DIGIKAT 2

Digikat is a convivial foray into the heritage of Ikat through the lens of creative coding.

Last week we learned about Ikat as a craft, a source of livelihood, and through the challenges faced by those making it.

For our second webinar we will hear from two speakers who are finding new ways of thinking and working with textiles: one adapting Ikat to modern flavors and the other exploring algorithmic pattern-making.

Speaker 1: Manisha Chawda is the founder of Neeli Titlee, a craft brand that works with the ikat weavers of western Odisha. She partners with the weavers of the region to create products for the modern woman who wants to fit in traditional textiles in her wardrobe without compromising her urban style. One of the major goals of the brand is to introduce these intricately woven handloom textiles into the gifting market to shift the focus from wasteful gifting to socially responsible and meaningful gifting behaviour. https://neelititlee.com/

Speaker 2: Alex McLean is an interdisciplinary researcher, software artist and live coding musician, working in the area of algorithmic pattern. He works as postdoc researcher for the ERC PENELOPE project investigating weaving as a technical mode of existence, based in the Deutsches Museum in Munich, lead by Dr Ellen Harlizius-Klück. He completed his PhD thesis “Artist-Programmers and Programming Languages for the Arts” in Goldsmiths, University of London in 2011. He co-founded the International Conferences on Live Coding and Live Interfaces, the AlgoMech festival of Algorithmic and Mechanical Movement, and the Algorave and TOPLAP live coding/algorithmic art movements. He also created the popular free/open source TidalCycles live coding environment. He lives in Sheffield, UK. https://slab.org/