Workshops and Lectures
Through several academic and cultural institutions, I have provided programming and education to a wide range of people including students, adults, teens, and children.
My methodology for developing programming revolves strongly around material culture and how people form relationships with the objects that they make and use. As an educator, I develop teaching philosophies about ways of making that can then influence the way we think and how we experience art and artifacts. I’m excited about fundamental techniques of making and how these can be used to build larger projects, advance into other materials, and make connections between objects, industry, and culture.
Below are my specialized workshops and lectures, but I am very flexible and enjoy responding to new opportunities and audiences. I have experience leading workshops in drawing, stitching, and animation techniques. Please contact me for inquiries.
Embroidermation workshop
In this workshop I will introduce participants to the feedback cycles of embroidery and animation. Both processes rely on sequential bits of information (stitches and pixels) in order for the final piece to hold together. Each participant will design and stitch there embroidery on a circular hoop, then, using principles from the very early animation device called the “phénakisticope”, we will animate their embroidery into a looping animation file!
This workshop was previously held at Esker Foundation and MacEwan University.
Please view some of my embroidermations on the “Videos and Animations” page.
Material Experience lecture
Material Experience: The Strength of Softness
Fibres - in all their forms and feelings - envelop us in sensations and experiences. This lecture will discuss the material experience of fibres and how these materials influenced identity. Along with historical and contemporary examples, special attention will be paid to fashion’s influence on sculptural, preformative, and digital art.
This lecture was presented as part of the series Crash Course in Contemporary Art at Esker Foundation.
Dandy Lines lecture
Dandy Lines: Beneath the Surface of the Western Sartorial Identity
Dandy Lines revisits the material histories of Western fashion through material culture, uncovering the deeper meanings below surface embellishment. By tracing the diverging histories and migrations of ethnicity, class, and gender in twentieth century North America, primarily through the lives of tailors and seamstresses, the formation of the Western identity is a result of a highly crafted fashion. Performing the fashion and detailing the process of tailoring presents The West not as a location, but as a myth fabricated and worn by the body of the tailor and the wearer, embodying the desire to transform oneself.
This lecture was presented as part of the Dressing Global Bodies conference at the University of Alberta.