Umeå universitets logga

Repetition is part of our everyday lives: it is all around us, in patterns, art, and habits like having a cup of tea or getting dressed each morning. Repetition, recurrence, and return are also fundamental in nature – there are shifts in the seasons and regular, rhythmic elements, such as the weather, that occur over and over again. In order to repeat you have to remember what you did last time, and memories are intimate and can be associated with personal relationships with objects or clothes; they are not written down but preserved in memories of lived events, which over time become mythologised. In fashion, repetition is linked to imitation: we see how our friends, partners, and people on social media are dressed, and we want to look the same. This has created endless loops of trends, wherein we constantly strive for the new. When we consciously repeat or return there is the possibility to pay attention to our behaviour in relation to consumption and how we spend our time, wear our clothes, and relate to the natural world.

This thesis has taken me on a journey which started with the world of repetition, where memories, habits, and nature are visited and revisited. The journey progressed through five destinations/projects at a slow pace: at each, textile art, craft and fashion were explored. Repetition, recurrence, and return were used as methods to explore time and timing in textile making with a focus on the tension and duality between the making and the made.