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Event Details
New deadline: 19th of February 2024
The DRS Interdisciplinary Textiles SIG welcomes expressions of interest to host the 2025 Textiles Intersections Conference.
The Textile Intersections Conference is a major international event related to interdisciplinary textile design research with a reputation for academic quality, provocative thinking, and a balanced interest in theoretical and practice-based aspects of textiles design research.
Textile Intersections 2023 (20th - 23rd September 2023) was a four-day conference, doctoral consortium and exhibition organised by the School of Design and Creative Arts, Loughborough University, UK, in collaboration with the Royal College of Art, London, UK, The Swedish School of Textiles, University of Borås, Sweden, Elisava Barcelona, Spain.
The third edition of the conference took place at Loughborough University London Campus and marked the launch of the newly established Interdisciplinary Textiles Special Interest Group (SIG) of the Design Research Society.
TEXTILE INTERSECTIONS aims to become the international platform where the most acute and relevant aspects in relation to the way we produce, use, recycle, conserve and critically engage with textiles are able to be presented and addressed.
For this reason, we are launching an expression of interest to host the 2025 edition of the Textile Intersections Conference. Hosting the conference is a way to promote textile design research within hosting countries and regions and can support the increase of the international profile of the host institution and city.
For TEXTILE INTERSECTIONS CONFERENCE 2025 we are particularly interested in proposals that address textile and architecture, critical textiles, interactive and performative textiles, biotextiles and sustainable textiles, advances textiles materials and processes, textiles and sport themes, as well as themes that challenge and renew the general framework of the conference. Alongside the conference, it is expected that an exhibition and a doctoral consortium will also take place. The prospective organisers can also propose other formats such as workshops and visits to local industry sites.
This is a worldwide call for expressions of interest. In selecting a venue for 2025, the Interdisciplinary Textiles SIG will be mindful of the need for a location that is accessible for our international membership. Further details of the previous conference can be found at: https://www.textile-intersections.com/
Expressions of Interest should be no more than 2000 words and cover the following areas:
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Overall Vision for the Conference
(including: suggestion for the title and topics of the tracks and any proposed innovations); -
Host Organisation
(including: evidence of institutional commitment and support, department(s) and key people involved, commitment of the host city/ region); -
Proposed Conference Venue
(including: quality and capacity of plenary and session spaces); -
Features of the Location
(including: travel and accommodation, food and entertainment, cultural life); -
Conference Team
(including: local chair and primary contact, experience of managing similar events, relationship with the Interdisciplinary Textiles SIG team, and management); -
Proposed dates
(including: timelines for the call for papers and details about the dates of the conference - our preference is for the conference to take place in mid-September 2025, but an exception can be made if sufficiently justified); -
Financial Information
(indicative budget for 150-200 participants including: cost of venues, catering, events, management, and personnel, online, and sponsorship).
Financial Arrangements
The DRS Interdisciplinary Textiles SIG requires that conferences break even at 80% (120 participants) of registration fee income and that conferences are underwritten by the host organisation against any loss.
A Memorandum of Understanding detailing key responsibilities and financial agreements will be signed by both parties prior to any award and announcement for hosting.
Application and Timeline
Interested parties should submit their Expression of Interest to the DRS Interdisciplinary Textiles SIG Convenor (textiles.sig@designresearchsociety.org) by the deadline of 19th of February 2024.
Expressions of Interest will be considered by the Interdisciplinary Textiles SIG Executive Board and a decision will be taken by 1st of March 2024 15th of March 2024. If more detailed information is needed, the selected candidates will be asked to present their vision for the conference.
Further Details
Should you have any further questions or seek clarification on any aspect of a proposal please contact: Tincuta Heinzel (T.Heinzel@lboro.ac.uk), for an informal discussion. Further information about the Design Research Society can be found at: www.designresearchsociety.org and about Interdisciplinary Textiles SIG here: https://www.designresearchsociety.org/cpages/textiles-sig.
About the DRS
The Design Research Society is a learned society committed to promoting and developing design research. Founded in 1966, it is the longest established, multi-disciplinary worldwide society for the design research community. We draw together a community from around the world in all areas of design research.
About the Interdisciplinary Textiles SIG
The Interdisciplinary Textiles SIG was founded in 2023 with the aim to promote collaborative and interdisciplinary textiles design research - to become a platform where art, craft, design, and engineering-driven approaches to textiles are welcomed alongside the associated theoretical aspects related to them and the textile industry itself.
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.
