Future Textile

By Kiyoshi Yanamoto Farias 

On first of july 2009, Aurlandskofabrik (Aurlandshoes factory) was celebrating for its opning of the firsteconomuseum in Norway, even in Europe. We got this special opportunity to work with this new craft museumas art and design students to presentate modernity of Aurlandshoes. About a month before this celebration, we took one-day trip to Aurlandsho factory. It was almost like field researchwhich I had experienced before as Sociology student. Chatting with shomakers, learning the shomakingprocess, watching nature around the factory. All these things made our long list of inspiration. From this list, we took main focus on the beautiful nature of Aurland and the shomakers passion.

As a result of our exhibition, we presented our redesigned shoes on which we printed with modern taste and colors inspired from Aurlands nature. We could make small accesories with left-over materials from this redesignedshoes also. Moreover, we made degital weave with the illistration from the old sho box, while we did embroidery of shoemakers names and lader-cut thier hand prints on leather skin. By connecting all these pecies with colorful threads, we could express shomakers strong passion into shomaking tradition. In the end, Kiyoshi and I were very glad that we could have the engagement in this project. We figured out thatthere is so much to learn from not only inside of school but also outside of school and so much people to meetin the world!

Results from the exciting workshop: LIVING IN AN ATMOSPHERE OF CHANGE: skills and stories for designing experiments (click here for a description of the workshop) with Rachel Wingfield and Mathias Gmachl, artists and designers behind the duo loop.ph, (see: www.loop.ph for more information) can be seen here: http://openloop.ning.com

TEXTILE FUTURES SALON – ‘WHAT FUTURE FOR LIVING TEXTILES’
Institute for Contemporary Arts, Thursday 23rd & Friday 24th October 2008

Tickets available form the ICA, The Mall, London SW1Y 5AH – 020 7930 3647 / www.ica.org.uk

A series of talks and panels over two days, will explore how textile designers inhabit other design fields and cohabit with the world of science.  In recent years the potential of nano- and bio- technology has caught the imagination of a new generation of textile makers, particularly in the fields of fashion and architecture. The science is here and the Textile Futures Research Group, University of the Arts London, is keen to interrogate.  How much is our discipline changing and are we as designers and consumers ready for the next material revolution?

Click here for full programme and speaker biographies.

Presentations, talks and panels (2.30- 4.30 & evening 6.30-7.30) include:

Day 1: Sponsored by Unilever, exploration of ‘Living Textiles’ in relation to the body, investigating Textile and Fashion Science. Participants include:
Oron Catts, Director of Tissue Culture and Art, Symbiotica, School of Anatomy and Human Biology, University of Western Australia; Suzanne Lee, Director of ‘Biocouture’, author of Fashioning the Future and Senior Research Fellow at Central Saint Martins School of Art & Design (CSM); Clive van  Heerden, Director of Design-Led Innovation at Philips Design, Europe; Dr Neil Parry, Science Area Leader, Biotechnology, Unilever Research, UK; Manel Torres, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Fabrican Ltd. and Associate to TFRG; Richard Bonser, Centre for Biomimetics, Reading University; Philip Delamore, Research Fellow in Textile and Fashion Science, London College of Fashion and TFRG.  Jane Harris, Director of the Textile Futures Research Group.

Day 2: will explore ‘Living Textiles’ in the context of the Built Environment and our everyday relationship to this. Participants include:
Mark Goulthorpe, Professor of Architecture, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, director of dECOi atelier and Hyposurface; Mette Ramsgard, Director of the Centre for Interactive Technology in Architecture (CITA), Royal Academy, Copenhagen; Geoffrey Makstutis, Director of Art, Design and Environment, Central Saint Martins (CSM) and TFRG; Neil Spiller, Professor of Architecture and Digital Theory, Bartlett, University College London; Matthew Birchall, Associate Director of Building Engineering Structures for Buro Happold, specialising in fabric long span and lightweight structures; Carole Collet, Research Fellow, Director of MA Design for Textile Futures and Nobel Textiles Project Manager, CSM and TFRG; Caryn Simonson, Senior Lecturer in Cultural Studies for Textiles, Chelsea College of Art and Design, and Andrew Sides, Senior Lecturer, Art, Design and Environment,(CSM) -  Co Curators of TFRG (CSM); 2ndLife.

From cultex.org:

“CULTEX is a project of collaboration, process and outcome. It features six major innovative textile artists from Japan and Norway, working in three trans-national partnerships over a period of 12 months. During this time they will exchange ideas, techniques and, when spending time in each other’s studios, cultural influences. The resulting work from each of the artists will be brought together as a unique and exciting exhibition touring Norway, Japan and the UK.”

The artists involved are: Machiko Agano, Anniken Amundsen, Yuka Kawai, Eva Schjølberg, Kiyonori Shimada and Gabriella Göransson.

You can read about them and their projects on: www.cultex.org