GAN Carpet project (w/Neginete)
Jacquard Weavings

2018-

Overview
Negin Ehtesabian (Neginete) and I have an ongoing conversation about the carpet as an art form and cultural trope. The USA blockade of rugs is a form of cultural imperialism, which relates to the free transmission of information worldwide and how the Internet threatens to be a balkanized set of info-states.

Forbidden Series
The Forbidden Series is a series of Persian carpets' images obtained from Iran and then transmitted into the United States and woven on a Jacquard Loom in North Carolina. The conceptual notion is that material is subject to blockade, but the information for the fabrication of an object is not.

GAN Carpet Series
Negin and I have been considering the ideas behind contemporary carpet design, which has led us in many directions. In my case, I have been feeding thousands of Persian carpet images into GANs and considering the implications of mixing cultures and circumventing fabrication.

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