Fabricademy show 2025

Join us for a double celebration: our Fabricademy participants will be graduating and showcasing their hard work over the past few months, and the TextileLab will be presenting their research for the Tracks4Crafts pilot Hacking the Machines!

Fabricademy graduation 

Fabricademy is a globally distributed six-month programme at the intersection of textiles, digital fabrication and biology. TextileLab Amsterdam, as one of the initiators of the programme, mentors participants to explore and redefine the future of the textile and clothing industry through hands-on learning and knowledge exchange with experts and nodes around the world. Over the past 12 weeks, our participants have applied their newly acquired skills and knowledge to new concepts and alternative narratives. They will present and showcase their final work on 10 April during the festive closing of the Fabricademy 2024-2025 programme.

During the academy show, you can also get more information about the next edition of the academies and the application process.

Tracks4Crafts: Living Archive

TextileLab Amsterdam will present the results of the research and experiments that have come out of the Tracks4Crafts pilot case Hacking the Machines. In this project we explore how to hack fablab equipment into textile printers that use natural dyes and mordants, and print with varying levels of interactive intervention by the craftsperson. This results in a system of modular, interactive inputs that you can use to control bio-inks, brush motion and pressure while printing with a machine as well as open source documentation on the process and results.

An interactive exhibition will showcase the iterations and development of the hacked machine and workflows, called HaptiColor, and the variety of outcomes created during the experimental phase of the project. There will also be an opportunity for the public to experience and experiment with the machine through haptic input, co-creating and contributing to a growing living exhibition.

Programme

After the opening, the participants' works and the Tracks4Crafts Living Archive will be on display at de Waag on Friday 11 April between 12:00 and 17:00 hrs.

Accessibility

If the entrance fee is an issue for you, please get in touch with kelly [@] waag [dot] org.

Fabricademy at Waags TextileLab Amsterdam

Fabricademy is taught in various places around the world, with Waag's TextileLab Amsterdam being one of the first labs to do this. Here, researchers, artists, engineers and creatives explore the future of textiles and the garment industry. Think of it as a playground for craftsmanship, heritage, technology, digital fabrication, shared knowledge and biology.

Our textile academy provides a broad overview of the latest innovations in textiles and clothing. As a student, you will attend in-depth lectures on topics such as circular fashion, wearable technology, bio-manufactured materials and sustainability. Together with experts, you will apply new knowledge to carry out your own research project within the TextileLab.

You will also gain hands-on experience with digital fabrication machines such as laser cutters, 3D printers and CNC milling machines.

Interested? Visit academy.waag.org for more information.

About T4C: Hacking the Machines

TextileLab Amsterdam explores how "hacking the machines" of a classic textile or fablab can create new opportunities for craftspeople to innovate the craft of printing on textiles using natural dyes and their traditional processes. Our aim is to create an alternative protocol for these processes, where the artisans retain their creative, knowledge-holding role, while creating new technological interventions to enable hybrid artisans and equipment that values both the artisan, the tools & medium necessary for the craft to take place, and the technological advances available through code and machine hacks. All of our research is documented and published online, along with the files and code needed to replicate the machine hacks for your own machines.

These technological interventions allow us to offer new degrees of freedom and new degrees of collaboration between the craftsperson and the machine. To further embody the artisan approach in this technical setup, we are incorporating interactive inputs - tangible sensors to guide and optimize the language and actions of the machines. At the core of these interventions around textile printing, we bring together our expertise in natural dyes, machine communication protocols and interactive interface development.

This research is informed by our model of Craftsmanship 2.0, which describes the skilful mastery of a hybrid craft that recognises the power of both human and technological agency, but also the value of the performative act, spontaneous intervention and varying degrees of production freedom.

Find out more on the Tracks4Crafts project page.