The project Machine Learning Rug, or »MLrug« for short, by siblings Maximilian Blazek and Ida Hausner shows that computing and weaving have more in common than one might expect: patterns are read, interpreted, combined and reproduced – by rug weavers at the loom in Morocco as well as by artificial intelligences generating images. These analogue and digital processes of recognising and producing patterns form a unique dialogue in MLrug: an AI learns, interprets and reproduces patterns from Moroccan carpets, and the resulting designs are then re-interpreted and hand-knotted into tangible rugs by Moroccan weavers.

Patterns connecting computing and weaving

In fact, the analogue and digital processes not only interweave within MLrug. A glance at the history of computing reveals a connection to the textile craft of weaving from the very beginning. As mathematician Ada Lovelace aptly wrote in 1843 about the first theoretical computing machine: the Analytical Engine “weaves algebraic patterns just as the Jacquard loom weaves flowers and leaves.” And this is no coincidence: inspiration for the Analytical Engine came not only from the Jacquard loom’s mechanism, but from the new workflows of the English textile industry during the Industrial Revolution. This early interconnection lives on in the language of programming to this day: software developers write code that contains “threads” of related information, and if a “bug” is found, it is fixed with “patches.” In practice, digital code is mended just like a moth hole in a carpet. So how far apart are analogue rug weaving and digital image generation by AI really?

Premiere at Galerie Blazek

The exhibition MLrug at Teppichgalerie Blazek marks the first time the siblings present the results of their “Chinese whispers” with patterns. Visitors will encounter both the hand-knotted re-interpretations by Moroccan weavers and a selection of the original carpets used to train the AI in generating rug images. Viewers are invited to consider: at which point in this game of “Chinese whispers” do they find themselves? Who starts the conversation with the first word or pattern – and how much does it change in the process of being passed on?