Call for Participation

*Call for Participation*

AN EXCITING OPPORTUNITY

Calling all current fashion or textile design students/graduates interested in collaboration: you are hereby invited to participate in a practice-led research project exploring co-design.

Design has transitioned from an era of designing ‘for’ people towards the current era of designing ‘with’ people. Brown (2010) predicts that in the future, design will become a social experience and no longer practiced in isolation.

The term Generation Y is used to define a demographic (born between 1977 and 1997) who have grown up surrounded by digital media. Tapscott (2008) argues that this group are a force of social transformation:

- As consumers they want to be prosumers co-innovating products and services

- They use digital media to edit, create and distribute their own content

- They collaborate by constructing their own social networks

- They innovate by becoming active participants within the design process.

Economic changes bound up with globalisation are increasing pressures for people to re-think current models of design and production. The fashion industry is exploring new models to enable Gen Y to participate through exploratory marketing campaigns and streaming fashion week live online. There is huge potential for digital media and design to collaborate to construct new ways of working, but a re-think of the relationship between the designer and the consumer is required: both to consider how new technology can be used to enable the exchange of skills and knowledge, and to bring us into the future with consideration to the users needs and wants.

The selected participants will be invited to a design meeting where the project will be pitched and they will play an active role in defining the overall brief. You will leave with a goodie bag of design tools, tips and tricks to get started on your design research and development.

The following week we will meet again and get to work collectively designing a collection of fashion fabrics and accessories.

This is an exciting opportunity for you to participate in a live research project and play an active role in defining new design approaches, an excellent CV opportunity.

Participant Criteria

- A current fashion or textile design student or graduate

- An Interest and familiarity with digital media tools for example, blogging, twitter, Flickr and Facebook.

- Available for two weeks to participant from Monday 7th - 18th February 2011. There will be x2 real time meetings and the rest will be online.

How to Participate

Send a few short sentences describing YOU as a designer.

Send an email to: textiles2.0@gmail.com

Include: Your name, contact information, University of study, and a blog link if you have one.

Visit - http://thetextilesampler.blogspot.com/ for updates and further information. This is the first in a series of new projects so if your unavailable and would like to be considered for up and coming events just send a quick email.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

What is the impact of austerity on craft making and fashion design?

Call for Contributions Closing: 31-Mar-2011 The impact of recession and periods of austerity have led to changes in textile making and the skill base that supports these activities. The recent financial difficulties in the UK are resulting in an increase in craft based workshops, retail outlets stocking textile supplies and temporary shops popping up in residential areas that offer sewing machine classes and pay-by-the-hour sewing machines. Students and graduates of textile design courses are experiencing difficulties in obtaining work placements and employment in the sector. However, speaking recently Karl Lagerfeld (1) said that his work in fashion design has not been affected as he is working in a global arena where not all markets are in recession. The Crafts Council (2) reported in April 2009 that although there was a slight decrease in visitor numbers to recent contemporary craft events, there was no discernable impact on sales figures. They envisaged however a shift in the demographic of the contemporary crafts consumer. Changes in consumer attitudes and a reduction in the teaching of textile skills in schools have led to a generation with different perceptions of making. Through this second call, DUCK wishes to explore how craft making and textile design activity is affected by austerity. Submissions are invited which address one or more of the following themes: • What changes have been observed in textile craft making and/or textile design during and following periods of austerity such as financial recessions or war? • In what ways do changes brought about through periods of financial constraint perpetuate during ‘good times’? • How do textile designers and designer makers respond to changes in consumer demand and markets for their products? • In what ways do financial constraints such as increased costs for materials lead to innovation and ingenuity in craft making? • Do periods of austerity act as a catalyst for the acquisition of craft skills? Do they change the perceived value of textile design and making? • To what extent does reduced funding for textile and textile design research impact on craft makers? • How do periods of austerity impact on notions of luxury and bespoke in relation to textile products? Authors will be informed of the outcome of their submission by the end of July 2011. Submission Instructions Contributions may take the form of written texts (maximum 5,000 words), visual essays, a series of images relating to methods (sketchbook style), visual diaries or other methods deemed appropriate but must address the research question. Duck does not advise a particular format for written submissions although we ask that contributors present their ideas in an accessible format for Duck's diverse readership of researchers, educators, artists and designers. For written texts the Harvard System of referencing is preferred. Images should be 300dpi where possible, RGB format and submitted as TIFF or JPEG files. Text should be provided in MS Word (.doc), rich text (.rtf) or pdf format. Please provide your name, affiliation, email address, a title for your submission and a short summary of your contribution. Please send submissions by email to: F.E.Kane2@lboro.ac.uk (Maximum file size: 5mb) Alternatively, please send on disk (CD or DVD) to: DUCK Journal - Textiles Research Group Loughborough University School of Art and Design Loughborough Leicestershire LE11 3TU Copyright In submitting material to Duck, contributors thereby grant permission for it to be published on the Duck website. Contributors retain copyright of their material and may use it elsewhere after publication in Duck, though we would appreciate it if Duck could be acknowledged as the original source of publication. Please note that it is the responsibility of contributors to obtain the necessary permissions for reproducing work other than their own.

Website(s): - www.lboro.ac.uk

Inhabitating Adaptive Architecture Workshop

Extended deadline for what sounds like a very exciting workshop:

Inhabitating Adaptive Architecture
Saturday 5 March 2011

Chaired by Holger Schnädelbach and Jonathan Hale [The University of Nottingham]

Deadline for papers extended to Friday 28 January

Announcement of acceptance 4 February 2011

This workshop will bring togehter experts from the various disciplines contributing to Adaptive Architecture to discuss the challenges faced by inhabitants (individuals, groups & organisations) in occupying adaptive buildings over various time scales.

To download the call for papers (pdf) click HERE.

Please submit a one-page A4 document to include a brief bio and a position statement (of no more than 500 words), reflecting on what it means to you to inhabit Adaptive Architecture. Participants will be selected from all submissions based on peer-review. Submission should be formatted as MSoft Word document, 12 point Arial, singled spaced. It should also include five key words (normal type), your name, institution, qualifications, role, contact address, contact e-mail address, telephone number at top of document (bold type).

Papers should be submitted by 28January 2011 to adaptivearchitecture@buildingcentre.co.uk. If the file is larger than 10MB please send an ftp link or similar and we will download from there.

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