‘It matters what stories we tell to tell other stories with; it matters what concepts we think to think other concepts with’ (Introduction to Ursula K Le Guin’s Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction by Donna Haraway)

Join Carrier Bag Climate: Storytelling Tools for Textile Futures* a workshop that explores feminist storytelling for responsible textile practice and research. It is a collaboration between researchers Claire Anderson and Barbara Mueller from the University of the Arts London and designer Tereza Ruller from The Rodina who specialise in design for environmental crises.

In this one-day workshop, you will identify feminist storytelling strategies in the form of more than human perspectives and approaches to storytelling in ecofictions by Season Butler, Rachel Carson, Heather Davis, and Donna Haraway. Prompt cards invite participants to apply these strategies in the context of the climate emergency, investigating related social and ecological phenomena. Based on their stories, each participant will develop a textile tool – using a visual language of abstractly shaped tokens and materials – that helps promote a critical awareness of the climate emergency!

*Title riffing of and in homage to Ursula K Le Guin's Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction.

The workshop will be hosted by Tilburg TextielMuseum and supported by Research at Camberwell, Chelsea, Wimbledon Colleges of Arts at University of the Arts London.

Please note this workshop is intended for textile and material designers with some specialist knowledge. It is not suitable for beginners.

Lunch and refreshments will be provided.

Photos by Kate Ann Joy (1), Mai Spring (2) and Tian Khee Siong (3).