applied materiality

We conduct research in the area of textile innovation through applied materiality. Derived from practice (from touching, making and doing in a studio or lab) and considerate of both social and environmental impacts, this specialized approach encompasses fiber, weave, dye, print and technology as drivers for material and concept developments. Materiality is a way of knowing and is symbolic of the relationship between each other and the world around us.

Graham Sullivan suggests viewing creative scholarship as a braid: Viewing creative practice as a complex, interactive system that is distributed throughout various media, languages, situations and cultural contexts. Inquiries will invariably deal with structures, phenomena, networks of relationships, passions and perspectives and all manner of theories that are part of our dynamic learning life (Sullivan, 2009.) We find this metaphor helpful in clarifying both the discrete parts (creative process, design innovation, sustainable approach, collaboration) and the dynamic whole of our creative and scholarly work and how they are integrated or woven into our scholarship and teaching.