Stringer (fraying meaning)

Stringer (fraying meaning), 2026, was a paper given at the Paradox European Fine Art Forum in Dublin.

"Since 2021, I have been developing Stringer, an application that generates a suspended, fraying digital string sculpture in response to a user’s statement. Emerging slowly from darkness before fading away, each string form is made from an expanding archive of physical string works from my studio which are digitally remodelled and interwoven with each interaction. These outcomes invite contemplation, mediation, and conversation.

Early development of Stringer was supported by ACE funding. Although the final interactive installation is incomplete, numerous production artefacts have been exhibited, published, and presented internationally. Recently, Stringer featured in the ethnographic research exhibition Fadenspiele at Museum Tinguely, Basel (2025), alongside works by Donna Haraway, Maya Deren, Marcel Duchamp and Harry Smith. The exhibition was accompanied by a 400-page publication that included Lynton Talbot’s essay Against Immediacy: on Toby Christian’s Stringer. Swiss journal Kunst Bulletin noted the work’s “mystical dimension.”

In the face of burgeoning AI text applications and algorithms, there are global emergent uncertainties around technology, writing and interpretation, and the veracity of the written and spoken word in general. Stringer is a dynamic, multifaceted project which embodies numerous social purposes and addresses urgent contemporary issues. The research context of the project includes the legacies of weaving and cotton production, asemic literature, divinatory magic, and maritime history.

I would be excited to present the genesis and legacy of this current practice-based research project, through its technical and conceptual frameworks. In the thematic context of this conference, I would also explore this participatory work in light of much recent theorisation around ideas of Immediacy."