Mothers' G(q)uilt: An exploration of mothers' experiences through an interactive quilt

Talk by Sophia Komninou (She/her) ⚠️ 👨‍👦‍👦

Friday from 2:20 PM - 2:40 PM in Stage B

This talk has the following content notes:
There might be some discussion of negative feelings, postnatal depression and difficulties with feeding, but this is very much about how we made the quilt so those will be kept to a minimum. I will be running a couple of interaction with the quilt sessions in the lounge for those who want to interact with the quilt

This is a talk about how we combined textiles, electronics and storytelling to provide a platform for people to share experiences. For this project, we wanted to explore more the findings of previous research around the guilt mothers feel when feeding their babies, but in a more creative way. Coming at the project from 3 very different points of expertise, we worked with mums to design and make a touch interactive quilt. We asked mothers of young babies to describe their emotions around feeding, a topic often emotional and controversial, and send a voice clip along with a piece of their baby’s clothing which we stitched together to create a special interactive quilt. The quilt is embedded with electronic touch sensors which activate the clips when the metal buttons of the clothes are touched. By interacting with them you can hear the stories through headphones. All this results in a very intimate and emotional experience that provides a platform for visibility and understanding and we think is a great conversation starter to share stories and create community. The talk will include a timeline of how we created a digitally augmented quilt, and a few thoughts if you want to make one too. It will also include some of our own reflections when working on a project that brings up difficult emotions and sensitive topics.

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