News

Transform the Future -Design Competition

Entries Due: 21 May 2008

Dalsouple is delighted to announce the second year of their design competition, ‘Transform the Future: Colourful Sustainable Design for Communities’, sponsored by Dalsouple Natural Rubber Flooring in partnership with sustain magazine.

This year the competition, which is open to students of all relevant design disciplines, focuses on sustainable design for communities. And included in the prizes is a work placement with top design agency Graven Images.

Dalsouple manufactures rubber for floors and other surfaces in a huge range of gorgeous colours and textures. We are often specified for educational and community establishments because our floors combine practicality with great design flexibility. We manufacture a new type of rubber flooring, DalNaturel, which uses only natural rubber content. We firmly believe that DalNaturel is the most environmentally-friendly and sustainable resilient floorcovering in the world.

This new competition encourages students to come up with a design solution that considers both colour and sustainability, using DalNaturel. The closing date for entries is 31 May 2008

If you are interested in participating please contact,

Julie Mellor
Marketing Director
Dalsouple
01278 727777
julie@dalsouple.com
http://www.dalsouple.com

Invitation: Multi-stakeholder Sustainable Clothing Roadmap meeting, 31 March 2008

The second multi-stakeholder sustainable clothing roadmap meeting will be held at Church House Conference Centre, Westminster, London on 31st March 2008.

This will be an opportunity for all involved, at any stage of the clothing supply chain, to get an update on the progress that has been made since the first meeting and discuss action areas in which you wish to be involved in going forward. There will also be an opportunity to hear about a wide range of different case studies, and to network with colleagues who are either working in the clothing or fashion industry, or who have an interest in sustainability.

For further information and to register your place, please visit the conference website on http://www.keystone-group.co.uk/clothing

If you have any difficulty in registering, please email Sarah Domoney or call on 01453 833668.

International PhD Studentship: Tectonic Textiles

The Centre for IT and Architecture at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture, and the Textiles Future Research Group, Central Saint Martins, College of Art and Design are jointly offering an International PhD^? Studentship. The deadline for application is 23 May 2008.

The PhD student is to research the potential intersections between an intelligent surface and its inhabitation. Investigating the means by which we engage physical and computed space, this project will have significant impact on the way we live, work and design with computers. In collaboration between the Centre for Information Technology and Architecture and the Textiles Future Research Group, the aim is to examine how the use and design of intelligent textiles can be conceptualised, probed and implemented in an architectural context. How can information and communication technology become embedded in the soft surfaces of our interiors? What happens when space becomes something that reacts, folds or expands? To what extent does working with tactile and textile based materials enable us to humanise intelligent technologies?

for more info and for details of the application procedures, please go to: link to Tectonic Textiles

100% Intelligent Textiles conference, 6-7 June 2007

Rachel Wingfield will be speaking on responsive textiles at the 100% Intelligent textiles conference in Copenhagen and 7th June 2007 in Herning.

http://www.teko.dk/Default.aspx?ID=1185

The Fabric of Life, June 2007

The Fabrics of Life projects have been initiated by Professor Amanda Fisher (Medical Research Council), Brona McVittie (Epigenome Network) and Carole Collet (Central Saint Martins). The projects are jointly funded by the MRC and Epigenome NoE.

Nobel Textiles

"What do you get when you pair a scientific researcher with a textile designer? Designers fundamentally shape the way we live, while scientists pervade the very fabric of our lives. “Nobel Textiles” involves a journey into the interface between science and design, a dialogue between leading researchers in both fields.

The languages of science and design may at first glance seem wildly different. Textiles are made with warps, wefts and shuttles on looms with treadles and heddles. Molecular research employs gels, arrays and assays to probe genes, proteins and pathways. Yet closer inspection reveals many conceptual symbioses. The processes of science and design explore combinations of old and new technologies to create models. Hybrid designs might fuse intelligent textiles and weaving to make a glowing bed for sufferers from seasonal affective disorder. Scientists use nuclear transfer and embryo seeding to create mouse models for genetic disease research.

Science and design require a technical appreciation of form and structure to test and manipulate function and reveal new meaning. Both domains play a role in redefining our relationships with each other and the world around us. Both evoke new meaning, enriching culture.

Design fellows from Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design are liaising with Nobel prize-winning scientists to develop textiles that visualise scientific discovery". (Brona McVittie, Public science communications, http://www.epigenome.eu)

• Philippa Brock / Aaron Klug
• Carole Collet / John Sulston
• Shelley Fox / Sir Peter Mansfield
• Rachel Kelly / Tim Hunt
• Rachel Wingfield / John E. Walker

A Seminar/Workshop to Explore Epigenetic Design, 1 June 2007

By invitation only. Press, please contact c.collet@csm.arts.ac.uk or brona.mcvittie@csc.mrc.ac.uk._

8 scientists and 40 designers from MA Textile Futures and MA Industrial Design With the support of Carole Collet, Mathias Gmachl, Ben Hughes, Angelo Vermeulen, Harry White and Rachel Wingfield.

