Creative interdisciplinary geographies in practice: Stitching sphagnum moss

Pottinger, Laura; Bernau, Anke; Bleach, Abigail; Cobbett, Amanda; Dodhia, Khushi; Flint, Abbi; Fredriksen, Aurora; Hall, Antony; Hanson, Ingrid; Hughes, Oliver TW; King, Sophy; Linney, Natalie; James, D Henry; Pearson, Kayley; PICKARD, JOSEPH; Ritson, Jonathan; Shuttleworth, Emma; Tozzi, Arianna; Webster, Rachel E

doi:10.1177/14744740251358283

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Creative interdisciplinary geographies in practice: Stitching sphagnum moss

Laura Pottinger

, Anke Bernau, Abigail Bleach, Amanda Cobbett, Khushi Dodhia, Abbi Flint, Aurora Fredriksen

, Antony Hall, Ingrid Hanson, Oliver TW Hughes

, Sophy King, Natalie Linney, D Henry James McPherson

, Kayley Pearson, JOSEPH PICKARD, Jonathan Ritson, Emma Shuttleworth, Arianna Tozzi, Rachel E Webster

Cultural Geographies

Swansea University Author: JOSEPH PICKARD

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DOI (Published version): 10.1177/14744740251358283

Abstract

How might we get to know moss on more intimate terms? This paper outlines a creative stitching workshop as a method for facilitating interdisciplinary collaboration and for encouraging slowly paced, tactile ways of noticing and getting to know plants – in this case, sphagnum mosses. We reflect on Mo...

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Published in:	Cultural Geographies
ISSN:	1474-4740 1477-0881
Published:	SAGE Publications 2025
Online Access:	Check full text
URI:	https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa72030

first_indexed	2026-06-09T10:06:38Z
last_indexed	2026-06-09T10:06:38Z
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spelling	v2 72030 2026-06-09 Creative interdisciplinary geographies in practice: Stitching sphagnum moss a83f8ca0533db7a6e97777e837615a80 JOSEPH PICKARD JOSEPH PICKARD true false 2026-06-09 How might we get to know moss on more intimate terms? This paper outlines a creative stitching workshop as a method for facilitating interdisciplinary collaboration and for encouraging slowly paced, tactile ways of noticing and getting to know plants – in this case, sphagnum mosses. We reflect on MossWorlds, a project bringing together artists and academics from a variety of disciplines in the social and physical sciences and humanities. Via a series of experimental and playful interventions, the project investigates the historical, contemporary and future importance of mosses in Greater Manchester. Our ‘Moss Stitch’ workshop, held in the University of Manchester’s geography laboratories, invited participants to get to know (sphagnum) moss more intimately by stitching it. This task required focused attention and tactile engagement with mosses and materials, opening a space for knowing mosses otherwise. Drawing together reflections from workshop participants we consider what it means to carry out creative, cultural geographic practice in geography laboratories – spaces traditionally reserved for physical geographers and the ‘hard’ environmental sciences. We ask how performing soft forms of textile making might subvert these spaces and norms. Journal Article Cultural Geographies 0 SAGE Publications 1474-4740 1477-0881 creative methods, interdisciplinary, moss, textiles, vegetal geographies 6 9 2025 2025-09-06 10.1177/14744740251358283 COLLEGE NANME COLLEGE CODE Swansea University Another institution paid the OA fee The MossWorlds project was supported by the University of Manchester Research Institute (UMRI) award (UMRI-34501). 2026-06-09T11:53:47.5611879 2026-06-09T10:54:38.9868573 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences Laura Pottinger 0000-0002-8833-8975 1 Anke Bernau 2 Abigail Bleach 3 Amanda Cobbett 4 Khushi Dodhia 5 Abbi Flint 6 Aurora Fredriksen 0000-0003-4287-3443 7 Antony Hall 8 Ingrid Hanson 9 Oliver TW Hughes 0009-0002-3730-3067 10 Sophy King 11 Natalie Linney 12 D Henry James McPherson 0000-0002-5351-2494 13 Kayley Pearson 14 JOSEPH PICKARD 15 Jonathan Ritson 16 Emma Shuttleworth 17 Arianna Tozzi 18 Rachel E Webster 19 72030__36895__93ba602e0f2b4b519eeb97c87245ee88.pdf 72030.VOR.pdf 2026-06-09T11:04:27.8316831 Output 3933286 application/pdf Version of Record true © The Author(s) 2025. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. true eng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title	Creative interdisciplinary geographies in practice: Stitching sphagnum moss
spellingShingle	Creative interdisciplinary geographies in practice: Stitching sphagnum moss JOSEPH PICKARD
title_short	Creative interdisciplinary geographies in practice: Stitching sphagnum moss
title_full	Creative interdisciplinary geographies in practice: Stitching sphagnum moss
title_fullStr	Creative interdisciplinary geographies in practice: Stitching sphagnum moss
title_full_unstemmed	Creative interdisciplinary geographies in practice: Stitching sphagnum moss
title_sort	Creative interdisciplinary geographies in practice: Stitching sphagnum moss
author_id_str_mv	a83f8ca0533db7a6e97777e837615a80
author_id_fullname_str_mv	a83f8ca0533db7a6e97777e837615a80_***_JOSEPH PICKARD
author	JOSEPH PICKARD
author2	Laura Pottinger Anke Bernau Abigail Bleach Amanda Cobbett Khushi Dodhia Abbi Flint Aurora Fredriksen Antony Hall Ingrid Hanson Oliver TW Hughes Sophy King Natalie Linney D Henry James McPherson Kayley Pearson JOSEPH PICKARD Jonathan Ritson Emma Shuttleworth Arianna Tozzi Rachel E Webster
format	Journal article
container_title	Cultural Geographies
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publishDate	2025
institution	Swansea University
issn	1474-4740 1477-0881
doi_str_mv	10.1177/14744740251358283
publisher	SAGE Publications
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department_str	School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences
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description	How might we get to know moss on more intimate terms? This paper outlines a creative stitching workshop as a method for facilitating interdisciplinary collaboration and for encouraging slowly paced, tactile ways of noticing and getting to know plants – in this case, sphagnum mosses. We reflect on MossWorlds, a project bringing together artists and academics from a variety of disciplines in the social and physical sciences and humanities. Via a series of experimental and playful interventions, the project investigates the historical, contemporary and future importance of mosses in Greater Manchester. Our ‘Moss Stitch’ workshop, held in the University of Manchester’s geography laboratories, invited participants to get to know (sphagnum) moss more intimately by stitching it. This task required focused attention and tactile engagement with mosses and materials, opening a space for knowing mosses otherwise. Drawing together reflections from workshop participants we consider what it means to carry out creative, cultural geographic practice in geography laboratories – spaces traditionally reserved for physical geographers and the ‘hard’ environmental sciences. We ask how performing soft forms of textile making might subvert these spaces and norms.
published_date	2025-09-06T11:53:49Z
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score	11.108223

Creative interdisciplinary geographies in practice: Stitching sphagnum moss

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