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From YouTube: How to Knit a Popular History of Media [HD]
Description
"How to Knit a Popular History of Media"
Kristen Haring
Auburn University
October 13, 2011
Abstract: As part of a study of the cultural history of binary systems, Kristen Haring undertook an unusual hands-on project. Her talk will explain how her knitting of Morse code serves to engage a general audience in discussion of communications theory, binary systems, and the history of media. She will also recount the surprising ways that physical production deepened her historical understanding. The talk will highlight the rich answers that can come from explorations that are at once artistic and technical, popular and scholarly, historical and contemporary.
(Co-sponsored by the Berkeley Center for New Media.)
A
B
B
B
Which
people
sometimes
find
hard
to
swallow
so
to
make
this
a
little
easier
to
accept?
I'm
going
to
write
this
in
the
kind
of
binary
format
that
we
associate
with
electronics.
The
first
line-
that's
here
that
describes
a
line
of
this
seed
stitch
pattern
is
how
you
would
see
it
in
knitting
instructions.
They
will
condense
groups
of
knit
stitches
to
call
them
k3
for
three
knit
stitches
in
a
row.
The
second
line-
I've
just
expanded
that
and
then
the
third
line.
B
B
B
So
if
I
write
out
the
word
hat
and
translate
it
into
morse
code
and
then
what
I've
done
in
the
third
line
here
is
to
say
whether
the
stylus
is
on
or
off
at
a
moment.
So
if
I
want
to
make
the
dots
in
the
four
dots
that
make
up
the
h
in
hat,
then
I
want
the
signal
to
be
on
then
off
then
on
then
off
on
and
off
then
on,
and
then
this
is
important.
B
B
This
is
the
simplest
piece.
It's
the
sos
sweater
in
which
this
emergency
call,
which
is
made
up
of
three
dots.
Then
three
dashes
and
three
dots
is
repeated
down
the
front
center
of
the
sweater.
This
ends
up.
Looking
like
a
rib
knit.
Well,
it
is
a
rib
knit.
In
fact
a
knitter
would
say:
what
do
you
mean
it's
dot,
dot,
dot?
B
That's
a
one
by
one
ribnet,
followed
by
a
three
by
one
ribnet,
followed
by
a
one
by
one
ribnet,
and
you
know
that
just
shows
you
again
how
these
systems
can
go
back
and
forth
between
each
other.
So
simply
that
easy
translation
between
knitting
and
morse
code-
things
which,
on
the
surface
seem
to
be
so
very
different
from
each
other-
starts
to
reveal
why
a
binary
system
is
so
powerful.
B
B
B
I
also
think
that
if
users
of
media
had
some
conceptual
knowledge
of
binary
systems,
it
could
lead
to
a
better
user
experience
and
I'm
very
open
here
with
what
I
mean
by
better
I
mean
this
could
mean
a
more
satisfying
user
experience.
It
could
mean
a
more
productive
one.
It
might
mean
a
more
critical
user
experience,
but
I
think
it
would
be
better
informed
regardless.
B
B
Just
take
the
example
of
knitting
and
morse
code,
different
people
tend
to
know
these
things.
After
morse
code
fell
out
of
use
in
telegraphy,
which
in
the
u.s
was
around
the
1910s.
When
it
became
automated,
there
were
basically
three
groups
of
people
who
knew
what
morse
code
was
boy
scouts,
military
personnel
and
two-way
radio
hobbyists
each
of
those
groups
being
predominantly
male
knitting.
On
the
other
hand,
since
at
least
the
19th
century
has
mostly
been
done
by
women
and
girls.
B
I
didn't
have
much
together,
yet
I
was
still
planning
this
project,
but
I
decided
that
I
would
make
a
small
knit
morse
code
document
as
I
went
through
everybody
else's
open
studios.
So
I
here
I'm
listening
to
a
violin
performance
and
in
the
back
row
trying
to
be
unobtrusive
and
at
one
point
during
the
evening.
B
B
And
while
I
was
paused,
something
really
amazing
happened,
which
was
that
the
woman
started
to
point
out
the
different
stitches
and
they're
talking
back
and
forth,
and
the
man
eventually
read
a
couple
of
words
out
of
this
piece
of
knitting
to
me.
So
I
know
they
weren't
bluffing.
I
mean
he
read
this
document
and
unfortunately
I
don't
exactly
know
what
they
said
to
each
other.
B
B
B
B
B
B
I'm
almost
always
asked
when
I
tell
people
I
did
this
project,
especially
when
they
see
some
of
these
pieces,
how
long
it
took
to
make
these
things
this
one
actually
took
the
longest,
although
it's
by
far
not
the
largest,
I
didn't
keep
track.
I
couldn't,
if
I
had
any
intention
of
finishing
this
project,
took
a
ridiculous
amount
of
time.
