Exhibited Artefact

Carefully placed on top of each other, the discarded sweaters, devalued and unsellable, pile up into layers of knit, shapes, structures, textures and colours – a mille-feuille of discarded design decisions. In the act of layering, new expressions arise, inviting one in seeing newpossibilities, potentials, ideas, and fantasy to dive into, and to explore. The artefact consistsof 50 discarded knitwear garments, sorted and donated by the non-profit organisation Björkåfrihet.Knitwear is among the most difficult of garment categories to resell due to its changingproperties. The garments are used in their given state without any further sorting or manipulation.

Role of Artefacts in this Research Project

The role of the artefact in our research practice is to visualize and communicateexplorations and developments of design theory and practice. The physical examples holda generative role, to evoke questions, visualize reasoning and inform the development ofthe thought process towards abstracted concepts and theory building. Hence the artefactembodies concepts and knowledge made available only through its existence. The physical example in our work generates and communicates knowledge and thoughts. It is both question and answer, both exploration and theory. The artefact serves to develop the theory in theprocess, the resulting artefact is the theory in concrete means. ‘Such a discovery can be founded on a very sudden, or more gradual, insight. It is a matter of “seeing”, in this case seeing that there is a certain substance/element with certain remarkable properties.’ (Hallnäs, 2018)