Getting Impulses from Materials

In a world shaped by climate and change, what we create and what we create with matters more than ever. In my puppetry practice, I’ve come to see materials not just as tools, but as storytellers in their own right. They speak through texture, tension, movement, and resistance—each one offering cues, surprises, and emotional weight.
I work with contrasting materials that interact and interfere with each other, often in ways I can’t fully control. Their transformations become central to the narrative, embodying the inner lives of the characters they help bring to life. A soft fold, a tearing edge, the sway of a biodegradable thread in motion, all these moments shape emotion and meaning beyond language.
Guided by posthumanist thinking, I view materials as co-designers, They are agents with their own histories, behaviors, and a kind of quiet wisdom. They respond not just to my hands, but to the forces around us: light, air, moisture, time. In this way, each performance becomes a collaboration between human and non-human, a dialogue where both shape the outcome.