Storytelling with Material Interferences

(PhD thesis 2025)

My PhD at the Royal College of Art in London, "Storytelling with Material Interferences, practice-led research between puppetry and textiles" explored how “weird” materials — including thermochromic and plant-based textiles — can generate new forms of storytelling through puppetry.

The research opened a dialogue between textile design and puppetry, two practices that both explore how materials express liveliness. While puppets shift between object, character, and symbol, textile designers look for ways to animate material through movement, texture, and transformation.

Through this intersection, I developed a new way of reading puppetry through textiles, and textiles through puppetry. This led to the emergence of a new puppetry style shaped by textile processes, where chromic and bio-based materials play an active role in character design, presence, and narrative.

The work generated stop-motion films, video documentation, and physical artefacts — offering new creative tools for textile designers and performance makers working with responsive or sensorial materials.