What Future For Living Textiles?
TFRC and the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) presented on the 23 & 24 of October, 2008 a Living Textiles Salon. The event was delivered in two main parts: International Conversations and Question Time.
Textile designers are uniquely placed to inhabit other design fields and cohabit with the world of science. Working processes in science and material design practice would seem to be very compatible. In recent years the potential of nano and bio technology, has caught the imagination of a new generation of textile makers. Particularly in related design fields of fashion and architecture. Unimaginable materials are being developed to: grow into clothing; be sprayed from a can onto surface and body; to mimic responsive behaviours found in nature for all possible textile purposes. Even the body's own skin is being explored and redesigned as an interface for evolving, almost invisible technology. As the skin of the body, the skin of our buildings is being redefined in this conjunction of textiles and science. Textile design and production have played a pivotal role in economic, social, educational and cultural development worldwide. World changes in political power, economic balance and cultural values demand a reshaping of the design, production and uses of textiles, how we define them, and how we educate those who create and consume them whether scientists, technologists, engineers, designers or makers. This together with the velocity of scientific developments (in nano, bio material domains) requires designers, makers and academics to develop new research relationships and methods to realise the potential of textiles' aesthetics, production, function, application and cultural capital. The science is here and Textile Futures Research & Consultancy, is keen to interrogate. How much is our discipline changing and are we as designers and consumers truly ready for the next material revolution?
Program:
Day 2: ‘Living Textiles' in the context of the Built Environment and our everyday relationship
To see the full program follow this link: http://tfrg.org.uk/node/10919 |
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Suzanne Lee Suzanne Lee is Senior Research Fellow at St Martins School of Art & Design. Her recent AHRC funded project Bio Couture looks at ecological and sustainability issues surrounding fashion. By harnessing nature she proposes a radical future for textiles. Her ... Clive van Heerden Clive van Heerden is creative director of Philips 'Design Probes' program. Philips Design Probes is a dedicated ‘far-future' research initiative to track trends and developments that may ultimately evolve into mainstream issues that have a significant impact on business. Emerging developments in five ... Carole Collet Carole Collet is Course Director for the MA Textile Futures and Researcher at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design and Associate Director of the Textile Futures Research Unit. Carole is currently leading the Nobel Textiles project sponsored by the Medical Research Council (MRC) UK, which links Nobel laureates to leading Textiles ... Manel Torres Manel Torres is Co-Founder and Managing Director of Fabrican Ltd. 2003, an instant spray on material which was initially intended solely for the fashion industry. Fabrican's role in the realm of fashion ranges from speeding up the construction of garments including: mending, hemming and last minute touches before a fashion show and ... Neil Parry Neil Parry has led the Biotechnology science area at Unilever since 2005, to focus on business with the view to develop the interaction with innovative partners and support advancing new technologies. Neil's current teams comprise of both scientists located internally and externally with collaborators and he is constantly on the lookout ... Philip Delamore Philip Delamore is a Senior Research Fellow at the London College of Fashion, where he combines interests in art, science and technology to develop new approaches to fashion design and creativity. This approach is through collaborative practice, and involves the application of expertise in computer science and materials science to fashion and ... Mark Goulthorpe Mark Goulthourpe is Associate Professor in the dept. of Architecture at MIT (Massachusettes Institute of Technology). In 1991 Mark established the dECOi atelier where he creates impressionable design, most recently established HypoSurface Corp. HypoSurface is the World's first display system where the intricate mechanically articulated ... Mette Ramsgard Mette is Lecturer and Director of the Centre for Information Technology and Architecture (CITA) at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture. CITA is an innovative research environment exploring the emergent intersections between architecture and digital technologies. Identifying core research questions into how space and ... Geoffrey Makstutis Geoffrey Makstutis is Course Director of the BA Honours Architecture:Spaces and Objects course at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design and member of TFRG. Geoffrey is developing a project titled ‘Migration' which explores the role of design in crisis management and how design and designers can play a part in assisting ... Andrew Sides Andrew Sides began his career as a graphic designer at the BBC working on Newsnight and Panorama before leaving to start his own design and branding agency. He created channel identities, opening titles and other graphic sequences for all the main UK channels as well as many in Europe, the US and the Middle East. Andrew won a number of Promax and ... Jane Harris Jane Harris is Director for Textile Futures Research Group and a Reader in Digital Textile Design Media at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. Jane develops 3D computer graphic (CG) animation visualisation and installation works within research and visual art contexts and is a writer, curator, convenor and consultant on research ... Oron Catts Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr are co-directors of Tissue Culture and Art, an open project that examines the design of biological objects. The Victimless Leather project is concerned with growing living tissue into a leather like material, grown out of immortalised cell lines. This is cultured, forming a living layer of tissue supported by a ... Richard Bonser Richard Bonser joined the Centre for Biomimetics at Reading University as lecturer in 2002, his main area of research is grasping an understanding of the mechanical design of organisms. Richard's background is in organismal biology, having read Zoology as his first degree followed by a Ph.D. at the University of Bristol. He proceeded to ... Neil Spiller Neil Spiller is Professor of Architecture and Digital Theory at Bartlett, Faculty of the Built Environment, University College London (UCL). His research focuses on how cyberspace influences architecture and correlates between 'virtual' and 'actual'. Neil once felt that architecture was restricted by inert materials and ... Caryn Simonson Caryn Simonson is an artist, writer and senior lecturer in textiles, critical theory, at Chelsea College of Art and Design and member of TFRG. Caryn is curious about people, their clothes, bodies, passions, harboring secret lives or holding allegiance to social groups. Her work has centred around the performance of gender, sexuality, the ... |
