Using wool’s agency to design and make felted artefacts

Abstract

This exposition presents an explorative project that examines employing material as a reference point for designing and making an artefact. The material's effects on designing and making have been elaborated upon from many angles. This exposition also examines how material affects designing and making processes from the perspective of material agency. This study argues that by observing a material's behaviour from the perspective of agency, one can genuinely understand what the material does, and accordingly can find ways to collaborate with it in the process of designing and making artefacts. The discussion is articulated through a designer's project in felting by employing a practiceled research approach that examined the decision-making processes through written reflections and visual documentation. This examination suggests that by including material as a reference point, design and making can reflect the ecology of the material in a way that combines human power with the activeness of the material.

What affords being creative? Opportunities for novelty in light of perception, embodied activity, and imaginative skill

“…In recent times, a major impetus for ecologically minded, interactionist alternatives comes from performers, artists, and craftspeople who emphasize how creativity benefits from "conversations" with materials, places, things, or other people. In crafts, for example, this is discernible in how the texture of wood guides how a basket maker forms their material in the act itself (Ingold, 2013, Ingold 2010; or a felt maker follows the natural entanglements of fibers (Aktas ¸, 2019). Form is not necessarily imposed in advanced but grows through continuous engagement, for example, as a sculptor releases the form from the marble, as Michelangelo famously said (Ingold, 2014).…”

An “in vivo” analysis of crafts practices and creativity—Why affordances provide a productive lens

“…Scholars have begun to take interest in "material conversations", emphasizing a quasi-dialogic negotiation between the maker and the material (Brinck and Reddy, 2020). For example, textures of wood (Ingold, 2013) or entanglements of fibers can guide the maker (Aktaş, 2019), which presupposes understanding "the vitality of a specific material" (Mäkelä, 2016, p. 3). Thus, interesting affordances are found as the craftsperson interacts with the material.…”