(Hi)Stories of Transformation

The PhD project »(Hi)Stories of Transformation: Tracing Materials in the British Arts and Crafts Movement« by Kaja Ninnis investigates the environmental implications of the sourcing and transformation of ›raw‹ materials in the context of the British Arts and Crafts Movement.

Arts and Crafts objects, or rather the »stuff« from which they are made, from the starting point from which the project traces their material components from the museum, to the workshop of the Arts and Crafts maker and from there to the sites of material extraction and transformation. Tracing material histories through archival research, site visits, material analysis and engagement provides a critical understanding of the object’s relationship to different ecologies across multiple timescales. Looking at design history through the lens of materials resituates the Arts and Crafts movement in relation to Victorian material culture and the global extracitvism of the British Empire.

The project asks how researching material histories as a design historical practice may decentre and transform established linear narratives about the past, present and future. More broadly, it aims to contribute to an emerging ecocritical design history.

As an Associated Member, Kaja Ninnis has joined the Cluster »Matters of Activity« in 2023 and is part of the PhD cohort.

For more information and collaboration please contact kaja.ninnis [at] hu.berlin.de.