"Design features in every aspect of daily life and science permeates culture through discovery and technology. Through a one-day workshop we will unite the worlds of innovative arts and science with a view to developing epigenetic designs using both 3D and textile media. We will explore issues pertinent to both design and epigenetics, for example how much are we pre-programmed versus environmentally shaped?" ( Brona McVittie, Public science communications, http://www.epigenome.eu)

We would like to thank all the scientists who have agreed to take part in this creative journey: Wendy Bickmore, Neil Brockdorff, Amanda Fisher, Frank Grosveld, Ueli Grossniklaus, Thomas Jenuwein, Wolf Reik, and Leonie Ringrose.

Distance No Object, 2 June 2007

Saturday 2 June 2007 / 11 am - 3 pm
Horizon Scotland / Forres, Scotland
Free of charge, spaces limited (see below)

Elena Corchero is an experienced fashion and interaction designer with a background in fine arts. She will be presenting her latest work on how electronics and solar power technology can be incorporated into garments and fashion accessories in a delicate and appealing way. She will also talk about her work on "keepsakes of the future" started while she was a researcher at MIT's Media Lab Europe. There she created the "whiSpiral", a spiral-shaped shawl with integrated voice recorders that store audio messages from your friends. Elena is currently a Masters candidate in Textile Futures at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London. - http://www.distancelab.org/openstudio001/

Extreme Futures, Six Cities Design Festival, Carole Collet, May 2007

http://www.six-cities.com/events/livedetails.php?id=308 Extreme Futures 22 May 2007 1:30pm to 3:00pm Talk

This lecture, by Carole Collet from the Textile Futures Research Group at Central College of Art & Design, will promote awareness of developments in textile technology, in relation to issues of 'smart' and wearable technologies in design. Developed by research group, Textile Futures, Extreme Futures compliments the Extreme North exhibition and will examine the relationship between technical textiles with regard to their performance and environmental sustainability.

Exhibition & Talk by Linda Florence: Monsters in Paradise; Robots in Disguise, May 2007

Opens 2-26 May 2007, Wednesday –Saturday, 12 – 6pm or by appointment outside these hours.

Artist’s talk (booking required) - Wednesday 9 May, 6pm start

Clerkenwell Green Association, Pennybank Chambers, 33 – 35 St John’s Square, London, EC1M 4DS

Linda Florence: Monsters in Paradise; Robots in Disguise

Award winning print designer Linda Florence reminds you of her distinctive decorative style for interior pattern at an exhibition at the Clerkenwell Green Association. Florence invites you to explore your imagination in a showcase of new work that promises to transport you to a new world of mysterious animals, dinosaurs and monsters, allowing you to have a glimpse of her interpretation of paradise!

Luminous Green, a Foam Workshop, April-May 2007

30 April 2007

Images from Luminous Green: A retreat, workshop and symposium on ecologically inspired and sustainable worlds 27 April - 05 May 2007 Belgium, organised by FOAM.

Carole Collet, Rachel Wingfield and Mathias Gmachl at Luminous Green

"Luminous Green' is a series of gatherings about the world. About the world that supports life today and about the possible worlds that can support more luminous life in the future. It will take place in and around Brussels from the 27th of April till the 5th of May 2007. With these events, the interdisciplinary laboratory FoAM^?? calls upon the creative sector to enrich the public debate around environmental sustainability, ethical living and eco-technology. Luminous Green consists of a symposium, an expert gathering, a hands-on workshop and an open lab."

• http://luminousgreen.org/

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“[ƒoam] is a collective, a laboratory and a gathering of people and places, clustered around Brussels and Amsterdam. Its collaborators operate on both hemispheres and across several time zones. [ƒoam]'s expertise and interests cover the interstices between artistic and scientific, physical and digital, professional and cultural boundaries.

who is [ƒoam]? [ƒoam] is shaped by a group of designers, scientists, cooks, artists, engineers and gardeners, interested in advancing their own fields, as well as sharing and applying knowledge in new public contexts. Although our individual disciplines vary, everyone’s practice integrates principles of ethical living, sustainable design and eco-technology. Within the [ƒoam] structure, we commingle fresh creative expressions, trans disciplinary knowledge, materialized imagination with emerging and forgotten crafts, for a lively present and an abundant future.” (http://www.fo.am)

Design and Sustainability, How to get Textile Designers on the case?, Carole Collet talks at the ICA, 19 March 2007

http://www.ica-theclub.com/events/38/?archive=1

Launch of our Cross University Textile Futures Research Unit, ICA, 20 March 2007

Textile Futures Research Group (TFRG) is a new University of the Arts London unit. The unit comprises textiles researchers and research students spanning Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, Chelsea College of Art and Design, and London College of Fashion. TFRG is directed by Dr. Jane Harris, associate directors are Becky Earley(Chelsea), Sandy Black(LCF) and Carole Collet (CSM). In March 2007 the Textile Futures Research Group publicly launched at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA).

Visit the TFRG website, http://www.tfrg.org.uk, for links to research, seminar and conference updates and current conversations within textile futures.

More information can be found here TextileFuturesResearchUnit

Camalo Gaskin, Textile Futures Co-ordinator