Looming: Janet Swan, Scott Robertson & Liz Robertson presented at Queen Street Mill Burnley

Looming is an interactive soundscape and performance originally inspired by punch-cards from Jacquard Looms. These were an early form of computer that gave cotton looms their patterns and instructions.

The work combines the hypnotic sound of these looms (recorded on site at Queen Street Mill, Burnley) snippets from the ground-breaking poetry of local “mill girl” – Ethel Carnie Holdsworth and sounds made from the rhythms of contemporary everyday life developed through a series community workshops taking place across East Lancashire during Autumn Winter 2025.

Presented in Queen Street Mill during April 2025 the work has been developed as an artistic collaboration between Janet Swan and Scott Roberston and supported through a workshop residency scheme with BBC Radio 3. To experience an earlier version of this work please visit https://www.lancashiretextilegallery.com/exhibition/rhythm-of-the-looms/