9000 spm, wearable device, 2016
9000 spm (9000 stitches per minute, the maximum operating speed of many industrial sergers) is a wearable device that enables garments to reproduce the sounds of the machines involved in their own production. An electronic circuit sewn into the fabric turns clothing into an acoustic archive of its manufacturing process, turning clothing into a medium that carries the acoustic memory of its own production.
The work originates from Ghost Track (2015), a site-specific sound installation based on recordings made inside a fast-fashion textile workshop in Prato, Italy. Rather than documenting production, the project investigates how industrial labour persists as a sonic presence within the urban environment.
Before the electronic prototype was developed, 9000 spm was also presented at BAU 2016 as a series of 150 unique textile pieces produced from cutting offcuts collected from a local pronto moda manufacturer.
Ghost Track, sound installation, 2015
Created for the exhibition Meno at Studio MDT, Ghost Track is a 30-minute sound composition built from field recordings of industrial sewing machines and sergers operating inside a fast-fashion textile workshop in Prato.
The audio was played from a hidden storage room adjacent to the exhibition spaces. Visitors perceived the sound as if it emerged from the building itself, without an identifiable source.
The installation recreates a familiar nocturnal experience of Prato, where the sounds of textile workshops often spread through the streets during summer nights while production continues behind anonymous walls. By displacing these recordings into the architecture of the exhibition, Ghost Track transforms an ordinary urban soundscape into a subtle reminder of the hidden labour that sustains the city’s textile industry.
