Participatory Design Research Journal
Weave Up is a six-month, weekly weaving project centred on process, experimentation, choice and continuity, rather than producing a predetermined final outcome.
Each month explores a different theme, with weekly prompts, techniques and materials encouraging participants to experiment with colour, texture and construction. Participants are free to interpret the prompts, ignore them, or develop their own ideas.
A new woven piece is started each month, creating six individual pieces that together form a visual diary of the project. The project is flexible and inclusive, allowing participants to join, miss sessions, pause or return without losing their place or feeling pressure to work at a particular pace.
Weave Up is about building up layers of experience, materials, textures and choices over six months, with each participant creating a personal record of their journey through weaving.
I’m researching the participatory design process itself, starting with the territory of weaving as a space for choice, experimentation and collaboration.
I’m creating a situation in which participants and I can investigate what happens when we use weaving to make design decisions together.
How do material preferences develop, change and become expressed through participatory weaving?
I’m also asking:
- How do participants respond to different materials, techniques and prompts?
- What influences the material choices participants make during the project?
- How do individual material preferences become negotiated, communicated or shared within a group weaving practice?
Participatory weaving puts materials into the hands of participants and creates situations where they have to make decisions:
Do I like this yarn?
Do I want to use it?
What happens if I combine it with this?
Do I prefer this texture to that one?
Has someone else’s choice influenced mine?
Do I continue with something I initially disliked?
Does my preference change after using it?
Can I communicate a preference without explaining it verbally?
Preference becomes something observable through making, rather than something that only exists as a spoken opinion.