The Life of a Building

Abstract

During the pandemic many individuals turned to handcrafts such as knitting to cope with the uncertainty and anxiety we were collectively feeling. In this artwork we wanted to bring knitting out of isolation and to use it as a method of community participation to document the "recovery" year at a local art gallery. In July 2021 we launched The Life of a Building at the Ottawa Art Gallery in Ottawa, Canada, which knits visitor data at the physical gallery as well as online interactions on the gallery website. Each month the colour of the yarn changes, creating a tangible, soft record of this unpredictable year. During TEI, the audience will be able to visit the gallery website, click a button to create their own row of stitches on the machine, and watch the knitting machine knit them into the installation through the livestream. CCS CONCEPTS• Human-centered computing → Visualization systems and tools.