signal lost

signal lost

Hoffman, Alisan

signal lost is a woven work that explores a space that exists in both the historical analogue and the contemporary digital world. Its creation on a floor loom means there is a physicality as deeply entrenched into it as the threads that hold it together. Each line on the textile was created through the movement of feet, the shifting of hands—a pull to lock it in place, a step to start the next pass. Its creation honors the lost tradition of loom weavers, who have been replaced by fully automatic machines.

And yet its historical overshot patterning has been reinterpreted to look more like a digital screen. The title of the work, signal lost, refers to what happens when a cable is misplaced or disconnected from a monitor. The interchanging black and white rectangles bring to mind the pixels that make digital displays possible. The color of the work references TV color bars, but shows more like a static effect within the weaving. Even the tassels at the bottom have been made to look like cords hanging from a digital screen.

signal lost shows how a work can unite two worlds—the physical and digital—that seem entirely separate. It highlights both in a weaving that cannot be fully tied to one or the other: it is an inbetween, a gray space in a world where things seem to be presented only as black or white.

2026