Interdisciplinary Textiles SIG

One of the oldest of technologies, textiles are positioned now at the leading edge of interdisciplinary work in design, arts, engineering, and theoretical research. Integral to our daily life (through fashion, interiors, technical uses ranging from space industry to medicine, building, agriculture or even soft robotic systems), textiles are the most common example of complexity in terms of materials research, design and fabrication processes, applications and uses, and for  speculative, metaphorical and semiotic inquiry. At the same time, textiles can be used as lenses to better understand and exemplify design interrogations and philosophies of making. The SIG encourages a systemic perspective that enables it to reflect on textiles objects, environments and contexts, to investigate textiles design processes and practices and the dynamics between them. 

The communities involved in textiles research and production are extensive and diverse in terms of the cultures and skill sets involved. The aim of the SIG is precisely to fill this gap and facilitate international exchanges related to textile design research, to ensure that processes-oriented approaches are addressed  alongside their relevance to existing and hoped-for social and economic futures, where analysis and speculation can come together.

The aim of this SIG is to promote collaborative and interdisciplinary textiles design research -  to become a platform where art, design, and engineering-driven approaches to textiles are welcomed alongside the associated theoretical aspects related to them and the textile industry itself. The new SIG enables a platform from which to raise awareness of the potential roles and value of textile practice within interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary design research. By creating this space of discourse, connection and collaboration, our goal is to build capacity and extend the textile practice research. 

Our areas of interest are related to the conception, fabrication and the use of textiles, their contexts and conditions of manufacturing and consumption, where both STEM and humanities approaches are encouraged. Collaborative, interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary perspectives will aim to address the breadth of textiles: from materials and techniques to processes, from applications to social and industrial configurations, from historical to contemporary aspects related to textiles, from crafts to industrial textile design, as well as sustainable, aesthetic, and emotional aspects of textile design. The perspective we are adopting is that of textiles and textiles design, but also of their systems and ecosystems.

The main aims of the SIG are:

• To encourage an interdisciplinary approach to textiles design research;
• To create a high-quality research environment for textiles design to support PhD students and early career researchers;
• To facilitate the networking between the members of the SIG and to develop common research projects;
• To offer a voice in the context of DRS to the researchers working in the field of textile design;
• To offer visibility to the published research in the field of textiles design;
• To internationalize the field of textiles design research.

Convenors and extended organising group

This SIG is supported by the community involved in the organization of the Textile Intersections conference (https://www.textile-intersections.com/) and members of Arcintex Network (http://arcintex.hb.se). The SIG convenors are researchers in the field of design and textiles with experience in both academia and industry and a long track record of textiles- related research projects. Their expertise covers different areas of textiles design research and they are internationally active. 

The SIG welcomes researchers and practitioners interested in the areas advanced by the SIG and get involved in the activities of the SIG and to support its development.

(From left to right)

Anne Louise Bang, Julia Cassim, Delia Dumitrescu , Tincuta Heinzel, Elaine Igoe, Pirjo Kääriäinen, Faith Kane, Aurélie Mossé, Irene Posch, Afroditi Psarra, Sara Robertson, Oscar Tomico.