Marisa Giovanna Di Monda
Loose Threads
There’s an orange under the bed
This is a story about women’s work - where it is valued and where it is not, where it is seen and where it is hidden. This piece is part of a research project exploring the development and histories of gendered labour and knowledge through the framing of women’s work within the domestic realm, its ties to computing, and tensions between art and craft. Loose threads invites you to lie on the bed beneath a canopy made by the artist’s Nonna, touch the blue stitching on the quilt to listen to the artist’s mother tell stories of women in their family, and watch a projection from Tasmania, Australia of a near identical quilt made by Marisa’s mother in the process of teaching her how to make the one in the space. The quilt is patched with printed images of women contributing to the history of computing - collected from the feminist server AnarachaServer - and of women from Marisa’s family. The design is based on an Anni Albers’ wall hanging and includes an IBM punch card pattern encoded with a quote from the first computer programmer, Ada Lovelace. “We may say most aptly that the Analytical Engine weaves algebraical patterns just as the Jacquard loom weaves flowers and leaves.” The work includes a performance of the artist wearing her Nonna’s clothes - which she made before she migrated to Australia - and crocheting oranges for each visitor.
Marisa Giovanna Di Monda is an Australian-Italian mixed media artist. Her practice is research based and uses computation with digital and analogue technologies to creatively examine and engage with cultural and political issues, Human Computer Interaction and how structures of control within society influence cultural narratives and the way we construct knowledge.