Head of Programme, Textiles – Anne Toomey

As we advance towards 5IR, characterised by the cooperation of man and machine, we challenge our existing systems, be they political, economic, societal, technological, or environmental. Inevitably, we see that the future landscape is a complex interwoven fuzzy space of interconnections that requires intra-action between these systems. The role that materials play within these systems is under review from many perspectives and in a state of flux and change.

This requires a broad approach to the discipline and our diverse practice across the Programme unites commercial designers, individual craft and gallery-based practitioners and smart textiles innovators fostering a vibrant community culture where this range of practice stimulates critical questioning of the discipline. Textiles are simultaneously both ancient and modern and have been developed over Millennia, uniting different cultures across the world in the universal language of cloth.

With a focus on radical experimentation, material exploration and transformation, we encourage an exploratory, non-linear approach that embraces the conceptual, allowing a space for the incidental and accidental processes of discovery that foster a culture of research through both physical and digital making.

Often grounded in heritage knowledge, our graduates challenge the multi-sensory values and properties of tangible and intangible materials to communicate through a visual and tactile ‘Textile’ language that is as ancient as time itself.

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