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Amanda Parkes
Dr. Amanda Parkes is a fashion and wearable technology expert, the Chief of Technology and Research at Manufacture NY, a fashion incubator/factory/research facility. She holds a PhD from the MIT Media Lab and is a member of the Business of Fashion 500 People Shaping the Global Fashion Industry.
As a biomedia designer and fashion technologist, Amanda Parkes stands at the intersection of new media, textiles, and fashion. After completing her BA in art history and BS in mechanical engineering (product design) at Stanford, Parkes dedicated her career to discovering new ways that digital technology and ‘smart materials’ affect everyday lives. Her Twitter handle describes her as “one part algae, one part fashion, a dash of robots and a smattering of installation art.”
Before directing her skills towards fashion, she developed education science exhibits for notable museums such as the Exploratorium in San Francisco and Science Museum in London. She is the co-curator of Regeneration, an exhibition that opened in October 2012 at the New York Hall of Science featuring contemporary interactive art on themes of art, science, and cultural sustainability.
Her prior curatorial work includes developing exhibits and educational media at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, the Science Museum in London, and the the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice.
As founder of Skinteractive Studios in Brooklyn, New York, Parkes researches and develops new high-tech textiles projects for fashion applications. She is also CTO of Manufacture NY, a Brooklyn-based fashion-tech incubator and factory for local emerging brands and designers. Parkes earned her PhD in tangible media from the MIT Media Lab and is currently a visiting scientist at the esteemed American research university.
Her work has been awarded in international design and art prizes, including the International Design (I.D.) Magazine Annual Design Review and the Prix Ars Electronica. Parkes was named one of Mass High Tech’s ‘Women to Watch’ in technology for 2008.
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What is TEDx?
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. Our event is called TEDxFultonStreet, where x = independently organized TED event.
At our TEDxFultonStreet event, TEDTalks video and live speakers will combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events, including ours, are self-organized.