Main themes of the exchange:
1/ Setting up our Circular wool lab / Focus on the lab, system, structure, organization
Visit of the new spaces set-up and managed by Textile Prototyping Lab and of the newly formed Berlin Textile Coop and its headquarters, which are also home to Hilo Textiles.
With this visit, Lottozero continues its research on partner labs (started with Le Textile Lab Lyon and Icelandic Textile Center), in order to deepen the knowledge on how other labs operate, exchange good practices and further discuss potential long-term projects and a possible future network.
In particular:
Lottozero has been working on setting up a Circular Wool Lab, an experimentation laboratory on rustic wool, which recreates a small-scale industrial production chain, with the offer of a fleet of very new generation digital machines, versatile and suitable for a variety of possible uses, but so far absent on the Italian scene.
In order to do this we are looking to set up small machines absolutely unique in its kind, like the open source spinning machine created by Studio Hilo of Textile Prototyping lab, which allows continuous regularity from start to finish (the spinning, drawing, twisting and count parameters are programmed in the appropriate software) and manual feeding, which allows total control and flexible mechanics, as in craftsmanship, opening up many possibilities in the experimentation and customization of the final product and the TC2 digital loom, an innovative, complex and compact tool, with a completely new technology: it allows the creation of jacquard fabrics comparable to high-level industrial products. It can be programmed with Adobe software, widely used in the creative community, and is digitally controlled. This allows the development of very rich and elaborate fabrics, normally only made in the industrial context. Processing on this machinery is currently in great demand in Europe, in Italy there are no companies or laboratories equipped with this technology, but TPL has had one for a long time and their team is expert in using it.
Lottozero received a workshop by Hilo textiles for the digital spinning system, which Lottozero has ordered and will soon receive at the Lab in Prato. Additionally, we will see spaces, which are equipped with the Tc2 loom, a special loom which will also soon be present at Lottozero.
2/ Material Library and new digital tools
As part of an ongoing research and the project Digital Material Library, Lottozero gets insight into the material libraries of TPL and Hilo Textiles, both physical and digital.
3/ Presentation Event
The event has the important goal of bringing together the local community of TPL and people following Lottozero from Berlin. It is a great way to mix the publics of our hubs and create a cross-over between two groups. For TPL it is a way to attract new people to the new headquarters and Lottozero has the opportunity of meeting and getting to know potential clients and public. In addition to this, the event functions as a retrospective, on both hubs an their long-term collaborative strategies.
DAY 1 - Tuesday January 30th
09:30 Arrival at Textile Coop, headquarters of Textile Prototyping Lab
https://www.berlintextilecoop.com/
First Meeting
Introduction of the Berlin Textile Coop team, Essi Glomb and Sara Diaz
Presentation of the planning for the coming week
Visit of the space overview of the facilities and the machineries
13:30 Lunch with all team members
14:30 Workshop Session 1 with Hilo Textiles
https://www.hilotextiles.com/
First phase of construction of the Hilo Spinning machine: Assemblage of the mechanics
16:00 Preparation of the evening event
17:00 Event with the extended Lottozero team
DAY 2 - Wednesday January 31st
10:00 Workshop Session 2 with Hilo Textiles
Second phase of construction of the Hilo Spinning machine: Installation of electronics, handwear and software
14:00 Lunch with all team members at Textile Coop
16:00 Studio Visit: Meyers & Fügmann
https://meyersfuegmann.com/
17:00 Studio Visit: Hella Jongerius
https://jongeriuslab.com/
The Design Studio is equipped with a Tc2 Loom, so it offers a good chance to see how it is installed and receive some tips on ideal setting for this complex device.
DAY 3 - Thursday February 1st
Various visits to interesting fashion hubs, studios and incubators
10:00 Visit to VORN fashion hub
https://vorn-hub.com/
13;00 Lunch at Lobe Block, Terrassenhaus
14:00 Visit to HUND HUND Studio Shop
https://www.hundhund.com/
16:00 Visit to Platte Berlin
https://platte.berlin/en/
DAY 4 - Friday February 2nd
10:30 Visit to the Atelier of Tau Pibernat and Vera Castelijns
https://urbanfibers.org/
Tau and Vera are the founders of the Urban Fibers Project, which focuses on the potential re-uses of cotton jersey textiles, both in the context of crafts but also potentially in small scale industrial manufacturing. Urban Fiber was an incubated project at Design Farm Berlin and in this occasion received a mentorship by Lottozero with study trip to Prato.
12:00 Visit to the Soft Rapid Prototyping Lab at Kunsthochschule Berlin Weißensee
https://kh-berlin.de/hochschule/einrichtungen/werkstaetten/soft-rapid-prototyping-lab
This lab is managed by our exchange partners TPL, here the digital manufacturing tools for textile and the material library are housed. In our visit we focused on the TC2 Loom, a digital Jacquard Loom which allows for very high-complexity hand weaving. This is a great opportunity to see how it is installed and get advice on its functioning.
15:30 Visit to Fraunhofer institute
https://www.textil.fraunhofer.de/en/business-areas.html
As former headquarter of TPL the Fraunhofer Institute maintains a well-equipped textile lab; at its heart the Kniterate digital knitting machine and the Tajima Sai digital embroidery machine.
DAY 5 - Saturday February 3rd
10:00 Visit to Kindl – Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst
https://www.kindl-berlin.de/ausstellungen
Visit oft the exhibition “In the End, the Beginning” by british artist Emma Talbot. Lottozero has worked with this artist in 2021 and provided consultancy in form of a tour in the textile sistrict of Prato and material sourcing.
Final Meeting
Viewing of the Hilo Textiles material library
Brainstorming session future project planning
Planning of the next steps for the Hilo Textile spinning machine ordered by Lottozero
Outcomes:
The Lottozero with the help of Hilo Textiles learned how to fully build the open source Hilo spinning machine and the Hilo drafting Machine. The machine is now ready to be shipped to the lab in Prato and to be used by the team. The three members of the LZ team learned how to spin on the Hilo Machine . Lottozero was able to study both the archives of the Textile Prototyping Lab and Hilo Textiles, in order to get ideas, inspiration and solutions in regards to the digital material library project it is starting in the spring 2024. Berlin Textile Coop is now interested in possibly joining ECHN during the course of the year as a separate member as TPL, in order to allow all of its coworkers to be ECHN community members as well. During the Textile Exchange event various people from both the TPL community and the LZ community where able to mingle and network, creating a variety of new connections. LZ was able to see the available machines at all 3 TPL locations and ask last minute questions in regard to the installation of the TC2 loom that is arriving to the LZ textile lab shortly . TPL external community members, which we visited during our time in Berlin, VORN Fashion Hub, were very interested in hearing about ECHN and are looking into joining the network. Last but not least we made plans for future collaborations between the two hubs, the first being a series of spinning workshops in Prato in June 2024 during Pitti Filati, the biggest yarn fair of Europe, which takes place in Florence.
