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A key element for TED researchers is to facilitate workshops that can inspire consumers and designers to engage with materials through closed-loop thinking, and to share their ideas with fellow participants. With this at the heart Professor Becky Earley run a workshop titled the Black Hack Chat session – via Skype – at 10th EAD Crafting the Future Conference in Gothenburg in April, with collaborators Jen Ballie and Otto von Busch hosting the session in the space.

Titled Black Hack Chat, the workshop combined two design activism research projects – The Black Hack where Earley worked with participants on upcycling old polyester shirts and Old is the New Black, where Ballie and von Busch re-worked old clothes using black paint. The aim of the workshop was to push the boundaries of textile design practice through co-design to identify how it can be used as a tool for citizen engagement, for both: the individual creating for themselves, and the retailer who wishes to creatively engage with their products over a longer time frame. In the run up to the Black Hack Chat event Becky Earley published a 'Shirt Film' for people who wanted to make during the workshop session: http://vimeo.com/64294297

TED PhD Researcher Clara Vuletich also successfully submitted a paper that she presented at the conference. The paper ‘We Are Disruptive: New Practices for Fashion/Textile Designers in the Supply Chain’ explores a recently completed project as part of the Clara’s PhD research (funded by MISTRA Future Fashion research project 2011), that examines how a designer can use design skills throughout a supply chain to identify opportunities to improve both environmental and social impacts for a company.

The event was filmed and the team documented the discourse and the making with the participants. Participants published updates on the outcomes of the session on Twitter during the day.

Professor Becky Earley and Jen Ballie are publishing the workshop precis in a special issue of the design journal later in 2014.

#blackhackchat.