Congratulations to our Cluster Student Grant Winners!

The Textiles and Materiality Cluster at Milieux announces the winners of its ninth round of student research grants. The Cluster awarded Individual Research Grants to Molly-Claire Gillett (PhD INDI) and Tasha Lavdovsky (MFA Intermedia), and a Seed Grant to Alessia Signorino (BFA Design and Computation Arts) and her collaborators, Isabelle Charette (BFA Design and Computation Arts) and Nina Parenteau (BFA Design and Computation Arts).

Molly-Claire Gillett received an Individual Research Grant for her PhD research into 19^th-century lace design and production, which is guided and shaped by a research-creation practice in lacemaking and engagement with lacemaking groups. The Cluster’s support will facilitate Gillett’s continued relationship with one variety of lace and group of lace makers, allowing Gillett to attend online lace-making workshops. Gillett will continue the planned research creation component of her PhD research, while also embarking on an unexpected investigation of how the teaching of textile work adapts to a sudden shift to an online platform, and the possibilities and limits of the digital space as a home for a community of craft.

Tasha Lavdovsky received an Individual Research Grant for her research project, How Will I Dye. The first stages of the project began in January 2020, when Lavdovsky brewed a dye bath combining ethically-sourced lichen and her own urine. With the Cluster’s support, Lavdovsky will create two additional lichen dye baths, documenting the process of collection, extraction, and dye production. She will use this to dye local wool for a two-colour weaving. The weaving will reflect data Lavdovsky has collected since the dye bath fermentation began. This process of lichen dye creation, data collection, and weaving will also be repeated in autumn 2020 as the basis for a second weaving.

Alessia Signorino, Isabelle Charette, and Nina Parenteau received a Seed Grant for their collaborative project, Take Heed. Take Heed is a set of wearable vests that use moving panels and an audioscape to create an intimate and immersive experience that explores mental health in a context of community. The project aims to prompt discussion and questioning regarding how individuals experience mental health through the scope of art, design and computation. Take Heed strives to challenge the hegemony of neurotypicality to allow different forms of communicating an experience of distress
and the tangible impacts on the body.

Congratulations to all of the winners!