Voice is co-funded by the EU and UKRI to encourage citizen engagement using artist-led innovation. It is based on four main pillars: (1) understanding the landscape, (2) mapping, (3) capacity building and (4) arts-technology-society interactions (ATSI) for knowledge sharing. The project supports artists to work in collaborative and interdisciplinary spaces and brings together different groups to solve environmental challenges to create green and digital solutions. It focuses on specific objectives using the UN sustainable development goals: SDG11 Sustainable Cities and Communities, SDG12 Responsible Consumption and Production, SDG13 Climate Action.
In this project I am working with Ealing Repair Cafe in West London to investigate the value of e-textile practice samplers to increase participation in clothes repair. Stitch samplers have historically provided a space to master stitching skills and build confidence. This project is positioned as a trial for embedding e-textiles within a repair practice and adapting novel technological approaches to support mending. E-textile stitch samplers will be used to increase material knowledge and facilitate people to practice a range of techniques before transferring them to a garment. There will be an opportunity to bring experts and novices repairers together to discuss and adapt their activities to make them available to other practitioners.
Ealing Repair Café community who were set up in Spring 2019 and have regular monthly meetups around Acton and Ealing to encourage people to value, repair or alter clothes rather than discard them. The group have regular volunteers that encourage and teach people how to mend their clothes and encourage people from the local community to come along to sessions with damaged items and problem mends to get advice, lessons, inspiration and guidance.
The methodology is participatory, using co-design methods to involve Ealing Repair Café volunteers in the design process. Methods of engagement use hands-on making and design activities to align with the groups values around in-person events, cooperative making and teaching skills.
The project contributes to SDG12, which tries to ensure that people engage in behaviour that promotes more Responsible Consumption and Production. Repair and reuse actions are opportunities to help reduce consumption and our reliance on virgin, natural resources by putting existing resources back into circulation. The values of the ERC correspond with the goals of SDG12 and promote repair and reuse actions to lower consumption and reduce waste. Repair and reuse are pathways to more sustainable, responsible consumption practices and a transition to a Circular Economy and a more efficient use of resources.
