Research Statement
As a researcher, writer, and experimenter in the boundary spaces of materiality, I seek to juxtapose meditations on place and its material manifestations alongside ephemeral memory and human production of meaning tied to place. I am fascinated by human modes of taking measure of the planet - be it through various forms of mapping, categorizing, or myth and other narrative. I do not argue, but rather submerge (as a former institutional academic, now independent researcher and prototyper/designer). I construct my worldview of garments as interfaces with the natural world, and as artifacts of natural/cultural intertwining through the lens of various philosophies of place-making, and of being in reciprocity with the non-human, alongside thinkers Anna Tsing, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Donna Haraway, and Stefan Helmreich, to name a few. My research and garment creating is inspired by place - recently, Marble Creek and the Saint Francis River in Southeast Missouri - and influened by designers & thinkers such as Giullia Tomasello, Lizan Freijsen, & TômTex.
Research Mission
To transform the reader and wearer's relationship to the textile they wear, its origins, and its shaping of perception of the modern environment - particularly highlighting the boundary layers, and porousness, of human and non-human interfacing. While most garments are physically opaque, absorbing of light, tangible and material, my writing paired with my garments seeks to re-orient the garment-wearer as though they are wrapped in transluscency - to re-formulate their garment as a lens for not simply viewing, but sensing and knowing: to write textile and garment as a means of receiving the environment.
Focuses
Haptic perception in garment studies, textile as porous interfacing, human/other-than-human interaction, boundary layers of the human microbiome, philosophies of moss & lichen, garment industry sustainability practices.
