Materials As Species: An Experiential Learning Series
What changes when we understand materials not simply as resources, but as participants in living ecosystems?
Founded in 2024 by Krystle Moody Wood of Materevolve and Jessie Curry of Studio Von Curry, Materials as Species is an experiential workshop series inviting participants to deepen their relationships with materials through sensory exploration, ecological storytelling, hands-on making, and collaborative speculation.
In January 2027 and in collaboration with the Fibershed Learning Center, we will be using Pacific seaweed and regional wool as entry points, the series explores the interconnected relationships among ecosystems, communities, material culture, and the systems that transform living materials into textiles.
Bringing together creative experimentation, ecological knowledge, and interdisciplinary dialogue, the workshops offer an opportunity to reconsider how we source, design with, and imagine the future of materials. Each session will feature a guest scientist or material steward who brings place-based knowledge of the ecosystems and communities sustaining these materials.
Who Should Attend?
The series welcomes textile and apparel professionals, designers, material researchers, scientists, educators, sustainability practitioners, makers, producers, and anyone curious about the intersections of materials, ecology, and culture. No prior weaving or material science experience is required.
Why Materials as Species?
This series invites participants to slow down, pay attention to the living systems behind the materials they use, and reconsider the relationships that shape textile production. Participants leave with new material experiments, practical skills, ecological perspectives, and connections that can inform more thoughtful and regenerative textile futures.
The Seaweed Trousers: A 2024 Workshop Outcome
BORN FROM THE TIDES OF COLLABORATION, THESE CONCEPTUAL SEAWEED TROUSERS ARE A TESTAMENT TO CO-CREATION, INTRICATELY WOVEN BY OVER 50 PAIRS OF HANDS DURING TWO IMMERSIVE ‘MATERIALS AS SPECIES’ WORKSHOPS. COMPRISING 10 PACIFIC SEAWEED VARIETIES – 9 FORAGED FROM THE OREGON COAST’S DRIFTLINE AND 1 FARMED IN JAPAN – THE PIECE EMBODIES OUR INTIMATE ANCIENT KINSHIP WITH ALGAL LIFE.
KELP, OFTEN CALLED THE ‘TREES OF THE OCEAN’, PLAYS A VITAL ROLE IN CARBON SEQUESTRATION, PHOTOSYNTHESIS, AND HABITAT CREATION – ALONGSIDE SUPPORTING MARINE BIODIVERSITY, PROTECTING COASTLINES, AND COMBATING CLIMATE CHANGE. EACH SPECIES, WITH ITS NATURAL HUES AND TEXTURES, REMINDS US OF THIS OCEANIC ABUNDANCE, RESILIENCE, AND OUR PROFOUND INTERDEPENDENCE.
Email Krystle@materevolve.com if you would like the full summary of the inaugural 2024 event including partners, speakers, who attended, the Innovation Showcase, and a full list of outcomes.
