Rethread
re|thread is an open collective of computer scientists, artists, and designers, in Stockholm (Sweden) founded in 2019. Their work lies at the intersection between software technology, art, interaction design, sonification, and visualization, and focuses on the use of software as the material and medium for artistic creation. Their work is fuelled by the interest to explore the dynamic nature of software from multiple perspectives, addressing its many layers; from the sublimity and detail of each execution to the societal and political impact it has on our lives.
Through their work they aim to establish emotional and reflective bonds between citizens and the software that constantly surrounds them, transforming the way they experience software, and allowing for participation and collective imaginings of what software is and what we might want it to be. re|thread sees art as a means to explore these affective connections. Through artefacts and performances, they intend to cultivate curiosity of the scientific and technical aspects of software which appear to many as a “black box”. When presenting these obscure and perplexing concepts as open or shared and as aesthetically enchanting, knowledge about software can become accessible to citizens, allowing for informed decisions and more radically diverse systems of education and production.
Projects
- re|trash invites children to a hands on experience with the insides of computers.
- re|quest is an examination of the software activity in the browser when searching the internet.
- ci-poetry is an interactive audiovisual installation simulating continuous integration through a continuously evolving poem.
- A CI Art Hackathon was held in October 2019 where 23 participants hacked together art based on a real time data stream of continuous integration data from GitHub.
