Trauma, textiles, and technologies: Participatory sewing of electronic-textiles as a metaphor for post-traumatic healing
Lead Research Organisation:
Northumbria University
Department Name: Fac of Arts, Design and Social Sciences
Abstract
Hope, often a fracturing, even a traumatic thing to experience, is among the energies by which the reparatively positioned reader tries to organize the fragments and part-objects she encounters or creates. (Sedgewick, 2003, p.146)
Sedgewick's figure of the reparative reader delicately articulates, for me, how I position myself in relation to the above PhD project. The reparative reader, gathering fragments, is also, perhaps, a seamstress, or weaver. I am particularly enthralled by the potential ways in which both sewing and repair might also act as metaphors for the research process itself. Given that the project proposal has already been outlined in the studentship advert, I would like to take this opportunity to further explore the aspects of the project that intrigue and incite me.
Text and textiles
I am deeply invested in the multiplicity of potential textual manifestations - the performative and material possibilities of what constitutes text and textual practices. The relationship between text and textile, beyond etymological resonances, has been a recurrent theme in feminist thought, as a way to articulate how writing and making come together to generate knowledge (Collins, 2016; Dormor, 2014; Jeffries, 1995). I encounter lexicons of textiles again and again in articulations of feminist practices and processes. For example, Showalter's (1988) act of 'piecing', exploring quilting as a metaphor for the processes of American women's writing. The threads of sewing as a metaphor for repair can also be found in women's textual practices. Dormor (2014) examines the stitch as a suture in relation to women's writing, just as Cixous' (2005) texts are "stitched together sewn and resewn" and "share the trace of a wound" (p. xi).
Sewing as a metaphor for repair is a potent and resonant image for me, perhaps because of my grounding in feminist thought, praxis, and making. I will use my existing knowledge to orient myself within the discipline of design, in order to develop a comprehensive literature review across trauma studies, textile practices and digital technologies. This will also support my approach to practitioner interviews, influencing the ways in which I gather and assemble this material, and I will make full use of this stage of the project to immerse myself in design and textile practices.
Sedgewick's figure of the reparative reader delicately articulates, for me, how I position myself in relation to the above PhD project. The reparative reader, gathering fragments, is also, perhaps, a seamstress, or weaver. I am particularly enthralled by the potential ways in which both sewing and repair might also act as metaphors for the research process itself. Given that the project proposal has already been outlined in the studentship advert, I would like to take this opportunity to further explore the aspects of the project that intrigue and incite me.
Text and textiles
I am deeply invested in the multiplicity of potential textual manifestations - the performative and material possibilities of what constitutes text and textual practices. The relationship between text and textile, beyond etymological resonances, has been a recurrent theme in feminist thought, as a way to articulate how writing and making come together to generate knowledge (Collins, 2016; Dormor, 2014; Jeffries, 1995). I encounter lexicons of textiles again and again in articulations of feminist practices and processes. For example, Showalter's (1988) act of 'piecing', exploring quilting as a metaphor for the processes of American women's writing. The threads of sewing as a metaphor for repair can also be found in women's textual practices. Dormor (2014) examines the stitch as a suture in relation to women's writing, just as Cixous' (2005) texts are "stitched together sewn and resewn" and "share the trace of a wound" (p. xi).
Sewing as a metaphor for repair is a potent and resonant image for me, perhaps because of my grounding in feminist thought, praxis, and making. I will use my existing knowledge to orient myself within the discipline of design, in order to develop a comprehensive literature review across trauma studies, textile practices and digital technologies. This will also support my approach to practitioner interviews, influencing the ways in which I gather and assemble this material, and I will make full use of this stage of the project to immerse myself in design and textile practices.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Angelika Strohmayer (Primary Supervisor) | |
| Faye Green (Student) |