SCL is selected for New York Textile Month

For the 9th time in a row, New York Textile Month (NYTM) celebrates and promotes textile creativity. Through a series of talks, events, exhibitions and workshops – both offline in NYC and online – the festival wants to investigate and celebrate the survival of the different textile components and expressions. “At a time when textile heritage is at a crossroads and centuries of tradition and knowledge are being compromised, the need arises to protect these endangered species in the same way we have come to defend our animal friends in the natural world; therefore, we urgently need to discuss and talk about textiles again”, states Lidewij Edelkoort.

During her time as a Dean of Hybrid Design Studies at Parsons in New York (2015-2020), Li Edelkoort founded both a Textile Masters and the NYTM-festival in close cooperation with trend analyst Philip Fimmano with whom she founded Talking Textiles already back in 2011. “At this time of decline, we simultaneously experience a return of the interest in textiles and their cultural expressions. There is a renewed interest in material processes and an urgency to understand what fabric is made of”, tells Edelkoort. “Production is being brought back to our doorsteps, as high-tech developments promise a dramatic new way of producing bio fiber and smart matter.”

New methodology
During the webinar, Soft Connection Lab will introduce its newly developed methodology that aims to revive traditional braiding techniques and, more in general, stimulate a conjunctive design attitude. In a world increasingly dominated by digitalization – which disconnects designing from making – we believe in the value of hands-on experiences, fostering deeper connections with the material, the object, and the people we are interacting with.

Inspired by forgotten artisanal textile techniques and the social cohesiveness of maypole dancers, the team has researched transversal creative making methods which add an intangible emotional value to the created objects. Besides scaling up and slowing down to enhance insight, they’ve developed a set of four Soft Tools which function as a new design vocabulary and contain various obsolete braiding techniques. Using these tools, SCL aspires to restore the emotional bonds between makers, consumers, and objects.

As we aim to implement the methodology in transversal educational models, we are eager to establish connections with other educational institutions, design practices or the industry. We’ll share experiences and footage about the research. At the end of the talk, we provide time for a Q&A.