Rossella Biscotti’s “10×10” series investigates the relationship between demographics, data processing, textile manufacturing and social structure. The work observes how demographic records have been modeled through the use of punch cards to program both early data processing machines and automated looms (jacquard). Reversing the process, Biscotti turned to the 2001–2006 census information of Brussels—where she was then based—to create a pattern on these textiles.
In a broader sense, the meaning of ‘blackout’ —primarily an electrical failure or momentary interruption, opens up to new organizations, perceptions and different ways of experiencing time and space. Every person caught in a blackout must redefine the potentiality of public space, relate to strangers and invent new temporary forms of organization. A blackout acts as the breaking point of an established order, on a personal level as a loss of consciousness or on a collective level, as the temporary disruption of political institutions for example.
Departing from social and political history, the work of Rossella Biscotti (b...