This meetup is sold out.
Let’s discover, grow and harvest dye-plants in the city! As citizens, we can now experience the endless possibilities of the colours that we can extract from natural sources. We use them to dye fabrics in a non-polluting way, following both ancient tradition and new biotechnological methods.
Our Local Color project aims to connect local stakeholders and creates sustainable flows and production alternatives within the city. Together, we grow plants and stimulate a culture of care and collaboration. Interested? Then join our exploration!
Meetup #1: Present Past, Possible Future
Often we move around the city of Amsterdam being unaware of the hints pointing at a rich textile history, and of the plants and trees that actually produce beautiful colors. We take the public space and its (unused) green spaces as a given, not realising that we could actually use our living environment for local, small-scale production. If we truly start looking around us and become more sensitive to our surroundings, we might see opportunities and hidden colorful gems.
During this Local Color meetup at Waag, we will kick-off with a general introduction to the project and the TextileLab principles by co-founders Cecilia Raspanti and Ista Boszhard, followed by a walking tour around the Nieuwmarkt - a neighbourhood that holds a rich textiles history and a lot of dye plants to be discovered.
Our guides will be Cecilia Raspanti and historian and graphic designer Huibert Teekens, who tells stories about Amsterdam’s rich textiles history and will let us think of buildings and street names as a present reminder of the past. During the tour Cecilia Raspanti will show us that we need the knowledge from the past and present, in order to innovate the future.
You will return home with a more sensitive eye to your surroundings! Where do you suddenly see color, revealed history and a variety of opportunities to start growing color? Connect to the Local Color project and let’s take action together.
Programme
16:30 - 17:00 hrs - doors open, walk-in
17:00 - 17:30 hrs - introduction Local Color and TextileLab
17:30 - 19:00 hrs - walk around the Nieuwmarkt
19:00 - 19:30 hrs - drinks at Waag
Local Color meetups
This meet-up is the first of a serie of five meet-ups. Each evening is shaped around one of five lenses and gradually shares insights into the Local Color project and the TextileLab way of working, its principles and model. Spanning from the holistic approach, Waag's TextileLab explores the natural materials realm that surrounds us and the tools necessary to share and expand possibilities in local production; as well the processes and systems that exist or can be uncovered for systemic change - and finally the culture we foster to collectively bring change to the city we inhabit.
- Thursday 14 September 2023 - Present, Past, Possible Future
- Tuesday 12 December 2023 - The need to name and the stories we tell
- Thursday 18 January 2023 - Processes
- Thursday 15 February 2024 - Systems
- Thursday 21 March 2024 - Tools
