Signal Textiles unites all my textile-based works that translate mathematical behaviour, oscillations and field dynamics into material form. Through embroidery, knitting, weaving and laser-generated templates, textiles become carriers of signals: patterns emerge from equations, forces become stitches, and cloth becomes a surface where computation and craft meet.
This pillar currently includes the following sub-series:
• Computational Sashiko – embroidered works based on algorithmic pathfinding, field structures and laser-cut templates, merging traditional Japanese techniques with contemporary signal logic.
• Keller–Segel Knits – knitted pieces developed in collaboration with Troy Nachtigall, based on reaction–diffusion systems that form self-organising patterns in fabric.
• Van der Pol Fashion – garments shaped by oscillators and attractors, using sewing patterns populated with electric field lines and dynamical curves.
• Alan Turing Embroidery – a stitched homage to Alan Turing, translating his work on morphogenesis into hand-embroidered pattern.
The Alan Turing Embroidery project returns to a lesser-known side of Turing's legacy: not the codebreaker or the theorist of computation, but the naturalist who asked how spots, stripes and whorls arise from uniform tissue. His reaction–diffusion equations, developed shortly before his death, describe how two simple chemical processes—diffusing and reacting—can spontaneously break symmetry and generate the patterns seen across the natural world. Embroidery becomes a way of re-tracing that idea by hand: a slow, repetitive process in which a pattern accretes stitch by stitch, echoing the way Turing's model builds visible order out of undirected local interaction. The work sits at the intersection of homage and method, using the needle to sit with an equation rather than simply illustrate it.
Computational Sashiko explores how mathematical and computational structures can be made inhabitable through craft. Using laser-perforated textiles as a starting point, the work translates complex systems—such as vortices and attractors—into stitchable patterns that guide the hand without demanding force or endurance. The pre-punched holes and subtle guide lines remove physical resistance, allowing attention to settle into rhythm rather than struggle.
Rather than replacing traditional sashiko, computation is used here as a tool of care: to lower friction, reduce pain, and open dense complexity to sustained, bodily engagement. The resulting works are not finished images but continuable surfaces—pillowcases, panels, and textiles meant to be touched, stitched, adapted, and lived with. Meaning is not embedded in the pattern itself but emerges through the act of making, where precision and presence coincide without claiming inevitability or conclusion.
Keller–Segel Knits translates reaction–diffusion processes into knitted textiles, drawing on mathematical models originally developed to describe pattern formation in biological systems. Using computational simulations as a generative source, the work converts emergent structures—clusters, waves, and instabilities—into stitch patterns that unfold gradually through the act of knitting. What appears visually complex is produced through simple, repetitive gestures, allowing the body to remain steady while the pattern evolves.
Rather than representing biology, these knits make its logic tangible: slow accumulation, local interaction, and emergence without central control. The garments and textiles are not illustrations of equations but material traces of processes, worn and used rather than displayed as diagrams. Meaning arises through duration and repetition, as the knitter participates in a system that forms itself over time without prediction, optimization, or final resolution.
Van der Pol Fashion explores self-oscillating systems as a foundation for clothing design, using the Van der Pol equation to generate rhythmic, non-linear patterns. These oscillations—neither purely regular nor chaotic—are translated into visual and structural motifs that carry a sense of internal timing. Computation is used to reveal balance through instability, allowing patterns to breathe, pulse, and repeat with variation.
The resulting garments do not aim for visual harmony alone, but embody regulated excess: systems that stabilize themselves through motion rather than control. Fashion here becomes a carrier of temporal structure, where mathematical rhythm meets the lived rhythm of the body. Meaning is not fixed in form but sustained through use, as the wearer inhabits a pattern that persists without equilibrium, endpoint, or promise of resolution.
Alan Turing Embroidery returns to a lesser-known side of Turing's legacy: not the codebreaker or the theorist of computation, but the naturalist who asked how spots, stripes and whorls arise from uniform tissue. His reaction–diffusion equations, developed shortly before his death, describe how two simple chemical processes—diffusing and reacting—can spontaneously break symmetry and generate the patterns seen across the natural world. Embroidery becomes a way of re-tracing that idea by hand, translating a mathematical model of growth into a slow, repetitive act of stitching.
The work sits at the intersection of homage and method: not an illustration of an equation, but a way of sitting with it. Each pass of the needle accretes the pattern stitch by stitch, echoing how Turing's model builds visible order out of undirected local interaction rather than a governing plan. Meaning is not delivered as a finished image but built through duration, as the maker's hand repeats the same small decision until a recognisable structure emerges—unplanned in its particulars, inevitable in its logic.
