Innovation Lab: New Perspectives on Materialities

On June 22^nd, the Concordia University Innovation Lab will host an open lunch on New Perspectives on Materialities.

Our three guest speakers will discuss the importance of craft in maker culture.

Jess Blanchet will tackle the critical question of STEM and how do we teach these competencies? While it might be true that digital technologies seem to be the obvious choice for acquiring such a skillset, Jess is interested in exploring ways we can use traditional making practices, specifically fiber crafts, to develop computational thinking.

Christine Truesdale will discuss how she helps teachers foster creativity in schools. She will discuss approaches to developing creativity and aspects of creative activities that can help children develop interdisciplinary innovation skills through material practice.

Houda Jawhar will dive into the practice of electroknitting (embedding electronics in knitting). Ever wondered how many stitches and ohms do you need to knit a 6 by 6 sound-reactive-neopixels piece? Answering this simple question took over 2 months of experimentation and iterations on a small piece of fabric. It allowed us to study the process of developing advanced maker skills that meet the demands of the 21st century. During the event, I will present our project “Fabric of #MilieuxMake” and discuss the process of developing maker skills through electronic fabric.

Join the fun by registering for the Zoom webinar or watching live on our Facebook.

Have questions on this topic that you want to get to our experts and makers ahead of time? Send them to info.4@concordia.ca.