Knitted threads of silence: Anatolian stockings as techno-aesthetic tacit media

Abstract

In mainstream histories of technology, the connection between textiles and information technology has typically been reduced to the influence of Joseph Marie Jacquard’s weaving loom on Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace’s early conception of computing in the 19th century. However, narratives of textile practices encoding information – real or imagined – exist beyond weaving and the Western context, suggesting a more fundamental relationship between fiber-based manufacturing and data inscription. This article examines the hand-knitted stockings of Anatolia, used by illiterate and oppressed women to inscribe messages through visual symbols. Besides depicting natural phenomena such as regional plants, animals, and everyday objects, Anatolian women used these symbols to express social and family affiliations and their repressed feelings, desires and opinions. This created a medium for an indirect, tacit form of expression that helped them navigate strict social rules. The research delves into the historical and cultural contexts of these understudied textiles, drawing on scarce written sources to situate the knitted stockings in the broader context of textile encoding, gender and power. The findings aim to provoke further interdisciplinary interest in textile-based inscription techniques, enriching the historiography of media and computational technologies.

Keywords

• textiles, knitting and coding, visual symbols, gender and power, tacit media, media archaeology