Abstract
This paper explores relational fragments from Nordic mythology and folklore through a critical fabulation that was crafted as a situated co-labouring and embodied auto-ethnographic designerly approach to expanding our design practice towards relationality. It is a search for and a move towards “alternative Wests” and seeks to step beyond Design-as-Modern. From the critical fabulation situated insights for designing relationaly are presented, not as a recipe for others but as inspiration for others to engage in their own culture to find their own situated practice.
Keywords
critical fabulation, nordic mythology, alternative wests, situated knowledge, relationality
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/nordes.2025.62
Citation
Rønnest, O.,and Riemann, M.(2025) Knitting for a gnome and other spiritual kindnesses: Fabulating our way into relationality, in Brandt, E., Markussen, T., Berglund, E., Julier, G., Linde, P. (eds.), Nordes 2025: Relational Design, 6-8 August, Oslo, Norway. https://doi.org/10.21606/nordes.2025.62
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Exploratory Papers
Included in
Knitting for a gnome and other spiritual kindnesses: Fabulating our way into relationality
This paper explores relational fragments from Nordic mythology and folklore through a critical fabulation that was crafted as a situated co-labouring and embodied auto-ethnographic designerly approach to expanding our design practice towards relationality. It is a search for and a move towards “alternative Wests” and seeks to step beyond Design-as-Modern. From the critical fabulation situated insights for designing relationaly are presented, not as a recipe for others but as inspiration for others to engage in their own culture to find their own situated practice.