Lectures to inform and inspire you can be given in Dutch, English or German and will be supported by a PowerPoint presentation with hands-on materials*. All lectures can be combined or made to fit. Price on request.* With reservation from May till September hands-on materials are including live wild and domesticated silkworms.
Fibres to Fabrics
Fabrics are made of natural fibres, taken from plants or animals. Since nylon was invented in 1937 we also have synthetic based fibres. All these materials like cotton, wool or polyamide have their own properties and impact on the environment. Searching for environmental friendly materials, forgotten fibres as nettle and hemp were rediscovered and new viscose’s developed. We can extrude bio-synthetic fibres from crops like corn, soy or sugarcane and worldwide we find fairly unknown fabrics made from human hair, lotus, sweet potato,…
What are the characteristics of these materials and what is fact and what is fiction?
Foods to Fabrics
Food and textiles have a lot in common, we all need to feed and dress ourselves and therefore use the same resources; land and water to grow crops and let our animals graze. And oil as fuel for machines, transportation and base for synthetic dyes and fibres. These resources are limited; agricultural land is scarce and in some parts of the world there is hunger and shortage of water. Also oil is polluting. By 2050 the world’s population will likely increase up to 10 billion people, more than 35% as we have now.
How do we manage to feed and dress the world with limited space and resources?
BioDesign in Textiles
There is plenty of spinning and weaving in nature; spiders, ants, plants and even sponges do. Nature is full of shapes and structures designed by a universal building plan based on geometric principles. Design in nature is ingenious and super-efficient, in nature we find inspiration, inventions, solutions and strategies we can use for our own technology and design.
What if we take the science and design from nature and apply this into our own textiles?
BioTechnology in Textiles
Biotechnology, the use of living organisms to make products, is timeless. In recent decades, this technology has developed at lightning speed due to our increased knowledge of how DNA works. This enables us to change the properties of organisms, enabling spectacular new applications. This is already widely used in the field of health and food industry but also offers new possibilities for textile production; microorganisms such as fungi, bacteria and algae can be used to make, improve or process textiles.
“Living” textiles, not made mechanically but “grown”.
What is vision for the future today can be reality tomorrow.