Turtlestitch 10 Fest
July 18-20, 2025
Happy birthday Turtlestitch! Ten years after Andrea Mayr first presented Turtlestitch with a masterclass in Amsterdam, there are many reasons to celebrate. Over the last ten years, Turtlestitch has won the hearts of children, artists and educators around the world. Part of the community has gathered at conferences for Turtlestich's roots, Scratch and Snap! Celebrating a decade of Turtlestitch will give many more people the opportunity to join and share. The venue will be LocHal, Tilburg, The Netherlands, an innovative public library, situated next to the well connected Tilburg Centraal station. The former locomotive sheds have been redeveloped into a great cultural hotspot, offering rooms for both talks and workshops. Turtlestitch creates a highly motivational opportunity for learners of all ages to explore computer programming while designing digital embroideries - a great opportunity for local coding clubs to embrace new ways to engage with digital tools that are creative, artistic and educational.
Education
Art
Culture
Participating artists and teachers
Workshops and talks
Turtlestitch has a global community of vibrant and supportive educators, so we're happy to announce that the following people have confirmed particpation. We're especially proud that Cynthia Solomon, co-inventor of Logo, author of seminal article Twenty things tot do with a computer (1971) and co-author of recent follow up TurtleStitching will join us.
Andrea is the founder of Turtlestitch. Previously she has worked on numerous artistic and educational internet projects since the late 1990s. She is an artist and media developer with many years of experience in developing open source software for children and adults. She currently works for the Vienna University Children's office, where she develops media use programmes for children and young people and implements innovative media education concepts.
Cynthia is an American computer scientist known for her pioneering work in popularizing computer science for students as an innovator in the fields of computer science and educational computing. She realized the need for a programming language that was more accessible and understandable for children and collaborated with Seympur Papert and Wally Feurzig to develop the programming language Logo in 1967. An important feature of Logo was the use of 'turtle graphics' - making a robot turtle create drawings through simple movements, and this has informed the way in which Turtlestitch drives the embroidery machine.
Michael is a prize-winning artist and technologist, who has collaborated with Andrea to develop Turtlestitch using his versatility as a full-stack engineer to create an environment for learners to collaboratively make and publish their projects on the Turtlestitch platform.
Simon is a Chineses computer scientist who teaches programming through 'ASTEM' projects - Arts, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. He is a proud supporter and innovator in Turtlestitch and its parent language Snap!
Richard is an educational designer based in the School of Computer Science and Statistics at Trinity College Dublin who has recently returned to teaching programming, recognising the huge value in making artefacts as a powerful force for learning. At the same time, he has enjoyed making very personal art using Turtlestitch, combining the abstractions in mathematics and the craft of sewing.
Originally a biologist, Jadga discovered her interest in computer science while building a small connected greenhouse. Since then, she has become an enthusiast and is eager to share her excitement with everyone. She works for SAP's Snap! team and has created new and exciting projects in Turtlestitch.
Former Science teacher, Mags is an enthusiast for open education and a practitioner with materials from knitting to embroidery. An ambassador for the Computers in Education Society of Ireland, she is an enthusiast for the way Turtlestitch excites all ages and genders.
Margaret is a professor and Director of Outreach and Widening Participation in the Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) at Warwick University England. She has used Turtlestitch extensively to bring learners into the discourse around art, design and making.
Robert is a mathematician at Warwick University, who has recognised the value in putting theoretical mathematical ideas into practice by making embroideries with Turtlestitch.
Margaret creates multimedia artifacts exploring learning, improvisation, and thought. She is a professor in the Interactive Media and Business program at NYU Shanghai and a Visiting Researcher (Professor) in Computation and Media at Kyoto University. Margaret's recent investigations are in Craft Computing (creating experiential environments supporting e-Textiles, embroidery, and pleating with computing) which is why she is interested in Turtlestitch.
Partners
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Public Library Tilburg
Coderdojo Tilburg
Scratchweb Foundation
Oseda.org
Program
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Practical information
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Participation
Tilburg
Contact
