The moment that you are able to view for the first time an ultrasound of a 12 week fetus is one of the most significant life events. However the image of the interior of the womb is not actual, it is a digital approximation, viewed on a screen through the filter of binary pixels from ultrasound wave technology. The womb is sampled, turned into a string of code, translated into dots of light on the screen that flash on and off. The fetus becomes abstracted and disembodied from the mother. As soon as the probe is removed the scene evaporates.

​

Textiles have been used for thousands of years to record important events and other data, from the storytelling tapestries of the ancient Greeks to the modern commemorative cross stitch sampler. Filet crochet in particular lends itself to the recording of simple imagery and text. It is formed from a series of open or filled squares from which simple bitmap images can be created. The use of gridded imagery in filet crochet pre-dates the invention of the pixel by around 100 years.

​

Surgical cotton suture is crocheted into a hollow round form which is then placed onto a flatbed scanner and slowly manoeuvred scan by scan to create a stop motion animation. The low resolution imaging creates an interpretation of the pixelated view of the ultrasound scanner as it passes over the womb and fetus, revealing voids and sections of anatomy.

​

The textile appears to come to life creating another artefact from the ultrasound room. The methods of digitisation are layered and re-interpreted. The actual forms become blurred and abstracted as information is deliberately lost through each step of the making process.

​

​