Social
Spaces

On Thursday 11th of March, right after the ‘Stof tot Zorg’-workshop, the fourth edition of PuntKom (“Your textile or mine? A workshop on smart, interactive & social textiles”) took place. This edition of puntKom was on smart, intelligent and social textiles. In two parallel workshops, Wendy van Wynsberghe (BE – Constant vzw – http://bit.ly/csKrsc) and Berit Greinke (GE – http://textileandsound.com/ & http://www.beritgreinke.com/) showed how in their work they each play with smart textiles. Wendy and Berit also allowed the participants to stand in their shoes for a little while by letting them experiment with different tools and materials they use in their own artistic work.

On Thursday 11th of March the workshop ‘Stof tot Zorg’, organized by the research groups Social Spaces (Media & Design Academy), IMEC and IBBT-SMIT (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), took place. Together with several representatives of the caretakers sector (e.g. In-HAM, Wit-Gele Kruis, Thuiszorgwinkel Limburg, Arion ) and the artist collective Constant vzw, we engaged in a brainstorm, mainly discussing the possibilities of technological integration in textile and the significance of these technologies for the care sector. Important questions that were asked that day concerned the future of medical tools, the development of new technologies for patients with special and specific needs and the role that aesthetics (can and should) play in such medical technologies.