1.3 Making Theory with Textiles: Theories of Designing and Designing Theory

Corresponding Chairs

Anne Louise Bang, VIA University College, Denmark 

Elaine Igoe, University of Southampton, UK

Co-Chairs

Fiona Curran, Royal College of Art, UK

Delia Dumitrescu,  University of Borås, Sweden

Faith Kane, Massey University -  Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa, New Zealand

Emmi Pouta, Aalto University, Finland

Marteijn ten Bhömer, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, China

Aurélie Mosse, Ecole des Arts Décoratifs - PSL, France

Felecia Davis, The Pennsylvania State University, USA

Marina Castán Cabrero, ELISAVA, Spain

Abstract

Textiles have long nurtured philosophical positions and metaphors, mathematical inquiries, as well as investigation of making and everyday life aesthetics (Dormor, 2020; Haraway, 2016; Igoe, 2021). Performing ontologically and epistemologically at different scales, textiles are often used as case studies in interdisciplinary research. For this reason, textiles invite us to rethink “thought in the act” and the “act of thinking” (Massumi & Manning, 2014).

In practice, textiles play a pivotal role in our lives, impacting societal and environmental conditions. Textile thinking influences and is influenced by Systems Thinking, New Materialism (Bennett, 2010), Critical Design and designing with and for the “more than human”.

• This track invites papers that take textiles as starting points for ontological, methodological and critical investigations of our world, our modes of production and conditions of living, as well as their intersections.

• The focus will be on the way that practice, perception, usability and critical inquiry are theorized through the lens of textiles, and the way that textiles inform and support new ways of doing, sensing, using and reflecting.

• We are particularly interested in the role of theory within textile practices and the role of practice within philosophy and design theory.

Key questions include:

• What are the most current theoretical approaches related to textiles design and in what ways are they critical?

• What are the limits of current thinking in design and how can we move beyond, or challenge established metaphors through engaging more deeply with textiles?

• How have textiles theory and practice influenced design theory discourses and how might we ‘design theory’ using textiles?

Keywords

Textiles design, textiles theory, design theory, design methods, design philosophies

References

Bennett, J. (2010). Vibrant matter: A political ecology of things. Duke University Press.

Dormor, C. (2020). A philosophy of textile: between practice and theory. London, UK Bloomsbury.

Igoe, Elaine (2021) Textile design theory in the making, 1 ed. United States. Bloomsbury Publishing Company.

Haraway, D. (2016). Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Cthulucene. Duke University press.

Massumi & Manning (2014). Thought in the Act. Passages in the Ecology of Experience. Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press.