Andrew Salomone

An Open-Source Balaclava for Pussy Riot

“we are open-source-extremists, the feminist virus infecting your thoughts.” – Pussy Riot

Pussy Riot supporters around the world have been protesting their imprisonment by donning homemade balaclavas like the ones worn during the performance for which they were arrested. Balaclavas are illegal in some parts of the world, so I created this pattern for the open-source Brother electronic knitting machine hack, so that you can make your own homemade balaclava, with images of the members of Pussy Riot who were arrested displayed on it. Now, anyone who creates these open-source balaclavas can be recognized as a supporter of Pussy Riot and their open-source values.

It’s a completely open source idea, and on our website, when we would document performances, we would show everything; we’d put the text, and we’d even show some of the ways the performance was accomplished, because we are creating this conception of a performance group, hoping that other people across the world can do it in their own countries. The important thing is to diagnose problems in your own country. That being said, we’re open, but we’re not totally open: a group member has to be a female, has to have certain kinds of political views, has to be essentially a like-minded individual with us. –Pussy Riot

For anyone with access to a hacked electronic knitting machine, here is the image I used as the pattern: pussy-riot-final-198

and here’s a video of the balaclava-making process:

Obviously, most Pussy Riot supporters probably don’t have access to an electronic domestic knitting machine, which they’d have to hack in order to created this knitted balaclava, so I put together a tutorial for making a DIY Pussy Riot Balaclava from an old t-shirt and some iron-on transfer paper: