Meet the Maker: Phillip Stearns and His “Binary Blankets” (We LOVE Them!)

Today’s edition of Meet the Maker might be the ultimate intersection of tech and making. Phillip Stearns of Glitch Textiles (see the shop here) started with a simple idea. “Transcode glitches in the cold, hard logic of digital circuits into soft, warm textiles.” What does that mean exactly? He takes visualizations of code from your favorite digital apps (Google Chrome, iTunes, Microsoft Word) and turns them into gorgeous blankets. Who knew code could be so beautiful?

While the root behind these products is especially geeky (consider us guilty), the colors and patterns are pretty enough for even the analog-obsessed to swoon over. I’m especially digging Phillip’s Binary Blankets collection. He creates these blankets to “allow you to experience the fabric of this otherwise invisible and intangible side of our digital world.” Just take a look at the iTunes editions—so rad.

Alright, ready to hear from Phillip? Here’s his story.

Tell me about yourself.

I’m an artist working primarily with electronics, electronic media, and digital technologies. Though I hold a BS (University of Colorado @ Denver ’05) and MFA (Cal Arts ’07) in Music, I’ve always tended towards a multidisciplinary approach, favoring installation and sound art as well as more experimental performance based work.

What first gave you the idea to transcode glitches into textiles?

The big “aha! moment” came when a colleague of mine, Jeff Donaldson, moved into my studio building just down the hall from me. He had been working with Melissa Barron, who was weaving screen captures from Apple II computers on a TC-1 Jacquard loom, and was transferring his own Nintendo glitches to these sharp looking knit scarves. I was working on a series of images (DCP Series) and was inspired to find a way to have these woven into a fabric instead of being displayed on a screen or printed by traditional means. A quick Google search brought up custom photo blanket weaving services, which are no different than any other online photo printing service, except for the fact that you have the image as a blanket instead of on a piece of paper. The connection I had been trying to draw is that digital imaging (digital photography) is a computer based process, and somehow going back to the Jacquard process resonated with the connection between textile based image making and the birth of computer technologies. That connection is the punch card.

What does the making process look like?

The Glitch Textiles are made using computer controlled industrial Jacquard looms and knitting machines. I’ve not had a chance to visit the mills where the blankets themselves are made, however, I did have an opportunity to work with some industrial looms at the Textielmusem in Tilburg, NL.

The Jacquard looms themselves are both quite complex, and yet elegantly simple. It’s difficult to explain, but try to imagine 6000 or so threads running the length of the machine, held at a very precise tension and advanced by large rollers. Each warp thread is passes through a loop (heddle) which is connected to a cord that is raised and lowered by the Jacquard loom head positioned about a meter and a half overhead on a massive steel frame. The weft threads are inserted using rapiers at about 200 times per minute, rotating between 8 colors chosen by a thread presenter.

To put this all in motion: The Jacquard head raises/lowers the warp threads. Then the weft is taken up by one rapier from the thread presenter and passed halfway through the shed where it is taken up by the second rapier and pulled the rest of the way through. The beater comes forward to press the weft into place and retreats in the blink of an eye, while the measured weft feeder queues up the thread for the next pass. All this happens in about a third of a second and produces a fantastically loud rhythmic sound.

What is the design process like for you?

The design process varies, but perhaps is most interesting for the camera based designs. When working on new designs, my desk is typically covered with dissected digital cameras, prototyping boards, wires, electronic components. My soldering iron sits to one side with curls of smoke wisping off. Short circuiting the camera’s electronics with a single piece of wire is just the start. Recently I’ve been building out parasitic circuits that augment or interrupt the camera’s normal operations. It’s a real hands on mess at this point, and then it all does into the computer and we all know what that looks like.

What’s perhaps most interesting is that woven textile design has for the longest time been grid based. Little has changed when it comes to digital imaging, so right there is the strongest link between digital art and textiles, the fundamental common language of the 2D matrix or grid. This has allowed me to think of the textile as a digital medium, literally a storage medium for digital information, but visual, and probably more limited than the 3.5″ floppy disks from days long gone. This is the idea behind Fragmented Memory, the piece I completed at the Textielmuseum.

What other types of materials are you interested in repurposing?

I would really like to get my hands on a load of discarded electrical wiring or data cables. When I first arrived in NY and was working out ideas for neural network based installation projects, I discovered that bound wire behaves very much like vines or tree branches. Though obtaining enough wiring to experiment on larger scales presents its own challenged (the value of recycled copped for instance), I haven’t lost sight of those potential future projects of sculpting wire into massive organically branching structures.

Which project are you proudest of?

