Crystal Bennes

When Computers Were Women

These four woven pieces were developed from a residency at CERN (the European Organisation for Nuclear Research), the home of the Large Hadron Collider. Bennes was struck by the resemblance of old computer programming punch cards produced by the former female ‘computers’ in the data centre there to the punch cards used in Jacquard looms and the invisibility of the female workforce.

The programme that these cards produced sought to recreate the ‘Big Bang’, the origin of the universe. Bennes worked with an all-women weaving team at Dash & Miller in Bristol, to weave the four pieces shown here alongside s 19th century Jacquard loom and its punchcards.