B
But
even
if
you
know
you
don't
have
the
pressure
of
a
ticking
tenure
clock,
it's
a
reasonable
question
to
ask:
why
would
you
actually
knit
morse
code?
Why
do
this
by
hand
the
whole
thing's
by
hand
by
just
me,
instead
of
writing
an
article
about
this
as
being
a
possibility,
and
that
gets
into
the
way
that
I
feel
that
the
morse
code
knitting
constitutes
a
kind
of
study
of
media
and
particularly
a
popular
study
of
media?
B
I
want
to
reach
a
broad
audience.
I
want
to
expand
who's
participating
in
the
discussions
about
media
analogous
to
what
I
said
regarding
the
importance
of
some
popular
understanding
of
binary
in
a
digital
society.
I
think
that
it's
essential
to
expose
and
to
talk
through
questions
related
to
media
beyond
the
academic
circles
that
we
sit
in.
B
These
knit
objects
have
a
tactile
and
a
visual
allure
that
I
can
stay
in
all
humilities
greater
than
that
of
a
scholarly
article
again.
The
coziness
of
knitting
helps
in
that
regard,
but
the
puzzle
element
is
also
appealing
once
people
realize
that
there's
some
kind
of
message
in
these
objects
they're
very
curious
to
know
what
the
knitting
says
and
their
desire
to
uncover
the
secrets
engages
an
audience
in
an
activity
of
understanding
the
morse
code
knitting.
B
Now
one
thing
they're
going
to
get
out
of
that.
Leibniz
scroll
is
a
nice
little
history
of
science.
Lesson
about
how
important
the
early
modern
jesuits
were
in
spreading
scientific
knowledge
internationally,
but
all
of
the
rest
of
the
pieces
in
this
project
bring
up
ideas
of
communication
and
media.
B
B
That
requires
a
lot
more
patience
than
reading
a
text
but
think
about
what
you're
really
doing
when
you
read
a
text
in
which
you're,
even
when
you're
fluent
in
you
have
to
understand
how
the
text
is
laid
out
on
the
page.
What's
the
reading
direction?
Where
do
I
start
what
the
characters
are,
how
they
represent
sound?
The
combination
of
sounds
into
words,
the
association
of
words
to
ideas.
B
B
B
Personally,
I
don't
read
russian.
So
when
I
see
a
word,
that's
in
cyrillic
characters.
I
get
stopped
at
the
level
of
image
and
my
brain
will
see
things
that
it
doesn't
see
in
that
bottom
line.
It'll
recognize
shape
and
pattern
in
the
middle
line,
which
is
transliterated,
I'm
still
going
back
to
an
early
reader
stage
where
I
might
have
to
sound
out
the
word
or
I
will
at
least
look
at
each
letter.
B
This
sort
of
attention
to
the
play
between
image
and
signification
of
language
ends
up
linking
morse
code
knitting
to
word
art
by
that
category.
I'm
referring
to
work
where
language
gets
used
as
a
visual
medium.
These
are
just
a
couple
of
pieces
which
you
might
have
seen
before
and
this
a
whole
genre
like
this
starts
in
the
united
states
around
the
1970s.
B
B
B
B
Additionally,
she
would
always
take
whatever
selection
she
had
made
of
the
truisms
and
put
them
in
alphabetical
order.
So
again
you
don't
have
to
know
that
this
is
in
morse
code.
You
don't
even
have
to
know
that
it's
text
of
any
sort,
but
if
you
were
to
study
it
very
closely,
you'd
see
that
there's
a
pattern
in
which
certain
lines
that
start
with
what
turns
out
to
be
dot
dash
the
letter
a
those
lines
are
all
at
the
top.
B
B
B
There
are
many
tales
about
information
being
carried
through
textiles
in
lots
of
different
cultures.
The
oldest
one
that
I've
come
across
is
the
greek
myth
in
which
philamela
has
been
raped,
had
her
tongue
cut
out
and
imprisoned,
and
she
has
no
way
of
communicating
what
has
happened
to
her
except
she
has
a
loom,
and
so
she
weaves
her
story
into
a
piece
of
cloth.
Has
the
cloth
passed
to
her
sister
and
the
sister
can
understand
the
information
in
the
cloth?
B
And
I
you
know
these
span
many
centuries,
but
go
right
to
the
present.
Just
a
few
years
ago
there
was
a
movie
produced
in
hollywood
called
wanted,
which
tells
of
a
group
of
assassins
who
get
their
kill.
Orders
from
the
loom
of
fate
and
the
loom
of
fate
will
use
a
binary
code
to
put
people's
names
into
a
piece
of
cloth
that
it's
weaving.
B
It's
also
a
perfectly
functional
way
to
pass
secrets.
A
spy
can
show
up
wearing
a
sweater.
That's
got
information
in
it,
probably
passed
through
all
kinds
of
searches
for
the
micro
dot.
