Weaving as Material Narrative

PhD project

PhD student:

Supervisors:

Bettina Nissen (Design Informatics), Andrea Ford (The Centre for Biomedicine, Self and Society at the University of Edinburgh School of Medicine)

Outputs from this project

In this work, we explore how weaving, as a creative material sense-making practice, translates and represents menstrual bodily experiences that mainstream menstrual technologies and healthcare settings often overlook. Through three woven artefacts exhibited in the UK, the study explores how weaving can express menstrual experiences in tangible and sensory ways, specifically focusing on: (1) cyclical bodily perceptions of time within cycles; (2) trivialised endometriosis pain in medical contexts; and (3) daily lived experiences beyond datafication.

Our findings suggest that slow, ambiguous, sometimes frustrated, and embodied interactions with materials can effectively explore real, tacit, living and subtle bodily experiences. This insight offers promising directions for designing future menstrual technologies and healthcare.

Funder: Edinburgh College of Art PhD Scholarship at the University of Edinburgh

Project dates: 2024 – 2025