Silk Unravelled Symposium

Silk Unravelled is a multidisciplinary event that explores exciting perspectives on the fascinating material that is silk: from insect to fibre, scientific innovation to theory, history to heritage, craftsmanship to industry, local to global production.

Keynote speakers:
Helen Wang, ‘Silk as a Currency’
Curator of East Asian Money Coins and Banknotes of East Asia, British Museum

Dr. Brenda King, ‘Taming the Wild: Thomas Wardle’s Pioneering Research into the Wild Silks of India’
Textile Historian, Chair of the Textile Society

Screening of the documentary film Silk River
Q&A with the film director Steve Shaw

Full programme:

9:30AM
Opening and registration

10-11AM
Keynote
Helen Wang, ‘Silk as a Currency’
Curator of East Asian Money Coins and Banknotes of East Asia, British Museum

11-11:15AM Coffee break

11:15AM-1PM
Panel discussion Silk Fiction: Pushing Materiality Forward
Elizabeth Atkinson (Writer, Royal College of Art) Derrida’s Silkworm
Lucy Tammam (Creative Director, Tammam) Silk & Sustainability 
Veronica Ranner (Designer and Lecturer, Royal College of Art) Polyphonic Futures
Luca Alessandrini (Innovation Design Engineer, Founder of Fibreacoustics ltd) Silk in Acoustics and Mechanics

1-2PM Lunch break

2-3PM
Keynote
Dr. Brenda King, ‘Taming the Wild: Thomas Wardle’s Pioneering Research into the Wild Silks of India’
Textile Historian, Chair of the Textile Society

3-3:15PM Coffee break

3:15-5PM
Panel discussion Silk: Global and Local Narratives
Dr. Mark Nesbitt (Curator and Researcher, Kew) Silks from Economic Botany Collection
Magali An Berthon (Textile Historian and Documentarist, Royal College of Art) Reclaiming Cambodian Silk Crafts Under French Patronage (1992-2017)
Marta Velasco (Textile Designer, Royal College of Art) Pulau Banda: a Nutmeg Story on Silk and Plastic
Lisa Gale (Visitor Experience Manager, Whitchurch Silk Mill) Whitchurch Silk Mill: Preserving the Fabric

5-5:15PM Short break

5:15PM
Screening of the documentary film Silk River
Q&A with film director Steve Shaw

6PM Closing

Information:
Free entry – Booking required here: silkunravelled@gmail.com

Silk Unravelled Symposium
10.00-18.00
Room 102, Senate House, University of London, Malet Street
London, WC1E 7H