Throughout my time at Mediamatic I started by helping out the Knitting for Survival project by being a workshop assistant for there weekly two sessions. I assisted three knitting artists Conny, Vita and Kristin for my first couple of months while researching how we can put ourselves in other species shoes by creating costumes while also questioning what a costume is. My role was to bring the Costume Lab to Mediamatic permanently as a space for experimentation and workshops based around textiles. We hosted various Open Costume Labs with the public and staff to test out how it could work within Mediamatic.
We then needed to create a themed space for the Costume Lab this consisted of sanding floors, painting walls, assembling shelves and stealing (and returning) local grass to be photographed for wallpaper. I have also wrote blog posts within the theme of the Inhuman Carnaval, Helped set up various Gentle Discos, Lectures, Neo futurist test dinners and of course lots of communal gardening! I learnt a lot in a short space of time at Mediamatic and everyday has felt slightly different. I have cut my finger about 2000 times and had dust blown in my face while 4 feet high on a ladder in the barn and burnt multiple batches of rice in communal lunch but have created memories to last a lifetime and met multiple talented individuals and learnt so much from people from different fields while smiling and laughing my head off! Mediamatic has been a rollercoaster and I think I want another go...
My next step post Mediamatic is to finish my bachelors degree with a focus on circularity and neurodiversity and how these both merge and how this way of thinking is key to fighting the climate crisis. With a focus on textiles and fashion I want to explore innovative ways of cleaning up the industry through a year long project. Approaching the project from a neurodiverse perspective and creating multiple ways of creating sustainable textile but also multiple ways of creating circular economies in the industry. While studying I will pick up volunteer work at other arts organisations in London.
