Programming + Math + Thread

The husband and wife duo of Andrei and Ani Abakumova have come up with something new… and it is very exciting. The couple is each well-versed in their own medium, Andrei in programing and Ani in art. Historically, those two very different studies didn’t quite mesh together; however, the Abakumova’s are changing that thought.

The Russian couple was inspired by the work of Petros Vrellis, a media artist who first introduced the world to knitted algorithmic art three years. ago.

The algorithm that Andrei programs allows Ani to use all possible thread options which overlap and overlap to form very realistic representations of well-known paintings. Andrei says, “Without a computer program, it would not be possible for the human eye to create something like this. My program analyzes millions of possibilities of how to place the threads and when it finds the result that best matches the photograph, it stops counting.”

More than 8,000 lines of thread are used to create each detailed portrait. The colored thread is carefully attached to nails that line the portrait’s circumference. The image starts to come into view when the overlapping hues and tones subscribe to more and more of the multilayering process.

At this point, the Abakumova’s only create portraits; however, they plan on increasing the scale of their projects soon. If a portrait takes up 2.5 miles of thread, how much thread will a full-size piece account for?

Initially, Ani used only black thread for her pieces. The experimentation into color thread started about a year ago; and Ani claims that she is the first in this field to use color thread. With the help of golden nails, the plywood board quickly turns into a masterpiece.

Andrei’s algorithm makes close to 2 billion calculations in order to produce a pattern for each work. He says, “My program analyzes millions of possibilities of how to place the threads and when it finds the result that best matches the photograph, it stops counting.”