Please email tfrc@tfrc.org.uk to book your place at the next TFRC lecture!

PUMA Sustainable Design Collective lecture series

 Becky Earley will present TED's work at the Puma Sustainable Design collective lecture series at PUMA Headquarters on Thursday 7th June, the third in a series of four lectures organised by Jonathan Chapman.
Jonathan Chapman has recently developed ' 50 ways of thinking and doing sustainable design' for Puma (seen as a poster in the image above, behind the speaker who is Fiona Bennie, from the first lecture). Jonathan has curated this event-based network to 'stimulate essential debate and encourage the learning and the exchange of knowledge between practising designers, and specialists in sustainable design thinking.'

Puma have recently completed their first Environmental Profit and Loss Statement, which places a monetary value on the impacts of their production system.
"Analysing a company’s environmental impact this way, and understanding where environmental measures are necessary, will not only help conserve the benefits of ecosystem services but also ensure the longevity of our business", says Jochen Zeitz, Executive Chairman of PUMA and Chief Sustainability Officer of PPR.

To sign up for the events contact psdc@puma.com

Fashion Talks 2012 in Stockholm

On the first of February ‘Fashion Talks’ will explore the changing role of the consumer and how important trends in technology, lifestyles and business models are reshaping the consumer’s expectations and opportunities for consuming fashion. The audience will be offered insights and inspiration from researchers, trend experts and brands around a number of key questions and themes including: social media; the consumer segment LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability); second hand markets; innovative fashion brands; Collaborative Consumption; and “gamification”.

If you happen to be in Stockholm please don't miss this event which is part of the Mercedes Benz Fashion week. You can RSVP to attend here.

Green Week TFRC Event Monday 6th February 2012

TFRC’s New Year opens with a new exciting Lecture in the new Central Saint Martins Building at King’s Cross. Dr. Jonathan Chapman, author of ‘Emotionally Durable: Objects, Experiences & Empathy’ (Earthscan, 2005), is giving a keynote lecture as part of the UAL’s Green Week and TFRC’s Open Lecture series, on the 6th of February. He will also chair a discussion session following the lectures of TFRC members Becky Earley, Carole Collet, Kate Goldsworthy, Aurelie Mosse and Jen Ballie. We will follow up shortly with a report on the event and a summary of TFRC’s year.

This is a section of Dr. Jonathan Chapman’s abstract as an appetizer to the talk:

“Dr Chapman's presentation looks beyond the tired 'doom and gloom' rhetoric of sustainability, to reveal a more optimistic, inspirational and creative vision that places sustainability and innovation side-by-side; he argues that the sustainability crisis is a crisis of behaviour, and not one simply of energy and materials alone, as is often assumed. Engaging with issues of design, ecology and the human condition, he relocates design within a wider cultural and philosophical debate that draws upon sociological, ecological, anthropological, psychological and consumer studies; casting new light on the complex and thorny nature of our contemporary engagement with the designed world. In so doing, Chapman maps a new creative territory to enable a deeper engagement with the sustainability agenda – grappling with the knotty problems of design, materiality, human behaviour and sustainability to provide timely reassessments of ethics and design in an age of over-consumption.”

RSVP for places to managementsupport@csm.arts.ac.uk

Tomorrow: Amplifying Social Wellbeing by Design. Sharing Experiences

Alastair Fuad-Luke, the author of 'Design Activism: Beautiful Strangeness for a Sustainable World' is going to speak tomorrow, Friday 25th November 2011, at The Finnish Institute in London. The 'Amplifying Social Wellbeing by Design. Sharing Experiences' seminar includes talks, discussions and engaging activities. There will be a follow-on event in Spring 2012, however this is a great opportunity to anyone who is interested in service design, wellbeing and aging. The seminar will start with an introduction at 9am and finish between 2.30 and 4 pm. Other guest speakers are Marianne Guldbrandsen (Head of Design Strategy, Design Council), Bill Gaver (Goldsmiths University London) and Jussi Nissilae (Programme Director, The Finnish Institute in London).

To rsvp for the event please send an e-mail to lotta.palin@finnish.institute.org.uk. For more information please click here.

TFRC writing workshop

This month TFRC researchers met to exchange ideas about writing up their current and future projects. As a group they explored the key words that they felt best described their research interests, and continued the discussion by reflecting on what textile research can be. The outcomes were surprising and engaging, as having the feedback of other members from the Textile Futures Research Centre was felt to be of high value.
TFRC's acting director Becky Earley showed TED's MISTRA Future Fashion project to the members, focusing on the publishing opportunities, whilst Caroline Till introduced what she and her colleague Kate Franklin from FranklinTill are envisioning for the TFRC publication coming out next year.
Watch this space for further info!

'New Materials' PhD scholarship offered at Design School Kolding in Denmark

Design School Kolding, Denmark, are offering a very interesting PhD position in New Materials within a design and sustainable frame of reference and with a duration of three years it would start in February 2012, or as early as possible after that date.

For the application the description should include a timetable and a detailed presentation of the PhD project. The PhD post is affiliated with a place of employment at Kolding School of Design in the Department of Product Design. The aim of the project is to contribute to building knowledge of new materials in a broad design sense within a sustainable frame of reference. The Department of Product Design comprises three specialist domains, Fashion, Textile, and Industrial Design, and sustainability represents one of the school’s strategic target areas.
The description for the PhD project is:The application should investigate the significance of new materials on design practice. The investigation should relate to relevant, existing, international research environments that work with material knowledge at the most advanced professional level. Moreover, in terms of methodology, the project should connect to action research and/or practice-oriented research traditions such as e.g. research-through-design. Furthermore, the application should explicate how the contribution will support the development of the three specialist domains of the department, including how it will strengthen the future development of design practice and create renewed professional self-understanding.

TFRC's PhD student Aurelie Mosse, graduated from MA Textile Futures in 2008, is already completing her PhD between Central Saint Martins and the School of Architecture, Design & Conservation of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Kopenhagen. Her research i in Self-Actuated Textiles in the Design of Domestic Spaces, and explores the intersection between Textile, Architecture and Smart Technologies.

For further info about the PhD application please click here.
The application should be submitted no later than the 15th of December to the Designskolen Kolding, online at http://golf.hr-manager.net/ApplicationInit.aspx?ProjectId=65707&DepartmentId=7546&SkipAdvertisement=true and via post.