‘Thinking Through Textiles’
Applications are invited for a PhD studentship offered by the School of the Arts, English and Drama Loughborough University within the area of textile design.
Recent design research has discussed how textiles practice and knowledge, or ‘textile thinking’, has the capacity to originate new materials, forms, and material systems, as well as to enhance the sensory pleasure of materials (Igoe 2012 and Spuybroek 2005). This PhD project draws on the pervasive nature of textiles to consider the possibilities of ‘new’ materials or ways of approaching materials from:
• process perspectives
• aesthetic perspectives
• functional/performance perspectives
Exploring the creative application of contemporary and traditional textiles processes as well as new technologies, the candidate will investigate the potential of ‘textile thinking’ to develop innovative textile outcomes in terms of either (or any combination of) process, aesthetics, functional/performance, possibly linking into sustainable design agendas. In addition, the PhD study could contribute to current debate regarding the use of tacit knowledge and its importance in research, its integration and utilization in the process of research, and methods for the communication of tacit knowledge within research-by-practice. The studentship is deliberately focused on attracting researchers who wish to engage with inter-disciplinary and cross-disciplinary approaches to enable the possibility to explore the application of knowledge gained from textile practice within other disciplinary areas. The candidate’s expertise in textile practice and the experiential knowledge that such a high level of skill brings could form the basis for the project approach, acknowledging that technical expertise is based on experience, tacit understanding and an intuitive grasp and judgment of processes and situations (Dreyfus & Dreyfus 1986).
The project will be supervised by academics from the Textile Research Group at The School of the Arts. (http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/sota/research/groups/Textiles/index.html) In addition to being guided by supervisors for the research project, the successful candidate will have to attend the PhD training and seminar programme run by the School of the Arts and the Graduate School’s training courses.
The candidate must have an applied knowledge of textile design practice and have a committed interest in innovation within the field. In addition an awareness and understanding of practice based research methods is required. We anticipate that the successful candidate will be qualified to Masters level. The studentship provides a stipend of £13,590 per annum plus tuition fees at the UK/EU rate for up to three years.
We envisage a start date for the student researcher of April 2013
Enquiries should be made to Emma Nadin (School of Arts Research Postgraduate Research Administrator) E.L.Nadin@lboro.ac.uk
Details about the application process can be found here:
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/study/apply/research/
Deadline December 14th 2012
Please quote the following reference when applying: TRG/2012/2
