A philosophy of textile: Between practice and theory
- Submitting institution
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Royal College of Art(The)
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- Dormor1
- Type
- A - Authored book
- DOI
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- Publisher
- Bloomsbury
- ISBN
- 9781472525659
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month of publication
- -
- Year of publication
- 2020
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- Yes
- Double-weighted statement
- A single-authored book, published through peer-reviewed process, this submission constitutes six extended essays. It builds from the author’s textile practice towards a framework for thinking about and with textile behaviours and processes.
The publication brings together existing thinking within the field with uses and metaphorics of textile from other fields, predominantly philosophy, to realign them with the material practices from which they are drawn. Described by reviewers as ‘refreshing’ and ‘a crucial model of integrated writing about practice’ this publication makes a sustained and important contribution to academic, practice-based thinking about textile as a set of vital practices.
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This monograph forms part of an ongoing body of research into the potential of creative modes of writing about textile practices that more effectively convey its conceptual and material qualities. The style and content of this volume is initiated through a material textile practice that includes the textile activities of stitching, weaving and fraying, together with exploring material behaviours of textile as shimmering, viscosity and caressing.
It contributes to existing scholarship surrounding textile and textile practices through its stylistic intertwining of a storytelling narrative and philosophical exposition. In evoking the material qualities of the practices and materials it includes a writing style built upon haptic and aesthetic engagement with textile materials.
In decentering the subject and authorial voice in this way, this volume offers alternative strategies to the dominant writing about textile and textile practices which largely describe concepts, content, historiography and techniques. To think and write from a position of being embedded within material practice offers scope for a radical reappraisal of textile’s ubiquity and its perception as a silent witness. This volume proposes textile as a potent site of material expression.
In each chapter a selection of influential and emerging artists are introduced, exploring ways in which their specifically textile practice further emphasises the concepts in hand. This is necessarily a generous form of encounter in which the author’s own practice becomes a means of engagement with the themes and ideas raised alongside other voices. Double-blind peer-reviewed, this publication has been described by reviewers as ‘refreshing’, ‘a crucial model of integrated writing about practice’ and ‘a shimmering exploration of textiles’ (publisher reviewer comments). The editor of Textile, Professor Catherine Harper described the book as ‘impressive’ and one of the featured artists commented ‘it’s like you were inside my head’, indicators of early impact upon the field.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
