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'Haptic Humidifier' (detail) by Kenya Hara. Image taken from Haptic Catalogue, edited by Kenya Hara.
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Calling All Textile Artists: How You Can Get Involved in a Ground-breaking Conference
Japanese designer Kenya Hara will be exhibiting his work at RIBA London in May 2008, with a conference coinciding with its opening day. The exhibition, called Haptic Design, will feature a range of Kenya’s work that focuses on domestic design, including textiles, paper, a lampshade made from hair and a mobile phone made from a jelly substance.
The conference, Memory and Touch: An exploration of non-verbal communication, aims to kick-start a discussion between academics, curators and artists about Haptic Design, a relatively new concept in the UK. The organisers of the conference, Lesley Millar and Liz Cooper from the University College for the Creative Arts, Epsom, are very keen to have textile artists involved.
Lesley says, “I have been working with textiles all my life so they are very familiar to me. But in terms of the conference themes of memory, touch and textural communication, I feel that textiles are one of the best ways to portray these as they are so closely linked. One of the first things we come into contact with as babies are textiles, so they begin providing us with memories as soon as we are born.”
Artists and designers are invited to submit papers that they could then present at the conference. They are encouraged to discuss their experiences of touch in their work and any research they have undertaken on this subject. Those selected will then be offered presentation slots between 10 and 30 minutes at the conference.
Unfortunately the University College for the Creative Arts won’t be able to pay for any expenses involved in the preparation and presentation of papers, or for travel to the conference, which will be held on 7 May 2008 at the Royal Institute of British Architects, Portland Place, London.
If you would like to apply to take part in the conference please send a one-page (350 word) abstract of your ideas and a brief CV to lmillar@ucreative.ac.uk by 30 January. Preference will be given to those applications that include images of your work and research. If you prefer you can post your application and CV to Lesley Millar, University College for the Creative Arts, Ashley Road, Epsom, Surrey KT18 5BE.
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