Historic Textile Industries Go Global: Typology, Good Practice, and Global Perspectives for Conservation. Part II

Wednesday, 9 June, 2021

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Hosted by Prof. Bartosz M. Walczak (Lodz University of Technology) in cooperation with TICCH, Dr. Heike Oevermann (Georg Simmel Center, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany), and Mark Watson (Historic Environment Scotland)

“Through interpretation, understanding; through understanding, appreciation; through appreciation, protection”

—Freeman Tilden

Vanishing textile-related landscapes are no longer limited to de-industrialising western culture. The globalised economy significantly affects the distribution of textile production. Sites which were operational 20 years ago are obsolete now. What is more they are under pressure from real estate market companies seeking attractive development opportunities. Yet there are numerous examples of converted textile mills which, by saving the embodied energy that went into their construction, enables them to become part of the solution to climate change. This is an on-going process. Therefore the comparative study, which was compiled by the Textile Special Interest Section of the International Committee for the Conservation of the Industrial Heritage (TICCIH) in 2001-2007 needs to be up-dated.

Following a recommendation from the TICCIH President, Dr Miles Oglethorpe, researchers (with Mark Watson, who was responsible for the previous draft, initiated by Dr Eusebi Casanelles) undertook a meticulous survey to amend the list developed at meetings in London (UK) in 2000, Barcelona (Spain) in 2001, in Euskirchen (Germany) in 2003 and Sedan (France) in 2007. The draft list was also displayed on the TICCIH website, was presented to the Association for Industrial Archaeology Conference in 2002, to the Society for Industrial Archaeology in 2004 and to TICCIH in Terni in 2006.

Several previous studies have developed our understanding of the technological and architectural contributions of the textile industry. Most recently the subject was broadly discussed in April 2020 during the previous workshop hosted by the Humboldt-Universität in Berlin with valuable input from an international group of researchers. . The presentations given in 2020 are here: Notes from the expert meeting on textiles – TICCIH

Now, we would like to invite experts in textile industry heritage from all corners of the world to verify the outcomes of the on-going study. Therefore we organise an on-line workshop, during which there will be three round table sessions organised in order to allow people from each time zone to take part and express their opinions. All the contributors will be acknowledged in the on-line gazetteer to be published on the TICCIH website. The final results, incorporating much of the knowledge gained at meetings of the Textile special interest group in TICCIH, will be presented at the TICCIH Congress in Montreal in 2022.

The TICCIH Textile Section On-line Workshop

Wednesday, 9 June, 2021

Historic Textile Industries go global: Typology, Good Practice, and Global Perspectives for Conservation. Part II

Call for participation in the workshop

Please send a brief description of a topic you would like to discuss and short bio (brief description of yourself and any affiliation) to Bartosz M. Walczak (bartosz.walczak@p.lodz.pl) by Friday, 4 June 2021.

Persons with or without presentations are most welcome on 9 June to give feedback on the sites we have located.

Registration

The meeting will be organised via the ZOOM platform. Access will be provided for the individuals who express their interest in participation.

Preliminary Programme (CET)

As the three organisers – Heike Overmann, Bartosz M. Walczak and Mark Watson – are based in Europe they are conscious of a geographical imbalance. They will particularly welcome contributions about textile mills, textile landscapes and their communities in Africa, North and South America, Asia and Australasia that they have missed.

Three round table sessions will be organised:

10.00 CET Asia/ Australasia (17.00 Hong Kong);

13.00 CET Africa /Europe (12.00 GMT in UK, Ireland and Portugal);

16.00 CET The Americas (11.00 New York).

Participants can join in for some or all of the day. The comparative study will be issued a week before, revised from the draft here which resulted from meetings of the TICCIH Textile Section earlier this century. Sections – TICCIH

The workshop outcomes in 2022

The TICCIH Textile Section will aim to present the completed report to the TICCIH congress in 2022. To do so we would be glad to have participants who might be present in Montreal, perhaps early career researchers, but mid and late career too, in North America. They will be glad to hear from you whether or not you can participate on 9 June 2021, by contacting mark.watson@hes.scot.