09 - Tactile and textile arts

Why do you think ordinary activities have such powerful effects on how people cope, connect, and make meaning?

powerful precisely because they are so ordinary - they can be grounding and give a sense of going back to a routine. Taking a step back from the rush of reality and doing something "domestic"

What does “The everyday is deeply embodied” mean?

• Each activity engages the body through touch, rhythm, texture, movement, sensory experiences

• these embodied practices offer comfort, restore calm, anchor people in the present

• Help navigate illness, disability, dementia, trauma, stress

how is Creativity therapeutic and relational

• Whether knitting circles, quilting, groups, or community kitchens, creative practice brings people together

• Create space for connection, storytelling, witnessing, collaboration, mutual care

• Central concerns in health humanities

how do Objects hold stories, memory, identity

• Clothes, quilts, recipes, handmade objects become carriers of personal history, cultural meaning, loss, resilience, self-expression

• Help people reclaim identity (e.g., dementia care), work through grief (e.g., memorial quilts), or imagine themselves differently (enclothed cognition)

Why are “making and doing” considered forms of coping?

• Activities like knitting, stitching, quilting, or cooking are repetitive, absorbing, and sensory.

• These actions help structure time and provide a calming focus.

• They help people manage anxiety, pain, rumination, and emotional overwhelm by grounding attention and soothing the body.

How do everyday practices bridge personal and public health?

Activities like cooking, quilting, and clothing-making connect personal well-being to larger social issues.

• Cooking becomes a lens on food justice…

• Quilts become tools for advocacy…

• Clothing becomes a site of dignity in care settings…

• Expand what “health care” can look like and who gets to participate in it

Clothing/ Fashion/ Textiles

• Clothing sits at the intersection of identity, embodiment, emotion and social meaning

• Extension of self – something that touches the body, shapes how we move, and communicates who we are

Enclothed cognition

• What we wear affects how we think, feel, and act

• Certain garments carry symbolic power – wearer internalizes those meanings

• Clothing isn’t just fabric – it shapes psychological processes

Clothing/ Fashion/ Textiles role in Dignity in care

• Clothing plays a quiet but profound role in how patients understand themselves

• Loss of personal clothing in hospital or LTC can strip people of identity, autonomy and comfort

Clothing/ Fashion/ Textiles role in Dementia and memory

• Textiles, personal garments, and accessory handling can evoke memories, sensations, and stories – even when verbal communication is difficult

• Clothing becomes a multisensory tool for connection and grounding

• Allows people with dementia to express preferences, assert identity, or create boundaries (e.g., coats indicating a desire to go outside)

Appearance

Similar to clothing, fixing one's appearance allows one to assert boundaries and feel more connected to themselves, gain confidence, and shape how we perceive ourselves

Knitting

• A rhythmic, portable craft

• Combines bilateral movement, creativity, and repetition

• Shows how embodied, rhythmic activities can help people manage stress, pain, and difficult life experiences

• How creative communities function as informal health-support networks

Knitting role in Repetition and rhythm

• Induces a meditative or calming state

• Breaks cycles of worry or rumination

• Occupies enough cognitive bandwidth to soothe or distract

• “Therapeutic knitting” literature highlights how it regulates nervous system responses and supports emotional processing

Knitting role in Community and belonging

• Knitting circles create accessible, intergenerational, non-hierarchical spaces for social connection

• Sources of support, identity, and shared care

Knitting and quilting circles

provided safe, supportive spaces to gather and build solidarity

Functioned outside maledominated institutions

19th-20th c.: suffragists and abolitionists did what

knit and quilt to fundraise, organize, protest devaluation of women’s labour

1960s: Freedom Quilting Bee

offered Black women economic power, community, cultural resistance

“Craftivism”

Craft + Activism. Seen most in the 19th-20th centuries for connection and building solidarity outside of the male-dominated institutions. Knitting circles were common to knit and quilt to raise money for protest the devaluation of women's labour

Quilting

• Textile practice that combines design, repetition, storytelling, and communal making

• Like knitting, involves sustained attention, routine, and “flow” states that help with stress reduction and emotional regulation

Quilting role in Memory and narrative

• Quilts are often commemorative – made from clothing of loved ones, marking milestones, or memorializing loss

• eg. AIDS Memorial Quilt

AIDS Memorial Quilt

• Began in 1985 by activist Cleve Jones to honor people who died from AIDS and raise public awareness

• Each panel is the size of a grave (3x6ft) and created by loved ones

• Includes names, stories, personal mementos

• Grown to nearly 50,000 panels

• Widely considered the largest community art project in history

Cooking

Sensory, relational practice tied to nourishment, culture, memory, community

Food justice

• Cooking is inseparable from broader questions of access, affordability, food deserts, cultural foodways, and structural inequities

• Bridges personal, cultural, structural dimensions of health – revealing how nourishment, identity, and justice are connected

Cooking Interactivity and embodiment

• Engages multiple senses and supports intergenerational or cross community learning

• E.g., teaching kitchens with elders, refugees, patients

“Food as medicine”

• Culinary medicine – cooking is a site where trainees learn humility, communication, and attention to patients’ lived realities

• Across centuries, diet has been inseparable from healing

Cooking in Ancient traditions

• Hippocratic medicine saw diet as central to preventing and treating illness

• Foods were used to restore balance between the four humours

• Everyday ingredients (e.g., garlic, pomegranate) functioned as both food and medicine

Cooking in Medieval continuities

• Foods were classified as hot/cold and moist/dry

• Diets tailored to rebalance the body

• Physicians prescribed specific foods for particular conditions

• Emphasis on fresh foods and communal eating

What role does cooking play in traditional healing practices?

ultural and traditional remedies often link foods and herbs to specific discomforts:

• Headaches or joint pain: rose, lavender, sage

• Fever: coriander

• Stomach pain: mint, cumin, anise, porridge

• Wounds: honey

• Balancing “humors” or body balance: hot peppers, watery fruits/vegetables

Why nutrition matters

• 20-50% of patients in Canada arrive in hospital malnourished, leading to longer stays and poorer outcomes

• Hospital-acquired malnutrition stems from unappealing meals, fasting procedures, low prioritization of nutrition

• Well-nourished patients recover faster, have fewer complications, lower readmission risk

• Hospitals are adopting more culturally diverse menus and more appealing and nutritious meals

Objects as anchors (Tactile and textile arts)

• Clothing, quilts, knitting projects, familiar foods act as stabilizing forces during illness, hospitalization, or cognitive change

• Offer continuity when body or environment feel unpredictable

Sensory grounding (Tactile and textile arts)

• Textures, warmth, weight, colour, scent provide comfort and reduce anxiety

• Especially important for people with dementia, chronic pain, or mental health challenges

Emotional and narrative carriers (Tactile and textile arts)

• Items hold personal history – a quilt from someone’s clothing, a favourite sweater, a recipe tied to memory

• Help people remember who they are and maintain a sense of self

• Embody enduring presence of those no longer with us

Participation in care (Tactile and textile arts)

• Handling textiles, cooking small tasks, continuing a knitting project give patients active role in own wellbeing

• Reinforces autonomy and dignity