Sonic Pattern: What Happens When Code Becomes Material?
Code, Sound and Texture
Sonic Pattern: Code as Material was one of the more experimental offerings at Sheffield Design Week 2015. The exhibition explored the intersection of programming, textile design and sound — a combination that might sound improbable but proved genuinely compelling in practice.
The central premise was that code can be understood as a material, much like thread or clay. The exhibitors — a collaboration between digital artists and textile designers — had created works where algorithms generated patterns that were then woven or printed onto fabric. Alongside the physical textiles, speakers played the code as sound, translating the same data into audio frequencies.
Challenging Categories
Having attended the opening, I found myself reconsidering assumptions about what constitutes making. The artists involved were clearly makers in the traditional sense — their work required skill, patience and material knowledge. But the primary material was not physical. It was a set of instructions, a logic, a sequence of decisions encoded in software.
This philosophical dimension gave the exhibition a weight that more decorative textile shows sometimes lack. It asked genuine questions: Is a woven pattern designed by an algorithm less considered than one designed by hand? Does the involvement of code diminish or extend the maker’s agency?
Connections and Contrasts
Sonic Pattern sat at the experimental edge of the 2015 programme, contrasting with more traditionally focused events like Craftworks and Made in Sheffield. That contrast was productive — it expanded the definition of making that the festival was exploring and suggested that Sheffield’s creative culture has room for digital practice alongside analogue craft.
The exhibition also connected to Sheffield’s history as a centre for both manufacturing and music. The Koyaanisqatsi screening from the previous year had explored similar territory — the relationship between industrial rhythm and artistic expression. Together, these events mapped a fascinating intersection of sound, pattern and production.