I do take a lot of pride in my work, which makes it tough to choose just one. Also, recently my work has covered a lot of ground. Of course there’sYear of the Glitch, Glitch Textiles, and recently Fragmented Memory, but a 3D printing project with collaborators and friends Gene Kogan and Dan Tesene, Listening to the Ocean on a Shore of Gypsum Sand, received some press. Retinal Pigment Epithelium and Other Vision Technologies, Real or Otherwise Imagined, was a lot of fun to do with then studio assistant C. Alex Clark. I would also like to continue working with electronic neural networks as with the Entity I project.

What other creative hobbies do you have?

Though I haven’t been up to it much, I really enjoy gardening on a large scale. There was a time in grad school when I completely burned out and felt like I had to get back to the absolute basics. There was this idea that I had to understand how the world around me shaped itself before I could continue doing anything else. It goes hand in hand with gardening but I also enjoy cooking quite a bit. There’s a bit of improvisation in every meal, which is quite a lot like my creative process anyways.

How do you think the analog world is changing as the digital world continues to boom?

As much as I adore coffee, you could not convince me to drink it black. I like my drinks sweet (but not too sweet) and creamy (but not too creamy), with plenty of flavor that doesn’t drown out the actual coffee notes. But sometimes, the classic coffee-creamer combo gets old and I need a way to spice up my morning joe. Luckily, there are endless ways to upgrade coffee that take your brew from boring to beautiful.

I polled my inner circle (we’re all coffee snobs to a degree) about their #1 favorite add-in that truly makes their coffee shine. These 6 simple coffee upgrades are all affordable, easy, and compatible with all kinds of brewing methods. Next time your pick-me-up needs a pick-me-up, try out one of these hacks!

Brigitte Tohm / PEXELS

1. Lavender

Lavender in a latte is sheer heaven. I’ve DIY’ed my own lavender syrup before (it’s too easy), but you can also buy it ready-made! Any sort of syrup makes for an easy coffee upgrade, really. Brands like Jordan's Skinny Mixes and Torani are my go-to’s, and they sell a vast array of flavors to suit any taste!

Lisa Fotios / PEXELS

2. Cinnamon

I’m convinced cinnamon belongs in everything. I put it in my protein pancakes, yogurt bowls, and cookies, but it’s also a supreme add-in for coffee and even matcha lattes! The warm flavor notes of cinnamon are also perfect for cozying up in the fall and winter.

Julissa Helmuth / PEXELS

3. Honey

Cinnamon in coffee gets even better when you put honey in the mix with cinnamon. It’s one of my pal’s absolute go-to’s in lattes (hot or iced), but it also works just as well in hot drip coffees or cold brews.

Andrea Davis / PEXELS

4. Oat milk

Oat milk (or milk of any kind) is a perfect coffee hack for those who can’t stand black coffee. It helps cut the sharpness and acidity of the brew, adding some creaminess and color to each sip. I find that oat milk is the best pairing for breakfast time!

Amazon

5. Protein shake

In place of milk, I also really like adding a splash of a protein shake to my coffee for a dose of creaminess and flavor. The protein is just an added bonus!

I really love Koia’s protein shakes since they sell a lot of different flavors, from Cinnamon Cereal to Pumpkin Spice.

JaYoung Choi / PEXELS

6. Brown sugar

I’ve used brown sugar many times to make a Starbucks copycat brown sugar shaken espresso right at home. I’ll simply add equal parts instant coffee and brown sugar to a mason jar with ice, shake it up, and top it off with cinnamon and milk.

If you prefer sipping on something a little less fancy, adding a spoonful to a plain hot coffee could be really delightful, too!

Target

7. Cold foam

The final (and tastiest) coffee hack I drink on the regular is cold foam! Target sells a good range of cold foam cans in various flavors, but I’ve really come to love the salted caramel iteration. It’s perfect for topping of iced coffees for a nice mid-day treat!

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Nicole Kidman is, as the kids say, mothering. She's giving fans plenty of movies and TV shows to pick from while we wait for the next seasons of Big Little Lies and Nine Perfect StrangersA Family Affair, Expats, The Perfect Couple (and the AMC intro, of course). Her newest movie Babygirl comes from A24, and the steamy drama is mixing work and pleasure. Pour yourself a glass of wine for this one, folks.

What is the plot of Babygirl?

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Babygirl Plot

In Babygirl, Nicole Kidman plays Romy, a powerful CEO struggling to hold her perfect persona together. Her marriage to Jacob has never provided with much pleasure, despite the fact he's caring and artistic. But when Romy meets a young intern named Samuel, and feels immediately drawn to him, the two begin a torrid affair.

And filming scenes with Harry Dickinson got so intense, Kidman said she literally had to take breaks. “There were times when we were shooting where I was like, ‘I don’t want to orgasm any more,'” she told the Sun. “Don’t come near me. I hate doing this. I don’t care if I am never touched again in my life!”

