A 3-Bit binary computer is sewn from transistors, resistors and integrated circuits in the morphology of a crochet. In its core, 2 paired transistors generate white noise triggering random patterns from a Shift Register. The 3 symmetrical hyperbolic segments calculate the random impulses and encrypt their sums into a 3 unstable binary number. The number becomes visible in the fluctuating movements of the copper coils. Thus the crochet encrypts a wavering message that re-writes itself unintentionally.

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Textiles wearing low-tech information were effective carriers and transmitters for secrets during the World Wars. Spies covered under the stereotype of ‘knitting women’ would encrypt their messages in garments. A quite unusual but effective way for the ordinary people’ to collect information in the times where secrecy needed to be kept.

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The project investigates some of the stories of such women spies and their Crochet Ciphers in the context of political resistance. It looks back at the pioneering work of women in informatics, coding and computing and reenacts a crochet, handcrafted this time from a circuit where binary information gets generated and encrypted in a transistor array.