Scrolling

Olga Ieromina. "Scrolling", 2025

Bobbin lace, cotton, linen and silk threads

12 x 17 cm

The way humans interact with their mobile phones has always attracted my attention. Everywhere I go – in public transport, train stations, cafes, or parks – individuals around are mostly absorbed by their phones.

People have long relied on their hands to manipulate tools for fundamental tasks, such as cooking food, making clothing, building home, protecting from danger. As humanity developed, tools and the skills to use them became increasingly complex. Playing musical instruments, performing surgical operations, weaving threads to create lace are a few examples of the sophisticated tasks our hands have mastered over time.

With the advent of technology, reliance on manual skills has given way to automation. Our hands have become occupied with phones that allow us to manage an endless stream of information through limited movements: scroll, swipe, tap.

In this project I aimed to capture how hand interacts with a phone. The bobbin lace technique is used to highlight the contrast between handmade labor and high tech tool.