SEEDED:
Supporting reference and research material

Project Philosophy:

by Pablo Helguera in ‘Education for Socially Engaged Art’:

‘the aim is not to become amateur ethnographers, sociologists and educators, but to understand the complexities of these fields that have come before us, learn some of their tools, and employ them in the fertile territory of art’

p.14
https://www.sholetteseminars.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Helguera-Pablo_Socially-Engaged-Art.pdf

Reference Projects:  

The following projects provide a model, framework, or insightful reference point for working with migrants and textiles.


Common Threads, Oshana, Makani:

Trauma recovery and textiles making for refugees in Ecuador, Nepal, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Seattle, and New York - I am really interested in this project in connection to London’s resettling Afghan, Syrian and Ukrainian refugees, and IGP’s connections to Lebanon, and the charities Oshana and Makani:

https://commonthreadsproject.org/home 

Oshana - ‘A dignified income’ Syrian refugee women, making in Lebanon
https://oshana.co.uk/

Makani -
’Our vision is a world of freedom, equality and dignity
for all refugee women and girls.’
https://www.makani.org.uk/

Traces: Stories of Migration, Lucy Orta:

‘Exploring textile practices as a medium through which diverse cultural and social experiences of migrant communities can be acknowledged and celebrated.’

https://www.studio-orta.com/fr/artwork/901/traces-stories-of-migration-story-cloths 

https://www.sustainable-fashion.com/traces-stories-of-migration 

Decolonising Fashion and Textiles:

‘Design for Cultural Sustainability with Refugee Communities. Participatory action research aimed to explore the concepts of cultural sustainability and community resilience through the lived experience of refugees.’

https://www.sustainable-fashion.com/decolonising-fashion-and-textiles  

‘Sustainable Fashion, Migrants, Embroidery: Ateliers of 'Social Integration' Alessandra Lopez y Royo

’Sustainable Fashion, Migrants, Embroidery: Ateliers of 'Social Integration' tells of community-led 'solidarity ateliers' engaged in sewing and embroidery activities which, in the Global North and Global South, are providing a vital alternative to neoliberal and neo-colonial fashion paradigms.’

https://www.bloomsbury.com/au/sustainable-fashion-migrants-embroidery-9781350284098/

Reference Literature/Resources:

Literature including frameworks for integration, impact reports, docufilms, government analysis on resettlement, the role of textiles in peacemaking, collaborative international research projects, and the role of ecology and nature in integration all inform my thinking and development of ideas for SEEDED.

‘Textiles Making Peace’: Christine Andrä

‘International collaborative research project… to examine what textiles and textile-making can contribute to peace efforts’

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77954-2_125 

‘Caring through Art’: Jacqueline Millner

This research has informed my thinking significantly in the development of my research, discussing several socially engaged textile practices, it creates a philosophy of care-led practices including decolonial place based research through socially engaged textile practices.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343288947_Caring_through_art_Reimagining_value_as_political_practice

Awamaki, a textile making NPO:

The 2017 impact report from Awamaki notes social indicators such as cooperatives made up of 170 women makers, over the course of 40 workshops, supporting 713 family members. Their short film ‘Awana’ also notes cultural sustainability, and the role of women makers in economies and communities. I worked with Awamaki in 2019 in women’s making circles, and this work has informed the development of my research.

https://issuu.com/awamaki/docs/awamaki_annual_report_2017 

Stitching Palestine - A documentary on migrant women’s stories through embroidery practices: 

https://forwardfilmproduction.com/ftagem_portfolio/stitching-palestine/ 

Elvira Espejo Ayca - Making as an embodied form of knowledge

https://www.afterallartschool.org/essays/elvira-espejo-ayca/

Research by Azedah Fatehrad: Nature-based integration - informing thinking on placemaking in East London. Connecting to UCL’s theme of ecology, I would like to make a space within the research for placemaking, home, and sense of place through nature based integration, for example outdoor making workshops.

https://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/project/nature-based-integration-connecting-communities-with-in-nature#:~:text=The%20Nature%2DBased%20Integration%20project,the%20role%20of%20natural%20settings. 

Placemaking, ethnography, cultural sustainability by Craig Mod:
https://craigmod.com/ridgeline/071/

Migrant ethnography by walking, Michal Iwanwowski: https://www.michaliwanowski.com/go-home-polish

International Organisation for Migration’s Indicator’s Integration Framework:
https://unitedkingdom.iom.int/2019-indicators-integration-framework 

Government analysis on refugee resettlement:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/refugee-resettlement-analysis 

Practice based research, relevant existing projects, collaboration partners, and potential participants: 

These London based organisations across Camden, (area of the current UCL Citizen Science cohort), SAFh who provide a model for social intervention in combination with research in East London, and the Afghan Women’s support group, a connection through my work at Refugee Council, provide contextual reference for ongoing community based practice based research and academic and non-academic knowledge generation.

Camden based refugee therapy centre relevant to the current UCL Citizen Science cohort location:

https://mentalhealthcamden.co.uk/services/refugee-therapy-centre 

Social Action for Health, Tower Hamlets - Charity research engagement in East London:

https://www.safh.org.uk/community-research 

https://www.safh.org.uk/focus-groups 

Afghan Women’s Support Group, active contact and therapeutic context:
http://reap.org.uk/about-reap/afghan-women-support-group-hayes-ub3/ 

East London Citizens:
https://www.citizensuk.org/chapters/east-london/

MA Research
informing my proposal

My MA research, detailed in the above diagram, considered the development of a praxis of Caring Cloth, which informs my practice and research going forward. Below, is the working definition of Caring Cloth praxis, and the ingredients which make up care-led social textiles practice in community:

a praxis inclusive of ‘radical compassion’, 

where systems are created for the voices of individual women and a collective of women to be heard, 

feminist methodologies inform care, through interculturality and solidarity, 

‘The needle is used to repair damage’,

whilst ‘difference is a spark’ for creativity, 

the praxis a ‘fertile ground’ for reimaginings, 

the voices of caring cloth and it’s makers form new kinds of textbooks, storybooks, and history books; 

feelings and doings alongside these, as equally valued and valuable epistemologies - 

harm reconciled into generational healing, 

spending ‘care time’ 

within community, where ‘enough is exchanged to enrich’ and pay forward, 

knowing that there are ‘possibilities that can only be imagined as other things fell into place’.

These learnings provide a working definition of caring cloth praxis, which offers a possible response for how to care through cloth, how cloth’s story could be one of care, and how to develop socially engaged textiles practice with women globally through care. 

References here

The above projects, literature, and place based contexts inform my proposal for the rising influence of textiles practice on citizen science, and the importance of research which adequately documents this, creating new knowledge on the role of textiles as both a citizen science, an art, and a vehicle for social action - and understanding the interdisciplinary impact this can have.

Thank you for your consideration of my application, and for the experience of being within the SEEDED workshop and application process.