Mirabilia Domestica - a guided tour through a cabinet of textile wonders

Recording of presentation given at Vital Signs 2 Conference, 7-9 September 2010, University of Manchester
In 16th century Europe, scholars were striving to come to a better understanding of the diversity and complexity of the world by creating a microcosm of its wonders in their collections of naturalia and artificalia. These cabinets of curiosities were significant sites for material, scientific and artistic investigations; in present-day terminology they could be described as interdisciplinary practice-based research and resource centres. Acknowledged as the forerunner to universities, museums and galleries alike, the pre-disciplinary Wunderkammer has been rediscovered in recent years as an alternative model for knowledge derived through sensory correspondences rather than linguistic means, linked to contemporary contexts of interdisciplinarity and likened to the visual networks of digital technologies.

Inspired by the model of the past, its enduring legacy and subversive potential, textile artist and researcher Solveigh Goett has created her cabinet of domestic wonders to be explored by curious hands and minds in search of missing links in the fabric of life. Mirabilia Domestica draws on tacit textile knowledge and pays homage to the small things whose significance is often overlooked; it is a space for meaning making, memory work, enchantment, evocation and flights of the imagination. In words and images, through fabrics and fabrications, this paper reflects on concepts of curiosity, meandering methods and sensory investigations that challenge the logo-centric bias of academia as well as the ocular-centricity of the visual arts.