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Paper short abstract:

This paper reflects on an experimental methodology which used craft processes to research with Malagasy craftswomen. I explain how I developed craft-based tools to analyse research methods. Using participants’ own creative languages revealed how methods shaped their agency to contribute.

Paper long abstract:

The front and back of an embroidery can tell very different stories. One side may be smooth and even. Turning it over can reveal the history of the work: the chronology of stitches, the placement of an embroidery ring, the embroiderer’s thrifty adaption as thread ran out. In this paper, I would like to turn over the substantive findings of my PhD and tell the story of the methodological workings on the back: the starting point and the evolution, the tangles and loose threads.

I used an experimental methodology in research with embroiderers and reed-weavers in Madagascar. Craft practice is central to participants’ ways of knowing, being and communicating. A methodology built around participants’ own languages of craft resonated with craftswomen, leading to greater agency to shape the research. The research design evolved, for example by incorporating filmmaking to enable participants to speak directly to the wider discourse beyond Madagascar.

My commitment to an experimental methodology led me to question what tools we have, as creative researchers, to analyse the efficacy of methodological decisions. I developed craft-based tools to analyse the usefulness of the research methods themselves, utilising the benefits of generating knowledge through embodied processes. In this paper I reflect on the methodological findings that this approach revealed, including the ways that the sequence of research activities, symmetries of skill fluency, and technical processes shaped conversations. I consider the challenges of drawing on alternative hierarchies of knowledge within the constraints of PhD research.