Material-discursive listening : to listen with textiles
(2026) In Journal of Embodied Research 9(1).- Abstract
- This video essay explores material-discursive listenings through embodied and co-creative relationships with textile materials as non-human companions. Building on the PhD thesis Crafting Material Bodies – Exploring Co-creative Costume Processes, the essay extends the notion of ‘listening with costume’ (Østergaard 2024) toward textile materials, arguing that such listenings unfold through touch, movement, senses, imagination, and presence rather than through verbal language.
The essay centers on a set of red textiles originally created as a knitted scenographic object for the performance STAFET (2017). After the performance ended, the textiles were unknitted and untangled in a slow and tactile process that became a form of embodied... (More) - This video essay explores material-discursive listenings through embodied and co-creative relationships with textile materials as non-human companions. Building on the PhD thesis Crafting Material Bodies – Exploring Co-creative Costume Processes, the essay extends the notion of ‘listening with costume’ (Østergaard 2024) toward textile materials, arguing that such listenings unfold through touch, movement, senses, imagination, and presence rather than through verbal language.
The essay centers on a set of red textiles originally created as a knitted scenographic object for the performance STAFET (2017). After the performance ended, the textiles were unknitted and untangled in a slow and tactile process that became a form of embodied listening. Through acts of touching and untangling, the textiles revealed relational stories and affective traces connected to crafting processes, performances, and performer interactions.
Drawing on Karen Barad’s concept of ‘intra-action’, Donna Haraway’s notion of ‘making kin,’ and K.E. Løgstrup’s ‘ethical demand,’ the essay reflects on how ethical and responsive relationships with non-human textile companions may emerge through crafting practices. The textiles are approached not as passive matter, but as active creative collaborators participating in aesthetic and relational processes.
The essay further follows the textiles into the performance RED CARPET (2024), where they are re-crafted into a knitted scenographic object and activated in collaboration with Felicita Brusoni and Valentina Sechi. Through this continuing transformation, the video essay proposes material-discursive listenings as practices of care, kinship, and shared authorship across human and non-human relations.
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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/cebc355d-b2f6-4b33-ac9a-de7ea9a8afd0
- author
- Østergaard, Charlotte LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2026-08-28
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Journal of Embodied Research
- volume
- 9
- issue
- 1
- publisher
- Open Library of Humanities
- ISSN
- 2513-8421
- DOI
- 10.16995/jer.26292
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- cebc355d-b2f6-4b33-ac9a-de7ea9a8afd0
- date added to LUP
- 2026-09-02 21:06:12
- date last changed
- 2026-09-07 09:01:41
@article{cebc355d-b2f6-4b33-ac9a-de7ea9a8afd0,
abstract = {{This video essay explores material-discursive listenings through embodied and co-creative relationships with textile materials as non-human companions. Building on the PhD thesis Crafting Material Bodies – Exploring Co-creative Costume Processes, the essay extends the notion of ‘listening with costume’ (Østergaard 2024) toward textile materials, arguing that such listenings unfold through touch, movement, senses, imagination, and presence rather than through verbal language. <br/>The essay centers on a set of red textiles originally created as a knitted scenographic object for the performance STAFET (2017). After the performance ended, the textiles were unknitted and untangled in a slow and tactile process that became a form of embodied listening. Through acts of touching and untangling, the textiles revealed relational stories and affective traces connected to crafting processes, performances, and performer interactions.<br/>Drawing on Karen Barad’s concept of ‘intra-action’, Donna Haraway’s notion of ‘making kin,’ and K.E. Løgstrup’s ‘ethical demand,’ the essay reflects on how ethical and responsive relationships with non-human textile companions may emerge through crafting practices. The textiles are approached not as passive matter, but as active creative collaborators participating in aesthetic and relational processes.<br/>The essay further follows the textiles into the performance RED CARPET (2024), where they are re-crafted into a knitted scenographic object and activated in collaboration with Felicita Brusoni and Valentina Sechi. Through this continuing transformation, the video essay proposes material-discursive listenings as practices of care, kinship, and shared authorship across human and non-human relations.<br/>}},
author = {{Østergaard, Charlotte}},
issn = {{2513-8421}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{08}},
number = {{1}},
publisher = {{Open Library of Humanities}},
series = {{Journal of Embodied Research}},
title = {{Material-discursive listening : to listen with textiles}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.16995/jer.26292}},
doi = {{10.16995/jer.26292}},
volume = {{9}},
year = {{2026}},
}