An Artist on the Intersection of Computer Code and Needlework

Needlework and computer coding might seem to be incongruous pursuits, but for the Dutch artist Anna Lucia Goense, the combination has provided infinite creative possibilities.

“If you look at cross-stitching or working with a loom or even knitting patterns, they are always binary systems on grids,” said Ms. Goense, 33, who is known professionally as Anna Lucia. Her focus is generative art, a process that involves designing systems, manipulating parameters and fine-tuning algorithms to create artworks that can range from browser-based animations to textiles such as quilts and embroidered fabrics.

The idea of stitch or no stitch is a perfect real-world metaphor for the binary 1 and 0 logic of computing, she said. After all, Ada Lovelace, the mathematician known as the first computer programmer, made a similar connection in 1837 when her collaborator Charles Babbage unveiled his plans for the Analytical Engine, a calculating machine seen as a first prototype of the computer. She wrote that the machine “weaves algebraic patterns, just as the Jacquard loom weaves flowers and leaves.” (Developed in the early 19th century, the loom was equipped with punch cards that indicated through the presence or absence of holes which threads to use to create a desired pattern.)

“Coding and textiles intersect in many ways,” Ms. Goense said. “They are both daily materials; we engage with computer code and textiles in our life all the time, and yet one is completely intangible and often perceived as masculine, and the other is something entirely material and traditionally associated with femininity.”

Ms. Goense’s path to the art world was not straightforward. After a brief stint studying fashion design, she trained as a civil engineer, gaining a master’s in water management at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. She worked as an engineer, including for four years in Cairo, but felt she lacked a creative outlet.