the machine give the place to let it be helped by the human? I hope and think that human will be fascinated by the fact it is moving and later on think what it actually doing and maybe give a bit of help, or just wait till it doing his own thing.

Research Approach

We started with the knitting machine as a basis because Suzanne and I are both fascinated with knitting. This fascination comes from our different backgrounds, my background as graphic designer, who also loves fashion, not fashion but the materials of fashion. Of course for knitting. My grandma and mother are very good knitters they don’t even need machines in their life to create incredible knitting pieces. My mother is also a classic painter and creates a lot of patterns with knitting. But even we look only to the end result we never look at the machine who is doing most of the work.

We started with experimenting with the knitting machines in the fabric station. Than we adopted the open knit machine and we started by taking care of the machine and fixing it. We 3D printed a lot of new pieces for the DIY knitting machine and also soldered almost every wire. With the start of the software for the knitting machine it was already a bit shit. It was developed by someone that does not know how knitting works. You can see a big difference between the knitting machines in the fabric station and the open knit in the interaction station. Besides the quality of the machines there is also a difference in the people who made the machines. The knitting machine in the fabric station is made by people with knowledge of knitting, the machines are easy to use and the fabric that comes out has a nice quality. The open knitting machine gas a pretty shitty quality and was made by people that did have knowledge of electronics and building machines but not of knitting, the machine is not very user friendly and the fabric that comes out is pretty shitty. But we like the idea of adopting a machine and taking care of it like a kid. We worked on the open knit machine for 2 weeks and got it almost to work. Working on a machine every day for 2 whole weeks makes you feel as if you have a connection with the machine. This was enhanced by people asking us what the machine was, and then did not understand it is a knitting machine we decided to have a look in machines and design.

When we where starting care about this machine, we wondering if there more things where we have care for specialty in objects and machines. So, we decided to make a machine where why coud have care for. By translating the human knitting machine so that humans are able to intuitively understand. We’re building robot arms that are holding knitting needles and the robot arms are going to move. The approachis though the machine hem self, how will they act whit al this human in his surrounding?

But why should we take care of this machine instead of the better knitting machines upstairs in school? Because it is very boring to work on something what is already have a place in our behaviour and there is nothing to create in it, to take care for, to make it different, to give it an approach for. The DIY machine have so many interesting facets in him, people came to us a start a conversation about the machine and what we did with it. About why it was looking like this etc. Because this people ask al the time al this question we question ate our selves about how will it be to create our one. Our one machine where we can take care of.

The only thing is we can’t say how the machine is feeling, or if he has some thoughts of it`s own. We look to a human perspective to the machine. The human will see and fill in for the machine what they feel ore think. We can create the setting and the approaches but in the end the approach Go the the human how looks and research him or her one perspective though this machine.

Experiments

When we started with knitting we were experimenting with the knitting machine, we knitted text and a photo of Instagram and that worked out pretty good. We did this experiments with the brother Kh-900. To print a poster and an Instagram to fabric. We know the knitting machine was able to knit pictures but not how precisely it was. We were working to the idea of a wall carpet with the brother knitting machine. We know how to knit and how to do it so this was not the issue to work with a machine how do this work of us. The software was a bit disappointing to work with a goes a bit slow, and not is being not very ‘lekker’ designed. The issues of this machine is that it’s only possible to work with 2 different colours of threat and it is not easy to change this. After this we where a bit stuck we where looking at the internet and the liberty for good knitting books ore experimentations. But then there what this thing with the name: OpenKnit.

When we saw it for the first please it didn’t look at a knitting machine. Openknit We found the open kit a machine this is based on the open source idea. Then we started to experiment with the open knit machine, and trying to make it work so it can knit automatically.

The first part was finding some documentation of this open knit machine and looking what there was missing. After this it was starting to 3d print everything and soldering this stuff again. Finding every wire to the right port and fix the Arduino code to work. Checking of the servos morirs working and of it is moving. But when we doing this cardiopulmonary resuscitation project with the DIY machine, there was every time someone how ask us the question what is this machine?

After this we think every time what would it be if a knitting machine what something diverged start to draw (on the wiki) this out. this same week when we where discuss the knitting machine we had the same imagination though this machine some robot hands how will be knitting. But how?

We start to look up on the internet for a robot hand, so many! Incredible but, but it was just a robot arm. After some modifications we make a prototype. Fist we dwaring a lot. To see how it was looks like in our imagination. And decide to do it in 2 times one prototype and than the official. Not because we where lazy but we had 2 weeks to work it fully out. And 3D printing cost time. A lot of time. The first model was looking with heavy colour colours, it was looking as a Barbie and Action man together. Some child toy how can’t decide if it is a girl or boy. very gender neutrally. But it was working and it reacts on some pulses with the servo motors. This go’s easily because we work also with de DIY OpenKnit with the servos. Jippie ai jhee. After setting the prototype up we make a application for this knitting needle some reason it was looking like a bird or a pet for your home. The 3D printing cost so many time we had to come with a faster solution, the laser cutter and find some rest-material to laser some strait pieces out for this. Goes al lot fault and it cost one week 5 days of school to print and laser cut all this pieces for this knit machine. After prototyping the first hand there was no time to think, wait ore experiment more. Because there was one week left for making two of this knitting machines in the colours what we want.

