Made by entangled words and wool
Rhizomatic relations in writing and making with(in) the phenomenon of wool felting
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7577/ar.5463Keywords:
research creation, sensory-making, visual art education, wool felting, performative research, a/r/tography , textileAbstract
In this essay, I highlight a performative and rhizomatic approach to my art-based research using the phenomenon of wool felting to address entangling words and wool fibres as a material-discourse. I address drifting movements from the notion of a/r/tography as I perceive it, through echo, resonance and re-emergence in my art-based research design. This is done by querying, and caring for, the idea of identity, as I carry many of them, of various nature and various intensities. Furthermore, I decentralise the human in the art-based research methodology that I have been using in recent years in artistic, scholarly and pedagogical contexts. This text dialogues with the recent work of Stephanie Springgay (2020 and 2022), especially her work related to the concept of feltness, and more broadly research-creation (Manning, 2016).
Photo: Samira Jamouchi
References
Arlander, A. (2013) Artistic Research in a Nordic Context. In: Nelson, R. (eds) Practice as Research in the Arts. Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Atkinson, D. (2015) The adventure of pedagogy, learning and the not-known. Subjectivity, (8)1.
Atkinson, D. (2021) Inheritance, disobedience and speculation in pedagogic practice. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 43:5, 749-765.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01596306.2021.1975911
Barad, K. (2003) Posthumanist performativity: Toward an understanding of how matter comes to matter. Sign: Journal of women in culture and society 28(3), 801-831. https://doi.org/10.1086/345321
Barad, K. (2007) Meeting the universe halfway: Quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning. Duke University Press.
Barad, K. (2007) Diffracting diffraction: Cutting together-apart. Parallax, 20(3), 168–187. https://doi.org/10.1080/13534645.2014.927623
Barone, T. and Eisner, E. W. (2011) Arts based research. Sage publication.
Bolt, B. (2004) Art Beyond Representation. The Performative Power of the Image. I. B. Tauris, Coxon A. and Jacob, M. A. (2023) Magdalena Abakanowicz. Henie Onstad Kunstsenter.
Deleuze, G. and Guattari, F. (1980) Mille plateaux. Capitalisme et schizophrénie 2. Les Éditions de Minuit.
Goujard, C., Hülsemann, L., Caulcutt, C., Giordano, E. & Keate, N. (2025, 5th February) Global fury builds over Trump’s plan to turn Gaza into the Middle East ‘Riviera’. Politico. https://www.politico.eu/article/global-fury-builds-over-donald-trump-plan-turn-gaza-middle-east-riviera/
Güneşş, N. Aksoy, Ş. & Özsoy, V. 2020) The Role of the A/r/tography Method in Art Teacher Training. In Universal Journal of Educational Research 8(10): 4909-4919, 2020. https://www.hrpub.org/download/20200930/UJER63-19516615.pdf
Haraway, D. (2016) Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene. Duke university Press.
Irwin, R. L., Beer, R., Springgay, S., Grauer, K., Xion, G. & Bickel, B. (2006). The
rhizomatic relations of a/r/tography. Studies in Art Education, 48(1), 70-88.
Irwin, R. L. (n. d.) A/r/tography. An invitation to think through art making, research, teaching and learning. https://artography.edcp.educ.ubc.ca/
Jamouchi, S. (2005) Identity. In Aask Sveinar, Dag (red.) Grense_løse / bound_less. Riksutstillinger og Du store verden.
Jamouchi, S. (2019) Exploring art and craft in teacher education whilst going toward a performative approach: some reflection on re-turning and engaging diffractively with felting wool. In Simon Fraser University Educational Review Vol. 12 No. 1 Spring 2019 / sfuedreview.org Link: https://journals.lib.sfu.ca/index.php/sfuer/article/view/612/535
Jamouchi, S. (2020) Affective togetherness in arts education: Lingering on a performative approach to wool felting. MATTER: Journal of New Materialist Research, Vol 1, No 2, pp. 50–74. https://doi.org/10.1344/jnmr.v1i2.31840
Jamouchi, S. (2023) Cutting through an assemblage of other-less. https://youtu.be/hvdlKgluA34
Jamouchi, S. (2023) A performative approach to wool felting: Rhizomatic relations in visual arts making and art education. [Doctoral dissertation]. University of Agder.
Juelskjaer, M. (2012) Intra-active entanglements: an interview with Karen Barad. In Kvinder, Køn & Forskning, 2012-03. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267863856_Intra-active_entanglements_an_interview_with_Karen_Barad
Manning, E. (2016). The minor gesture. Duke University Press.
Maalouf, A. (1998) Les identités meurtrières. Grasset.
Mørstad, E. (2024) Haptisk. Store Norske Leksikon. https://snl.no/haptisk
Social Science and Humanities Research Council (2021) Definition of Terms. Research-creation. https://www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca/funding-financement/programs-programmes/definitions-eng.aspx#a22.
Serres, M. (1995) Les cinq sens. Grasset.
Springgay, S. (2020) Feltness: On How to Practice Intimacy. Qualitative Inquiry, 27(2), 210-214. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800420932610
Springgay, S. (2022) Feltness: Research-Creation, Socially Engaged Art, and Affective Pedagogies. Duke University Press.
Stitch Sisters (2023) Material Touch Diffraction from Wool. APARIA: ArtEZ Platform
for Research Interventions of the Arts. https://apria2.vercel.app/material-touch-diffracted-from-wool-performance-lecture?category=journal&year=2023&title=material-touch&tag=art&tag=art-education&tag=artistic-research&authors=stitch-sister
St. Pierre, E. A. (2019) Post Qualitative Inquiry in an Ontology of Immanence. Qualitative Inquiry. 25(1).3-16. 10.1177/1077800418772634
Vicuña, C. (2023). Cecilia Vicuña. https://www.ceciliavicuna.com/
WIELS, (2023) Tapta Espaces souples. Retrived from https://www.wiels.org/en/exhibitions/espaces-souples
Østern, T. P., Jusslin, S., Nødtvedt Kundsen, K., Maapalo, P., and Bjørkøy, I. (2021). A performative paradigm for post-qualitative inquiry. Qualitative Research. 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1177/14687941211027444
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Samira Jamouchi
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).