This is an artwork by Foreign Objects called An Introduction to the Bell System. It was produced in Winter 2020 - Spring 2021, with the help of Eliza Collin (garment design and fabrication) and Genie Kausto (styling and photography). This project was supported by Rhizome, Nokia Bell Labs, and NEW Inc. 

In An Introduction to the Bell System, we have made 5 embroidered jumpsuits exploring the history and working culture of the Computing Sciences Research Center at Bell Labs, between 1970s-90s. Though famous for the success of the Unix operating system and surrounding tools, the group's cult status online is buoyed by a much wider array of playful, experimental and sometimes anarchic work, in an era where the identity of "tech worker" had yet to be defined. This project is a work of fan art: each suit considers a strand of research from this era at Bell through the projects, in-jokes and ephemera.

We owe a lot of thanks to Bell's archivist Ed Eckert, as well as facilitators of the Further Experiments in Art and Technology program: Domhnail Hernon, Danielle McPhatter, and Ethan Edwards. We'd also like to thank the 9front community for flying the plan9 flag, and making some helpful and supportive suggestions over IRC.

A significant proportion of the embroidery was produced using the Studio for Creative Inquiry's Open-Source PEMbroider software, which is released under both the GPL, and the anti-capitalist software license. You can download the software here https://github.com/CreativeInquiry/PEmbroider/

Research materials for this project can be found at https://www.are.na/foreign-objects/an-introduction-to-the-bell-system

Our website is http://foreignobjects.net
Eliza Collin's website is http://elizacollin.com/
Genie Kausto's work can be found at https://www.instagram.com/genie.kausto/