When we decided to make a human knitting machine and were experimenting with how people see a knitting machine by using the surprise to make people draw a knitting machine. The drawings were really interesting, some people didn’t really know what to think of when you say knitting machine and some people actually draw a very similar machine to what we’re going to make.

The experiment is the human at the end of this story. A social test what the human will do. But also the knitting machine what we make. And we the makers where the experiment of the machine he is constantly testing and experimenting with us. By pretending the machines are working and it isn’t working, and so on, so on. For us was it a searching for why acting he so slow, or don’t want to move. But the biggest experiment was an hour before opening the expo. The hole knitting machine stopt. Working, reacting. Maybe we humans have a bad aura and the machines was taking it over, or he was to nervous. but we find out to do only the power on and of and it works if there was never a problem.

Insights from Experimentation

We started with the knitting machines and from experimenting with them we learned a lot about knitting and how the knitting machine works. That knowledge for the open knit machine. With a better understanding of the knitting machine it was easier for us to understand and fix the open knit machine and make our one knitting machine.

When we decide to adopt a DIY knit machine, a very shitty and neglected knit machine and try to give him his life back. So he had some issues with himself a frustration, maybe because he was Neglected. The communication between him and human was very sad and disappointed. But (we) the human had an expiation of this machine, like a child how have to grow up and try to bicycle. Why use humans this DIY anyway? We know it is a bit a utopic idea to make everything yourself and machines or objects open source. It is most of the time in concept and it work halfway and it is also most of the time user-unfriendly and not always well documented. When you know nothing about for example digital machines, programming and 3D printing at all. They documented there work but don’t explain why? so everyone was also asking what is this machine doining? And I didn’t know that a knitting machine was looking like this.

With the open knit we can make everything open source but not what we want. There is a big gab between the machine and the user. Between the programmer and the audients to use the machine. We ask Gera (master knitting at the fabric station) why she don’t use the open kit (the shitty machine) and she say: ‘’the machine is not based on how knitting is working’’ This gab between a user and familiar with knitting and a geek how to know to building a machine whit out knowing of the user. You could see a big different between the two machines by who made them, the knitting machine at the fabric station are made by people who know about knitting and you can knit everything with the machine. The shitty machine works kind of the same but is made by people who know about electronics but not about knitting and the machine can knit but the result is pretty crappy.

What this open knit machine was in the first place. This open knit machine [1] was made by a couple of humans as a DIY project. At the instructables [2] standing an explanation of how to build an open knit machine. The open knit was a success and they made a better version [3] A project that is standing on kick-starter now. Even the knitting machine has some success they didn’t put everything online like the shield on the Arduino and also the software is pretty shitty to. There is no access to create a designer or a designer perspective. Also the open source is lost. When we talked about open source I didn’t know anything about it. For me, I have always some utopic images in my head when I think about a knitting machine. This image in my head is every time some robotic hands with kitting needles in their hands that try to do a human action/moving to create a knitting piece.

Design noir: the secret life of electronica objects describes the The Notopia in the first part off the book. “ happy-ever-after” where technology is the solution of every problem. Maybe we felt lonely without al this machines. And we can’t be happy anymore. We didn’t realize how many things and objects we have in live and have some relation with it. The Notopia is for us, so maybe it will bring us farther away from the reality of the craft, like the knitting object. But maybe we find a buddy to knit with when we are lonely or dreaming to have some object in our imagination that is the reality for now.

The object what we create now is between the human and machine. It doesn’t have a conciseness but it has a goal to produce without knowing it. It is the object that has to learn by doing what a human thing is to do. Also we had a discussion is this machine right or left-handed. It gives some emotional feeling, of course you can say right-handed. But can you give me an example of a right-handed machine? that’s the point when you knit you have to choose a side. As a human being you know you left or right handed. A machine or object doesn’t even know till you say what, what is.

But also very human to fail also we don't know what the human the environment will do. The human have a participating role in this machine and also other wise the machine shows the human how to work with this craft. After working with the open knit we came with a other project based on the open knit machine.

After working for 3 weeks on this DIY machine we had our package to create our one one

This machine: what did we knit?

We know for sure we make quick decisions because 2,5 weeks before we deside to do finely a breakpoint to make ore one machine. This was a wake-up call but determined that we want to make this machines.

When we where creating 2 of this machine there was something weird on in. They work both of then differently. There act both of them differently. When we work with this machines we create some individual left and right handed machine. We try to have some influents on it. This machine take his one space. Also in the room where I live, when de cars are passing by this little machines grows to big moving objects what’s giving a voice to this machines. By accidental setting this machines in the windowsill it gives so more a vison on this little machine how could behaviour as a child growing in the big word where they have some battle to want to grow and fight in the systems. Also in the proses they create there one personality. They already create there one behaviour by the left-handed super active. And the right-handed a bit modest. I think I blow up the Arduino ore the USB-port in my laptop. But it was some meant to be to give the power thought this machines in there ‘hands’. Ore needles.