My name is Heather Schulte and I'm an artist working out of Boulder, Colorado. These works are from a series called The Times and are responses to our twenty four hour news stream, combative social/political arena, and digital communications. I carefully and meticulously stitched through the front page of a newspaper, using cotton thread and a simple needle. This low-tech approach stands in contrast to complex networks of technological communication systems, while also calling to mind ancient traditions of social networks formed around textile making. Textiles and stitching are ubiquitous across human culture and here indicate the people referenced in the news, writing the articles, and recieving and discussing its content. I utilize a visual binary code to pattern stitches over the individual articles, obscuring the original information, while adding more. And at times un-intentionally revealing printed words that can be variously interpreted. This process points to the format of digital communications and the patterns and forms of language systems in general. raising questions about embedded systems that influence both what is in the news and how we interpret and act in response to it. In my work, I often translate between digital forms of communication and physical materials. Considering how we use these tools, and how the tools influence us in turn. This approach slows down the speed in which we process information and holds space for contemplation, both during the creation of the piece and the viewing of it.
