Beyond Seeing - FINAL MAJOR PROJECT

Having grown up with a twin who was diagnosed with very mild cerebral palsy, I was always interested in the way he learnt and how he used objects for his learning and development. As a child, we used to play with different objects that interacted with his senses, making sure he was stimulated visually and also when he was interacting with materials physically. My brother was also diagnosed with dyslexia, meaning he was unable to spell, get his numbers in the correct order and also do simple things like skip, hop and run from an early age. This area of difficulty, for me, was very interesting to learn and grow up with alongside him. For my dissertation, I completed research on how we, as textile designers can help develop fabrics for multi-sensory rooms to improve the learning of the users by creating innovating and engaging fabrics. This set me up for my final major project within my research and was a project in which I felt interested and excited by. For my final major project, I am creating fabric explorations for the catwalk, to raise awareness of these multi-sensory rooms and to also raise awareness for those who use the rooms.