Weaving Futures

‘Weaving Futures’ at London Transport Museum (LTM) was a commissioned, jointly curated 3 month exhibition by Philippa Brock & Samuel Plant Dempsey. Dates: 22nd Nov 2016 – 19th Feb 2017. The exhibition was funded by The London Transport Museum, Camira, The Worshipful Company of Weavers, Pointcarre and Digital Weave Norway lent a state of the art TC2 studio jacquard loom for the duration.

Brock was approached by Transport for London to both curate and participate in an exhibition to explore how to highlight the importance of woven textile design research and thinking within London Transport systems, linking within LTM year long ‘Designology’ exhibition. The Designology exhibition was highlighting the importance of design in London Transport Systems.

Weaving Futures exhibition key drivers and innovation:
• Developed a new curation model exploring how to display the process of live designing and making throughout the 3 months
• Brought together diverse designers, artists, researchers and designers (not solely textiles), including well known architects, product design innovators, woven textile designers & printed textile designers week on week. All invited residents worked to the same brief
• Encouraged a new diverse general public audience to LTM, as well as not alienating the existing enthusiast and school/family attendees.
• Offered the general public the opportunity to observe, interact and participate in the live working practice of residents and workshops: immersive experience
• Live running of a TC2 studio jacquard loom in London Transport Museum, with the weavers working with the residents
• Workshops alongside the residents
• 30 new works were designed and made during the exhibition

Residents who participated in Weaving Futures ( from 4 days - 1.5 weeks each): hyperlinked to names
Assemble, Beatwoven, Camira, Central Saint Martins, BA Textile students: Mimi Forrest, Michael Woods, Lily Thornton, Phoebe Sudderick. Linda Florence, Gainsborough Weaving Company, Eleanor Pritchard, Rare Thread :Kirsty McDougall & Laura Miles, Josephine Ortega, Ismini Samanidou, Studio Houndstooth: Jo Pierce, Philippa Brock, Takram & Collaboration: Dr. Priti Veja, Samuel Plant Dempsey & Philippa Brock

Other information:
• The exhibition started as a loom in a studio, so the work did not exist prior to the exhibition the exhibition model involved week on week invited residents to work in the live studio in the museum and work with the weavers to interpret their ideas.At the end there was a closing exhibition
• Joint Curation between a textile and a product designer
• Overarching seminal ‘Designology’ 12 month exhibition was the first exhibition at LTM to highlight the importance of the design process in London Transport systems
• Included in these were augmented reality pieces (takram) and sensory design e-textiles, the first woven speaker Brock, Dempsey and Veja
• LTM featured it on their website and a pdf of the timetable of when designers were in residence.
• The invited residents were from renown artists, designers & companies in their fields from Assemble – Turner prize winners, Wallace Sewell the current designers of the TFL moquette fabrics, through to emergent recently graduated designer – Josephine Ortega - to at the time current graduates of Central Saint Martins
• A short film ( 4 mins) was commissioned by LTM about the Weaving Futures exhibition and time lapse filming

Peer esteem
Brock invited to curate the exhibition
Brock Iinvited to host the Petcha Kutcha general public ‘late debate’ sell out event during the exhibition ( 400 tickets)
Brock & Dempsey invited to host a general public closing event for Weaving Futures (18th Feb 2017) and live workshop
A short film ( 4 mins) was commissioned by LTM about the Weaving Futures exhibition featuring Brock & Dempsey

Impact.
LTM has approx 3,000 UK & international visitors a day
Design brief around data and London transport systems trialed at CSM 2nd year BA (Hons) Textile Design in a weave and print collaboration project, along with Transport for London.
The students all visted the Acton London Transport Muesum archives and x4 student winners were awarded residencies within the Weaving Future exhibition

Alongside Weaving Futures, a Central Saint Martins Musuem public Gallery window was commissioned to coincide with the exhibition. CSM weave department has produced x4 alumni and/or tutors who have all designed moquette fabrics for London Transport in both the 20th & 21st Centuries. Their work from the CSM archive was exhibited alongside Wallace Sewell – current TFL moquette designers. Brock & Dempsey worked with the Musuem to select the work and with Wallace Sewell for the final layout.

• Organisation