| Date: 21 August – 3rd September 2023, Istanbul/Kahramanmaras, Türkiye.
Critical Craft: InterWoven Practices Making Space in Sümer Mahallesi, 21 August – 3rd September 2023, Istanbul/Kahramanmaras, Türkiye. ‘Critical Craft – Realising Transitional Community Spaces in Earthquake Hit Southern Turkiye’ is a project which will be centred around a two part workshop followed by a one day session in Istanbul to present and engage the wider community with the issues addressed in the workshop. Addressing issues of collectivity, material understanding and textile production and waste the project will build on existing work completed thus far by HiM (Herkes Icin Mimarlik), AHAH (All Hands and Hearts) and KAF Kolektif as well as feeding into the ‘Horanta’ textile project. The integrated activities from the series are as follows:
- WS1.0: “Woven Practices” – part 1, in collaboration with HiM and KAF at ITU and various other locations in Istanbul between 21-25 August 2023. Participants from ITU, UPM and other EELISA alliance universities will be invited to join.
- WS2.0: “Woven Practices” – part 2, in collaboration with KAF and HiM at Sümer Space in Kahramanmaras between 29 August – 3 September 2023.
- WS3.0: “Woven Between” – in Istanbul, a one day workshop in September 2023 (date TBC), presenting work completed as part of the ‘Woven Practices’ workshop and inviting participants to engage and explore the looms, techniques and other materials produced during the workshop.
InterWoven Practices is a two part workshop structured to integrate collective learning and making, through material interaction and collaboration, with an in the field workshop period. This will directly involve locals, especially women and children, from Sümer Mahallesi, an area affected by the February 6th earthquakes. Participants will aim to explore relationships between textiles, themselves, and the Sümer Space building that was constructed as part of Herkes Icin Mimarlik’s ‘Post-Disaster Reconstruction Plan’. Using waste textiles, the project will take offcuts, inappropriate or unused donated clothing following the earthquake and other surplus textiles to collectively explore alternative uses for these products. Promoting a sustainable alternative to off-the-shelf solutions, both in terms of equipment and textile products, the Critical Craft project attempts to find new narratives through research by practice. The Interwoven Practices workshop specifically aims to raise local interest in and support for the ‘Horanta’ project that is being initiated in the earthquake affected regions by KAF Kolektif as a way to explore alternative micro-economies and opportunities for training that might facilitate a more sustainable future.Following the workshop a one day presentation/workshop day, titled ‘Woven Between’ will be organised to engage the wider interested community with the concepts that have been addressed (date TBC). All “Woven Practices” participants will receive circular EELISA badges and certificates. Partial Funding and support are available for students’ travel, accommodation via their Institutions.
Coordinated by: Sam Price, Assoc. Dr. Aslıhan Şenel and Dr. Bihter Almaç
Designed and organised by: Vivien Tauchmann, Ela Gök & Sam Price
In collaboration with: KAF Kolektif and Herkes Icin Mimarlik.
