Threads of Assumption premiered at the Goethe-Institut Boston June 24–27, 2021. The work was made possible (in part) by a Live Arts Boston grant from The Boston Foundation and software donated by BongoMedia.

The artists collected 22 personal conversations about gender-based harm on a video-conferencing platform. Using artificial intelligence (AI), they processed the conversations for thematic key words and phrases as well as numerical sentiment data. Each artist responded to the results in her own way.

U-Meleni Mhlaba-Adebo sifted and wove words and phrases from the transcripts to create and perform a tapestry of poetry.

Maria Finkelmeier mapped the data from the sentiment analysis to different musical notes. She then composed original piano scores for each of the conversations.

Martha Rettig and Sofie Hodara created four colorful weavings. Each weaving compared different aspects of the sentiment data in the 22 conversations.

Rettig also created a digital visualization of the sentiment data and a typographic interpretation of the poem. This was paired with original audio by Finkelmeier.

Before entering the gallery, participants were given a ‘check-in’ form prompting them to complete the sentence “I am a...”. As a performative interpretation of quantification by AI, the artists assigned each participant a thick piece of colored yarn based on the form's response.

Inside the gallery, visitors encountered the digital projects with a data-driven soundscape and woven wall-hangings. They were invited to weave their thread into a room-size loom.

There were two live performances by Finkelmeier and Mhlaba-Adebo during the run of the show.

Additional thanks to Bianca Mauro of BRM Production Management, J. Cottle, The Loop Lab, Aram Boghosian, Adam DeTour, and Gabi Ammirato.

Special thanks to our 44 participants, including Annie Lundsten, Bianca Mauro, Brian Calhoon, Jasmine Lellock, Kendall Rhymer, Ksenija Komljenovic, Lindsay Akens, Lisa Daria Kennedy, Lydia Lucas, Maria Servellon, Natalie Gray, Sheryl Pace, Susan Hodara, Ulrike Rettig, and Wendy Richmond.