Imagine This...

Above the earth there is a satellite which looks down at Cork and watches the movements of people and cars around the city. Through a strange technical alchemy, this information is transformed into a knitting pattern, which constantly shifts – some hefty cabling during rush hour; quiet lulls of stocking stitch on Sunday mornings; bobbles of blackberry stitches for the un-quotidian gatherings of Cork mortals. Down in the city there is a large empty hall, with a semicircle of chairs. It is here that fifty people knit for a year. They work in relay, their knitting moving slowly into the space between them, where the strips are sewn together to form a single vast document of the city. The hue of yarn shifts with the weather, and the descent of the year. During the day, people arrive to view the installation. They hear low voices, and the tapping of knitting needles. Before them this great knitted cartography, moves gradually across the space and then begins to pile up of the floor of the hall in the half-light...

Commissioned by Cork 2005, European Capital of Culture, The Knitting Map drew its inspiration from Cork City, celebrating its place at the cultural heart of Europe. The Knitting Map is not a literal map; instead of a single still image, it is a moving, evolving translation of the busy-ness of Patrick Street; the wetness of May or the frostiness of November. The Knitting Map took the pulse of the city throughout 2005.

Different technologies observed and measured aspects of the city centre: the movement of people, as well as the weather – how rainy, warm or windy it was. The Knitting Map translated this information into a vast knitting pattern which was updated daily. In the Crypt of St Luke's Church overlooking the city of Cork, up to twenty knitters were knitting every day, and the Knitting Map grew into a vast, textured, colourful textile, that documents what happened in Cork in 2005. During the year, we had more than 2500 knitters from 22 different countries taking part.

The results were spectacular.