a meetup for textiles art, design, technology and innovation
ABOUT US
e-stitches are artists, designers (fashion & interaction), textiles researchers, technologists, curators, choreographers, journalists, entrepreneurs and industry thought leaders. Our community creates innovative and experimental applications for art, design, research and commerce.
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e-stitches combines discussion on topical issues around emerging technologies and skills, with hand-on workshops, show and tell, and sharing practice/process, creating a space for learning, discussions, and networking.
Camille Baker started e-stitches as "Stitch, Bitch, Make Perform" in November 2014, supported by Irini Papadimitriou, Director of the V&A Digital Programmes (until 2017). 

From 2014 to March 2020 we met meet more or less bi-monthly at the at various locations in London, co-hosted with Melissa Coleman and Irini Papadimitriou.
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Irini moved to Manchester to be Artistic Director for FutureEverything in 2017 and Melissa stepped down in January 2020 when we were about to start in a new home, the 2nd after after Irini left and we had to give up the V&A.
Emilie Giles took over from Melissa in March 2021 and the pandemic so we started hosting the meetup online from April 2020 until September 2021.
We have over 160 members in London and surrounding area, from a wide variety of backgrounds and experience, each bringing their own unique view on e-textiles. We aim to move back into a new physical location (ideally with the Tate Modern workshop space) for London-based meetups.
We also now have 6 chapters around Europe: London, Bristol, Limerick, Berlin, Barcelona, and now Rotterdam through V2.
Going forward e-stitches will meetup in a hybrid format: local (for each chapter location), in-person 3x/year & online every 2 months, each hosted by a different chapter.
Drop us an email if you're working on a project that you'd like to show and get feedback on from our community, or if you're interested in joining our meetup group. We'd love to meet you!
ORGANIZERS
CAMILLE BAKER
Founder, Co-organiser
Camille Baker, media artist, curator, Professor of Interactive & Immersive Arts and Year Leader of MA Games Design at the University for the Creative Arts. Maker of interactive performance and immersive artwork, developing methods for embodiment and presence in virtual environments, using XR, haptics, e-textiles/wearables and mobile media.
Artistic director of INTER/her project (https://inter-her.art), an immersive - a physical installation and Virtual Reality artwork - journey inside the female body, focussed on post-reproductive diseases, with an accompanying haptic corset.
Principal Investigator for UCA for the EU funded STARTS Ecosystem (starts.eu) Apr 2019-Nov 2021 and founder initiator for the EU WEAR Sustain project Jan 2017-April 2019 (wearsustain.eu). Author of New Directions in Mobile Media and Performance (2018) focusing on mobile and wearable performance since 2006. See also the ART+TECHNOLOGY mini-doc by Hyundai for BloombergTV https://youtu.be/S63OvmTDq8U
EMILIE GILIES
Co-organiser
Emilie Giles is an researcher, artist and educator, in creative technology, crafting and pervasive gaming. She is a Ph.D. graduate of The Open University on how e-textiles can be used as interactive tools for blind and visually impaired people, using participatory design approaches. Emilie has much teaching experience in how to build creative technology projects, was the Co-director and Head of Outreach and Participation at Codasign, and has taught physical computing with e-textiles to students in museums such as the V&A and Tate Britain.
MELISSA COLEMAN
Alumni Co-organiser 2015-2020
Melissa Coleman, international artist and creative technologist specialised in fashion tech and connected objects, curator of wearables exhibitions and software-developer. Specialised in IoT prototyping and web. Her art and exhibitions critically explore the relationship of fashion, politics and technology. She exhibits worldwide and her work has been covered by New Scientist, Wired, The Guardian, Vogue, Fast Company and Dezeen. She co-founded Rotterdam’s V2_E-textile Workspace and London’s E-Stitches meetup at the V&A Museum. She was part of the core team that created Hackaball, a connected ball that teaches kids coding, one of Time Magazine's best inventions of 2015.
Melissa stepped down from the e-stitches co-organiser role in January 2020
@liskatecoleman
IRINI PAPADIMITRIOU
Alumni host & Co-organiser 2014-2017
Irini is FutureEverything's Creative Director, working with the team to shape our creative and artistic vision and lead the development of curatorial themes and ideas for our programmes. From developing artistic commissions, exhibitions and critical conversations to building partnerships, collaborations and networks, Irini has been moving between Manchester, the UK and beyond!
Irini joined FutureEverything after ten years at the V&A in the role of Digital Programmes Manager, initiating and curating programmes such as the annual Digital Design Weekend festival, Digital Futures, art & design commissions, symposia and more. Her display, Artificially Intelligent, was exhibited at the V&A in 2018, confronting our complex relationships with technology and ideas surrounding AI, invisible technological infrastructures and boundaries of humanness. She was also Head of New Media Arts Development at Watermans, curating the exhibitions programme and an annual Digital Performance Festival, exploring the impact of technology in culture and society from a critical perspective. Irini has been a recipient of curatorial research programmes including MOBIUS (Finnish Institute), Art Fund, Mondriaan Fonds and British Council, and she has served as a jury member for Prix Ars Electronica, Lumen Prize, Vertigo STARTS, D&AD, Share Prize and ACM Siggraph.
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Irini left e-stitches in the hosting and co-organising role in spring 2017 when she moved to Manchester.
