I’m Anu! I research, make, craft, code, and sometimes, hack things.
Kambi Kolam as Algorithmic Pattern
I was invited to give a guest talk at the Algorithmic Pattern Salon︎ as an upcoming research resident at the non-profit organisation ThenTryThis︎. In this talk, I make an attempt to combine computational and human-centered approaches to Kambi Kolams using the N-line drawing method and a depth-first search graph algorithm.
You can read the text here︎.
Algocraft: Remixing Craft, Culture, and Computation
I was invited to give a talk for Brilliant Labs︎, an Atlantic-Canadian based charity working with young people and community leaders to integrate creativity, innovation, and contemporary technologies with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
My talk on ‘AlgoCraft’ or Algorithmic Craft showcases projects where I bring craft, culture, and computation together in fun and inventive ways. With the help of key concepts like patterns, grammars, and symmetries, I describe my creative process of translating between heritage craft and computing languages.
Knotty Hardware 🧶🤖️
I gave a talk at the Open Hardware Summit 2022 organised by OSHWA︎. In the talk, I introduce three OSH-certified projects of mine and how they relate to each other – combining crochet (yarn) and open hardware/software. I talk about crochet and how yarn is hardware, and why it is my creative medium of choice for making things. My projects are knotty but are also 'naughty' because they appear harmless and cute like plush toys (or fabrics) and yet, they are doing quite complicated and purposeful things. What the video to know what they are :)
Artist talk - AI Images Class
The brilliant Eryk Salvaggio︎ invited me to have a conversation with him about how I use AI images to explore patterns in my fiber arts practice such as crochet and cross-stitch, and reflecting on its connections back to the origins of computing with Ada Lovelace and looms. The talk is included as a guest lecture and part of the lecture series for his Critical Topics: AI Images︎ undergraduate class.