Research Seminar - Department of Art History and Cultural Practices, University of Manchester
Introducing the Sensory Clothing and Textiles of the Picts Pilot Project
Dr Alexandra Makin, Manchester Metropolitan University
Abstract
The Sensory Clothing and Textiles of the Picts pilot is testing the feasibility of a new interdisciplinary investigative approach, exploring how virtual, multisensory environments embedded in a Sensory Archaeology framework offers the potential to generate new interpretive narratives for archaeological artefacts and their spatial and societal contexts. Alexandra Makin (Archaeology) is working with Andrew Ghribi-King (School of Digital Arts) to how clothing and textiles were perceived by the Picts, who lived in Scotland between c.400 and 900 AD/CE. In this talk Alexandra will introduce the project, the techniques being used, what she and Andrew have learnt so far and the future.
Biography
Alexandra Makin is a textile archaeologist specializing in the analysis, interpretation and cultural meaning of textiles within early medieval societies. After gaining her PhD at the University of Manchester, Alexandra worked as post-doctoral research associate on ‘Unwrapping the Galloway Hoard’, an AHRC funded project jointly run by National Museums Scotland and Glasgow University. She is now a Third Century Fellow at Manchester Metropolitan University where she is running the Sensory Clothing and Textiles of the Picts project and Entangled Textiles: Senses, Connections and Power in the Early Medieval North Atlantic (450-1100). Alexandra is widely published. Her monograph The Lost Art of the Anglo-Saxon World: The Sacred and Secular Power of Embroidery came out in 2019 and her co-edited volume, Textiles of the Viking North Atlantic: Analysis, Interpretation, Re-creation in 2025. Her latest journal article, ‘Archaeological Textiles, Senses, Perception, and Use: How Sensory Perceptions Affected Textile Use in Early Medieval Britain (450-1100)’, was published in Medieval Clothing and Textiles 19. Alexandra also works as a textile finds specialist for archaeology units around the country, and she gives talks about her work and research to various interest groups.
