Joseph-Marie Jacquard Invents the Jacquard Loom

The Jacquard loom used punch cards to control the weaving of patterns in fabric. It introduced the notion of a program stored outside the machine on punch cards, which would later result in generative weaving and modern computing. Charles Babbage would go on to utilize Jacquard’s method of punch card programming as one of computing’s earliest pioneers. “Computers did not pave the way for generative art; generative art helped to pave the way for computers,” according to Phil Galanter. Punch card programming would continue developing for the next century and a half before culminating in the use of mainframe computers and early languages such as FORTRAN. Additionally, textile design has continued to influence both fine art as well as generative art to this day. Examples include the Bauhaus weaving workshop’s Anni Albers and Gunta Stölzl, the quilters of Gees Bend, Anna Lucia, Travess and Andreas Rau.