(Waste) Fibre Flows Laboratory

(Waste) Fibre Flows Laboratory is an experimental space that explores the potential of waste materials as a site for collaborative, interdisciplinary learning, material experimentation, and critical reflection on sustainability. The project engages multiple perspectives, artists, theorists, policymakers, environmentalists, and community members,  to collectively interrogate and imagine possibilities for waste as a resource, considering its social, ecological, and material dimensions.

The laboratory functions as a research space where hands-on work, dialogue, and speculative thinking intersect. Working directly with textile waste, participants investigate its qualities, potential, and broader implications, generating knowledge through practice rather than solely through theory.

A public performative action took place in Cork City Council Chamber in November 2022, featuring textile artists Helen O’Shea and Caroline Smith alongside urban theorist Roy Wroth. This event acted as a catalyst for dialogue, inviting reflection on the challenges and opportunities presented by waste as a material and social resource. The outcomes of this research were shared through exhibitions and symposiums, including Tentacular Thinking at the James Barry Exhibition Centre, MTU Cork, and the Staying with the Trouble Symposium at the Rory Gallagher Theatre, MTU Bishopstown Campus, Cork, 2023.

Initiated by Colette Lewis as part of an Artist Placement with The KinShip Project, a durational public artwork situated in Tramore Valley Park — a remediated landfill now functioning as a public park — the laboratory situates creative practice within a transitional ecological and social context. The project was led by artists LennonTaylor in partnership with Cork City Council and supported by the Creative Ireland Climate Action Award, emphasising the potential of relationships, materials, and collaborative practice to reveal alternative ways of understanding and engaging with our environment.
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