Wild Fibres Commoning: Twisting cords of belonging

Abstract

With this text I would like to show how nettles and other wild fibres have changed my self-perception as a cultural scientist over the past three years. My intensive involvement with textile fibres has opened fundamentally different perspectives in research and teaching. I suppose that they have great potential to bridge the conceptual gap between nature and culture that still prevails in people's minds. The conceptual perspective for this field of research is referred to here as NatureCultureTransfer. This premise has led to many encounters with other fibre enthusiasts in recent months. Using autoethnographic methods, I have explored my changing relationship to fashion and textiles based on my study of nettles. Workshops and training courses, my impressions of seminars and other autoethnographically recorded explorations of wild fibres and the consequent broadening in textile knowledges are presented here. In addition to the references usually cited, all persons named shared their findings with me and voluntarily gave me permission to publish them, for which I am very grateful.