Mothers’ G(q)uilt: An exploration of mothers’ experiences through an interactive quilt (emf2024)

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. about this event: https://www.emfcamp.org/schedule/2024/34-mothers-g-q-uilt