Crafting Technology for Textiles Throughout history, Istanbul has been a city where different communities have coexisted, and many languages, religions, and cultures have interacted with and influenced one another. Despite changes over time, the city is still home to a culture where, within craftsmanship, textiles are used in a variety of forms. The breadth of colour and thread types, designs, and motifs used in textile practice has transformed worldwide into a means of expression through which the stories of a particular culture are passed down from generation to generation. Quilting, carpet weaving, cloth stamping, embroidery, and point lace are just some of Turkey's many textile crafts. Passed down from master to apprentice, the various trades associated with these crafts are now slowly giving way to technology. In a project to be carried out by RCA and Istanbul Modern Museum, a network of scholars, artists, and craftspeople from Turkey and the United Kingdom will coalesce to move textiles, as used throughout crafts and art, closer to contemporary technology by creating avant-garde technology and design products. The project is aimed at academics, textile artists, designers and artisans based in Istanbul. Notably, we seek to reach the craftspeople working in the fields of traditional textile craft and art, and young communities of textile art and research, to focus on knowledge transfer and best practice. Hence, universities, arts institutions, craft guilds and associations will be linked through a series of workshops and panel discussions, with the project findings disseminated at a final symposium in Istanbul Modern. The proposed activities will support the economic development of the textile craft sector in Turkey, contributing to Istanbul's 2014-2020 Regional Plan targets by (i) introducing new textile-making skills (ii) gathering local and international qualified creative labour to Istanbul through the symposiums (iii) sharing textile research and development activities with young artists and designers and craftspeople to assist in increasing turnovers in their businesses. From the notion of bringing textile thinking in interdisciplinary practices, we will use this network as a platform to engage with a broader community and test our idea of joint research to launch long-term initiatives. Looking beyond the current state of the art, we will facilitate the sharing of experiences and expertise across different disciplines, which also includes material innovation, AI and technology start-ups. With a strong emphasis on the policy of future craft, we will explore strategies as to how these relationships might be framed to support new talents. By aspiring to make art easily accessible by the masses, and to initiate a conversation at the intersection of craft and technology, Istanbul Modern would be an excellent host to seed this hybrid design framework. Through this series of events, we aim to mutually transfer and share the experience of research and industrial relations to support the local artisans, artists and early career researchers working with textiles to reach a wider audience and discover new elements in crafted textiles. The outcomes of the proposed activities would promote the economic development and welfare of Turkey by (i) suggesting possible pathways and bringing new skills to increase the value of textile craft and goods by technology embodiment (ii) exampling successful models and knowledge transfer to reach the creative labour's full potential and meet international and national demands (iii) promoting interdisciplinary research in traditional craft to enter new sectors, which in turn will increase the export (iv) developing new infrastructure and free programmes in Istanbul Modern encouraging technology adaptation in art and design (v) initiating a dialogue for creation of local policy frameworks and discussing necessary policy measures based on successful models in the UK. The Newton Fund builds research and innovation partnerships with developing countries across the world to promote the economic development and social welfare of the partner countries.