Anne Marr

Biography

Anne Marr is currently the Jewellery, Textiles and Materials Programme Director and a member of the Textile Futures Research Community.

From 2001-2008 she was appointed Professor for Textile Design at the University of the Arts in Hamburg, Germany and has worked as a textile designer and design consultant for clients such as Ikea, Sony, Toyota, Dulux and Urban Outfitters. She was the Course leader for Ba Textile design at CSM from 2008-2019 and the acting deputy director of the Textiles Futures Research Centre from 2014-2017..

Marr’s research is based around the socio-cultural context of textiles, particularly exploring narratives of the public and the private domain. Recent projects such as “Threads and Yarns”, supported by the Wellcome Trust, investigate the connection between materials and society in order to develop sustainable socio-responsive textiles that empathise with urban experiences and promote local ownership.

In her work Marr aims to stimulate social innovation as well as pushing the boundaries patterns and materials. Co-creation is an integral part of Marr’s practice and she has recently been collaborating with designer Rebecca Hoyes developing new ceramic-textile hybrid materials as well as with architect Helen Stratford on exploring wellbeing through textiles in Homerton Hospital.

Anne is interested in contemporary pattern language and the socio-cultural context of textiles. Her research is informed by experience as a trend forecaster, visualizing future design scenarios.

In the project 'Room with a View' with the Jenisch House Museum Anne has juxtaposed 19th century interiors with 21st century ornamentation to accentuate their mutual reflection of domestic aspirations. More recently she has been working on a social innovation project with Homerton Hospital.

She is currently working on laser-cut lattice textile screens, with semi-open adjustable structures to exploring 3D surface manipulation.