Granny Life

Instructions

VIDEO TUTORIALS

COMMUNITY

Art Project

This project combines traditional artistic crafting with modern scientific and mathematical methods, and invites community members from the crafting and mathematical communities to participate together. The artwork explores rule-based pattern generators in the fiber arts, with a modified classical crochet technique that accommodates detailed, pixellated motifs generated from two-dimensional cellular automata. The finished work will be comprised of more than one hundred crocheted 6-inch granny squares created by crafters, artists, and mathematicians. 

The purpose of this artwork is not to illustrate cellular automata; rather, it is to leverage mathematics as a design tool, in a partnership between human creativity and algorithmic structures that creates a beautiful and cohesive artistic work. 

The motivation for using totalistic cellular automata to create granny square motifs is to create a set of motifs that naturally work together. Naively, we could make completely random choices to make a grid of granny squares, each with traditional crochet symmetries. But by using motifs that are generated from cellular automata rules, it is possible to obtain a much more interesting and structured set of designs. Even better, if we restrict our attention to just one totalistic rule (in this project we will use "Rule 6"), then we can obtain a set of designs that share various pattern similarities and form a more cohesive final artwork. The final artwork will consist of multicolored squares contributed from community members, and attached together in a pleasing arrangement to make a wall hanging for exhibition.

This project has been ACCEPTED(!) to the Création, entre arts et mathématiques exhibition at Maison Poincaré which will be on display in Paris, France from April-July 2026. 

MATHEMATICS

FAQ

Completed Squares

The squares below are finished and will be included* in the community art project submitted to an exibit at Maison Poincaré in Paris, France! You can notify us that you have completed a square, and obtain instructions for mailing it to us for inclusion in the artwork, by filling out the Contact Form.

* Some of the completed squares may be the wrong size or have other issues that could preclude them from being in the main artwork. Those squares will be included in the creation/process part of the exhibit.

CLAIMED SQUARES IN PROGRESS

These motifs have been claimed, and community members are already working on crocheting them for the project. Please check both the "Claimed Squares" and the "Completed Squares" sections before claiming or crocheting a motif, so that none are repeated. You can claim a motif by filling out the Contact Form. 

Note:  To be accepted, motifs must be Rule 6, 35-50% alive, Generation between 9 and 1407, and not already claimed or completed.

PROGRESS REPORT :)