| Photograph: May ee Fong
Design Materials and Making for Social Change: Book Launch
- Written byRose Dodd
- Published date 31 May 2023
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| Photograph: Helen Storey
Chelsea College of Arts are delighted to announce the publication of Design Materials and Making For Social Change on 1 June 2023. The book explores the role of materials and making in supporting human and non-human worlds, demonstrating the diverse and complex interplay between disciplines, cultures, contexts and communities. Co-edited by Rebecca Earley, Chair of Circular Design Futures at UAL, and Rosie Hornbuckle, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in Complex Design Collaborations at UAL, this volume, published by Routledge, is part of the Design Research for Change series. Earley and Hornbuckle place their practice at the epicentre of their inquiry into new sustainable and circular models for the textiles and fashion industry.
Considering the past, present and alternative futures of material and making, Design Materials and Making for Social Change spans the two interconnected worlds of the material and the social. Through the social entanglements and impacts of materials and making, contributors to this edited volume examine homelessness, diaspora, migration, the erosion of craft skills and communities, dignity in work and family life, the impacts of colonialism, the climate crisis, education, mental health and the shifting complexities in collaborating across and with diverse disciplines and stakeholders. Through their approach to design research, they bring meaning, insight and ideas for action to their readers in a tangible way, asking ‘how’ it is that change will come to play.
| Photograph: May ee Fong
Putting materials and making at the interface with complex social and environmental issues, the book was written to help researchers and practitioners who traverse the realms of design – from fashion, textile and product to systemic, social and circular – to understand their value in engaging with, relating to and changing how people see the world.
The book is a collection of in-depth research and analysis from leading experts in the field including Sandy Black, Helen Storey, Holly McQuillan, Valentina Rognoli, Kath Townsend, Jen Ballie, Francesco Mazzarella and Sarah Wilkes. Chapters include ‘From Food Waste to Circular Materials for Design: experimenting with matter from unconventional origins’; ‘Sewing Box for the Future: up-skilling the next generation’; and ‘Fashion Activism and Design for Social Change – The Making for Change.’
| Photograph: May ee Fong
“For a long time, Becky and I have been talking about how making with materials has this draw for people; it excites them and makes them feel good. When there are materials around, people want to engage and learn. We wanted to hear from other design researchers working with materials and making to engage other disciplines and communities, how materials and making has brought about change in their research and for their participants,” says Dr Rosie Hornbuckle, who feels that the contents of this body of work is underrepresented in academic literature given its power as a tool for social change. “Our hope is that it will give emerging practitioners the confidence to put materials and making at the forefront of social design research to support transition to more equitable futures for people and the planet.”
“My research in sustainable and circular design for textiles and fashion takes me into many fascinating and challenging situations – from the science lab to the factory production line, from the buying offices of major brands to EU policy meetings in Brussels – yet it is only when I sit down to quietly make a new textile prototype with my own hands that I really understand the full potential of our role in changemaking as design researchers,” says Professor Earley. “Often the new material says more to my project partners than just words. It makes change more tangible and real. It lights up a different part of their brains.”
| Photograph: May ee Fong
Professor Rebecca Earley is Chair of Circular Design Futures at UAL, the Director of the Centre for Circular Design at Chelsea College of Arts and Co-Founder of World Circular Textiles Day 2050. Her work currently focuses on textile design strategy for sustainable and circular textiles spanning new material development and production encompassing social and methodological models, and design for behaviour change.
Dr Rosie Hornbuckle is Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in Complex Design Collaborations. Her research focuses on interdisciplinary communication for alternative scenarios of future design practice.
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