Twilight Talks about Design bring contemporary designers, curators and researchers together with impassioned audiences to discuss how Design can influence our sense of selves, our communities, our economy and our environment. We host key speakers with an international perspective offering evenings of real expertise and engagement.
During Our Linen Stories:
Migration and Design: New Routes of Flax, October 2020
Continuing our look at shared cultures, our panel reflect on technologies transferred with migration and Design of the public record. Thursday 15 October 2020.
Scotland in Europe: Sharing Cultures by Design, January 2020
Celebrating our shared material and object cultures, key speakers explore a range of platforms on which to nourish Design links with Europe. Thursday 16th January 2020.
Design in a Sustainable Scotland, November 2019
Broadening our definition and outlook, we focus on community, the circular economy, and the sustainable design of material and product. Thursday 14th November 2019
With an expert panel bringing contrasting experience and perspective to the discussion, join us to discuss the power of engagement with heritage for individual and community well-being.
Leading tonight’s discussion are three masters of collaboration in their respective fields: Ruthanne Baxter has championed the role of heritage across Scotland and beyond and tonight will focus on her Prescribe Culture initiative with the University Edinburgh; Lynsey Gillespie from the Public Records Office of N.Ireland discusses community engagement with archives; and Hannah Ayre, participatory artist with over twenty years experience of creating socially engaged projects throughout the UK, includes reflections on her ‘Lantern Project’ at Silverburn Park in Fife.
Our Talk commences at 6.30pm and is preceded by soft drinks served from 6pm. Our Talks are recorded and we ask you please to let us know if you prefer not to be included in this archive.
This talk is part of Scotland’s first Flax and Linen Festival, September 2021, in Fife. We are delighted to collaborate with Kirkcaldy Old Kirk Trust for tonight’s event. The Festival Hub and Exhibition is also in Kirkcaldy, and events run over each weekend throughout Fife.
Main Image Courtesy of FEAT Silverburn, Lantern Project by Hannah Ayre
We warmly invite you to join us for a Zoom Roundtable, an opportunity to reflect on our shared flax and linen cultures.
Key Themes: Farming, Education, Tourism, Community, and Bioregional Sustainability.
Our Roundtable includes keynotes, short presentations, Q&A sessions and Roundup. With contributions from partners in Scotland and beyond, you can sign up and contribute yourself, from wherever you are in the world.
Register today: full details and schedule will be sent to you before the event.
Flax Circles is a key event within Scotland’s first Flax and Linen Festival, September 2021, Fife, from Journeys in Design.
In January 2020, Journeys in Design brought together an expert panel to discuss the power of nurturing cultural links between Scotland and Europe. We welcomed Ben Macpherson, then Minister for Europe, Migration and International Development in the Scottish Government to formally open our Twilight Talk.
Design in a sustainable Scotland: how do we walk more lightly on the earth by design and use of materials? With an Expert Panel bringing international perspective to the debate in Scotland, join us to discuss the potential of material, community and the circular economy in designing a sustainable Scotland.
Robin Harper, first Member of the Scottish Parliament to represent the Green Party, opens our Talk.
Accra, the capital of Ghana is a city transformed by outside investment but one only need scratch the surface to find an ecosystem in crisis.
Renee Neblett, Director of the Kokrobitey Institute in Ghana explores the role of art and design in this context and how local communities understand their environment in relation to the broader world, providing examples from the pioneering work of the Kokrobitey Institute and Design Centre.
This Talk honours the memory of architect and designer Alero Olympio.
Edinburgh Festival luminaries Richard Demarco and Jim Haynes are joined by emerging talents Marion Preez, Katrina Corbett, Alan Brown, Pauline Sandberg, David Seel and Oana Stanchi, gathering to recollect and plan art and design collaborations. This Gayfield Twilight Talk is presented by Pecha Kucha Edinburgh: curated by Gordon Duffy, sponsored by Studio DuB, supported by New Media Scotland and Gayfield.
When creatives combine into hubs, their localities can celebrate their emergence and local economies can develop. We can map these collaborative facilities across Scotland and when we ‘join up the dots’ the term ‘creative economy’ starts to make sense as a national resource.
Chaired by Caroline Parkinson, independent Creative Project manager, we hear from Creative Edinburgh’s Janine Matheson and British Council’s Lynsey Smith.
Architect Gunnar Groves-Raines of GRAS presents a series of completed architectural projects as well as more experimental collaborations borne out of the British Council Maker Library Network. University of Strathclyde graduates Gunnar Groves-Raines and Stuart Falconer co-founded GRAS in 2006, an architecture and design studio exploring ideas, materials, techniques and technologies all with making at its heart.
Chris Fleet and Anna Feintuck discuss Edinburgh’s cartographic industry, home to world-renowned mapmakers such as John Bartholomew & Son. Old maps of Gayfield itself suggest a bustling hub of light industry and creative manufacture. Learn more about maps of Edinburgh and the tales they tell, as well as those they choose to hide. Chris Fleet is Senior Maps Curator at the National Library of Scotland and Anna Feintuck is PhD researcher for the Mapping Edinburgh’s Social History initiative at University of Edinburgh.
Glasgow-based curator Katy West (India Street, Gayfield Summer 2014) and Edinburgh-based Architect Stuart Falconer (GRAS: architects for Gayfield Creative Spaces 2014) explore their experience of working with designers and makers from different cultures and the ways in which design can both create international links and highlight local concerns. The conversation is chaired by Dr John Ennis, Founder, Gayfield Creative Spaces.
Leading textile curator Lesley Millar inspires on the subject of textile design in different cultures connecting us to both place and memory and Sarah Saunders, Head of Learning and Programmes at V&A Dundee, updates on this exciting new development in the Scottish Design landscape.
The conversation is accompanied by a special display of printed textiles by Professor Norma Starszakowna, innovator and educator in the field of printed textiles, based in Dundee.
Alan Shaw of the Centre for Advanced Textiles Glasgow School of Art, and Geoffrey Mann Head of Glass at Edinburgh College of Art, discuss the role of digital tools in the development of their design process. Introduced by Josie Steed, Course Leader of Fashion & Textile Design, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen.
Leading UK architect Richard Murphy OBE and Professor Annie Pollock, Director of Landscape Design and Architecture at the University of Stirling’s Dementia Services Development Centre discuss the role of landscape design in creating healthy environments. Introduced by Celine Sinclair, Chief Executive of The Yard.
Paul Simmons of pioneering Glasgow firm Timorous Beasties and emerging independent textile designer Laura Spring discuss their experience of creating thriving studios through design innovation and quality production. Timorous Beasties (deck chair panels) and Laura Spring (picnic hampers) feature in Garden Party exhibition by Gayfield.
Leading Dutch designer Piet Hein Eek, from Eindhoven, talks about the way design thinking can create a more sustainable model of living. Introduced by Amanda Game, independent curator and Creative Adviser, Gayfield. Key works by Piet Hein Eek appear for the first time in Scotland in Garden Party exhibition by Gayfield.
