Bea Arden

Bea Arden is a multidisciplinary textile artist working across weaving, embroidery and sound. Her research-led practice explores the relationship between humans and technology, bringing traditional textile processes into conversation with digital systems. Rooted in archival methods, her installations move between past and present – asking how power is woven into the systems which surround us.

Engines of Mischief  is an ode to the Luddites – nineteenth-century weavers who resisted industrialisation by destroying textile machinery across Nottinghamshire. Informed by Arden’s visits to Marsden, a focal point of Luddite activity in 1812, the work draws on conversations with members of the local community about the area’s industrial heritage.

Combining digital and manual textile processes, including cross-stitch embroidery and jacquard weaving, the installation explores technology not as an autonomous force, but as something shaped by human desire, fear, and imagination. The textile works are accompanied by reworked Luddite protest songs composed by Jeremy Arden and performed by members of the Glasgow University Chapel Choir.

The installation reflects on the continuing relevance of the Luddites and asks what their story can teach us about mechanisation today.