But the fact the movie was made by women empowered Kidman — and gave her a sense of freedom. "Doing this subject matter in the hands of the woman that wrote the script, that's directing it and is a really great actress herself — we became one in a weird way, which I'd never had with a director before," Kidman says in a statement. "When you're working with a woman on this subject matter, you can share everything with each other.”

"I really decided in the beginning, I want to make a sexual film, just as sexual as all these films that I've always admired so much," adds writer-director-producer Halina Reijn, "but now I'm going to do it completely through female eyes. What does that mean and what does that look like?”

When is the Babygirl release date?

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Babygirl Release Date

Babygirl made its premiere at the Venice Film Festival, but you can watch the movie in theaters December 25, 2024.

Who's in the Babygirl cast?

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Babygirl Cast

The cast of Babygirl includes Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson, Sophie Wilde, and Antonio Banderas.

What has Nicole Kidman said about making Babygirl?

Amy Sussman/Getty Images

In an interview with Vanity Fair, Nicole Kidman revealed Babygirl is the most "exposing" film she's done because she's “made some films that are pretty exposing, but not like this.”

“It left me raggedm" Kidman says. "At some point I was like, I don’t want to be touched. I don’t want to do this anymore, but at the same time I was compelled to do it...This is something you do and hide in your home videos. It is not a thing that normally is going to be seen by the world.”

“I felt very exposed as an actor, as a woman, as a human being,” she continues. “I had to go in and go out like, I need to put my protection back on. What have I just done? Where did I go? What did I do?”

What does babygirl energy mean?

A24

"Babygirl" is a term of endearment that's usually applied to a man (you've probably heard it describe Pedro Pascal or Paul Mescal). When someone is giving babygirl energy, they're kind, cute, and disarming. And considering Babygirl plays with power dynamics, we could be guessing who the "babygirl" in question is up until the very end.

Are you looking forward to seeing Nicole Kidman onscreen again? We might have to wait until December to see Babygirl, but there are plenty of incredible Fall Movies coming our way.

This post has been updated.

If you felt personally attacked by The Tortured Poets Department, there's a good chance you've survived at least one situationship. (Unfortunately there's also a good chance you've been through multiple.) Taylor Swift's newest album chronicles a past love that she calls "the loss of her life" — and many people think the ex in question is Matty Healy.

And while many singers and songwriters use their personal experiences to influence their music, the 1975 frontman recently told People that he's "just not interested" in using his relationships as inspiration.

  • Matty Healy is "not interested" in writing music about his relationships following Taylor Swift breakup.
  • He feels like releasing songs about "casual romantic liaisons" is "not interesting."
  • Taylor's "The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived" and "loml" are rumored to be about Matty.

"Last year I became a way more well-known public figure for loads of different reasons. The only reason that I was interested in is kind of like, what I was doing," Matty says. "I think that a lot of artists, they become very interested in their lore, or they become interested in the things that have happened outside of their art that people know about, and they want to address that."

While he says writing about the buzziest moments from their lives is "fair enough," Matty doesn't want to write songs about his relationships just because they're buzzy, stating that it's an "obvious" thing to draw inspiration from.

"I would kind of just be lying if I made a record about, I don’t know, all the stuff that was said about me or my casual romantic liaisons or whatever it may be that I’ve kind of become known for, just because I was famous," he says.

"I think like, the maintenance of the status quo is something that I always fight against," he continues. "So the idea of making a record about something that personally happened to me, that by the time I put it out is gonna be like two years old, I see people doing that as well, and it’s not interesting."

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- YouTube

In addition to "loml," one song from The Tortured Poets Department that Swifties think is about Matty Healy is "The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived."

"[These supposed Matty Healy-focused songs] started out being like 'f—k all of you, I love him, I’ll fix him, I don’t care what you say' to ending here basically saying 'alright yeah this guy sucks,'" one Reddit user says. "I think the order of these songs plays a huge role in this throughline of that relationship."

Despite the scathing lyrics, Matty's aunt Debbie Dedes told The Daily Mail she didn't think the songs (if they are about him) would affect him too much. “She writes about all her relationships, doesn't she? I don't think it will come as a shock to him at all,” she said. “He's very happy in his new relationship [with Gabbriette Bechtel] so I'm sure he will be focusing on that.”

And considering Taylor Swift is now dating the Kansas City Chiefs' Travis Kelce (who's all-but-confirmed to be the focus of the romantic & nostalgic "So High School"), she's finally very happy, too.

Read up on The Taylor Swift Boyfriends You Love & The Ones You Didn't Know She Dated!