Or
what
have
you
and
if
you
know
any
suspicion
is
raised
about
the
sweater
as
a
source
of
information
you
can
unravel
it
really
quickly
and
all
the
information
is
destroyed.
B
B
So
I
made
four
pieces
in
this
recording
series.
The
first
was
at
this
open
studios
event
in
stuttgart
and
then
three
at
iconic
public
spaces
in
new
york
city
at
strawberry
fields,
the
memorial
to
john
lennon
in
central
park,
every
scholar's,
favorite
new
york
site,
the
main
reading
room
of
the
new
york
public
library
and
in
grand
central
station.
B
B
They
certainly
reflect
the
point
of
view
of
the
recorder
and
they
reflect
the
limitations
of
the
recording
method.
The
morse
code
is
very
bit
intensive,
so
you
get
this
economy
of
words
forced
on
you
and
I
also
completely
dispensed
with
punctuation,
which
could
definitely
cause
confusion.
If
you
try
to
read
this
back,
there's
also
information
in
these
documents.
B
That
could
be
very
hard
to
make
sense
of
why
in
the
world
was
someone
buffing,
a
maserati
in
grand
central
station?
If
you're
reading
that
document
in
an
archive
you
might
want
to
skip
over
it
as
being
an
error,
just
like
the
error,
where
it
says,
buy
ix
instead
of
buy
ticks
for
buy
tickets
or
if
you
wanted
to
to
figure
out
well,
is
it
maybe
possibly
true?
B
You'd
have
to
do
a
lot
of
further
research
in
order
to
find
out
that
on
the
29th
of
september
2007
in
grand
central
station,
there
happened
to
be
this
display
of
maserati.
So,
okay,
it
sort
of
makes
sense.
They
were
buffing
them
and
they
would
be
in
the
middle
of
things
and
so
a
doc.
Someone
there
to
document
what
was
going
on
in
grand
central
station
couldn't
help
but
notice
it.
It's
a
very
weird
thing
to
have
in
a
document
about
grand
central
station.
B
I've
used
these
pieces
to
open
discussions
with
my
students
about
the
practice
of
history.
Now
historical
research
is
challenging
enough.
Luckily,
we
don't
have
to
read
this
kind
of
knit
document
when
we're
in
an
archive,
but
in
order
to
understand
the
various
evidence
that
has
been
left
by
diarists
by
bureaucrats
by
journalists,
interpretation
is
always
necessary
to
record
events
in
knitting
ends
up
underscoring
how
documentation
practices
shape
the
historical
record.
B
B
B
B
B
I
guess
I
sort
of
accepted
it,
but
I
must
not
have
believed
it
on
some
level,
because
I
never
tried
to
learn
morse
code
until
I
got
that
idea
of
walking
around
and
making
a
piece-
and
I
couldn't
have
my
cheat
sheet
in
front
of
me
at
which
point
I
made
flash
cards
and
I
I
couldn't
believe
it
within
24
hours.
I
knew
the
code
and
I
still
sort
of
dismissed
this
like
well.
This
isn't
what
telegraphers
did
I
mean.
All
I
know
is
the
correspondence
between
letters
and
their
codes.
I
can't
hear
morse
code.
B
B
B
B
Those
are
just
a
couple
of
the
examples
of
how
the
process
of
knitting
morse
code
informed
my
work,
I'd
always
taken
objects
into
the
classroom.
I
love
to
you
know,
ask
my
students
to
think
with
their
hands
when
they
pick
stuff
up,
and
I
think
that
these
material
objects
are
important
to
understanding
history,
but
this
was
the
first
time
that
I
had
made
something
as
part
of
my
research
and
I've
just
begun
to
collaborate
with
edward
jones
and
hotep.
B
B
One
benefit
of
fabrication
is
popular
engagement.
I
don't
want
the
morse
code
knitting
to
be
a
unique
project.
I
intend
to
offer
a
how-to
guide.
I
want
to
encourage
people
to
explore
this
or
their
own
methods
for
putting
information
into
crafts,
and,
given
this
current
pretty
widespread
enthusiasm,
we
have
for
making
things.
I
think
I
can
get
some
people
to
try
this.
B
These
were
handcrafted
pieces
put
before
an
audience
in
a
setting
for
open-ended
looking
and
a
place
that
they
could
puzzle
through
things
on
their
their
own
time
schedule.
There
was
a
sheet
that
sort
of
explained
what
these
things
were
and
what
the
morse
code
was
and
how
you
could
do.
The
translation
and
people
took
the
time
to
do
that.
B
I've
straddled
a
lot
of
territory.
I
would
really
appreciate
your
feedback
on
which
parts
of
this
work,
where
I
went
too
far
and
any
ideas
that
you
have
for
exposing
a
cultural
history
of
binary
systems
to
a
wide
audience
or
just
for
how
we
can
relate
scholarship
to
contemporary
issues.
Generally
thanks
very
much.