A visionary in artistic research – Svenja uses textiles to weave connections with nature

Svenja joined the University of Borås through the ArcInTex European Training Network, a programme aimed at strengthening the foundations of design for more sustainable ways of living by connecting architecture, interaction design, and textiles. As a PhD student in the programme, she worked with Svensson AB in Kinna. Inspired by the company’s two departments – one focused on designing and producing interior textiles for the public sector, and the other on manufacturing climate screens for greenhouses – she was inspired to connect the two conceptually.

Svenja, who had previously integrated electronics into textiles to create interactive installations, now turned toward biodesign, focusing on natural materials and living organisms. After numerous experiments, she chose to explore seeds as a dynamic material for textile design. Initially, she transformed her office at Svensson AB and a windowless room adjacent to the PhD workspace into a growing area. However, as her experiments repeatedly failed due to lack of care – and the long commute between Gothenburg, Borås, and Kinna became increasingly exhausting – her frustration steadily grew.

Although Svenja had always considered herself a city person, she felt increasingly drawn to the countryside and eventually decided to design a tiny house on wheels. Amusingly, the house was one of the first built by a former biologist who had started a tiny house company, now known as Vagabond Haven.

"It was because I wanted to experience what I was researching – to explore what sustainable living could be and feel like," she explained.

After completing her dissertation, she received postdoctoral funding from the Swedish Research Council for a project titled Designing and Living with Organisms. The project was hosted by the Centre for Information Technology and Architecture (CITA) at the Royal Danish Academy in Denmark. She relocated – the tiny house and all – to a plot of land generously offered by a friendly landowner, who also happened to be a weaver and ran a weaving school.

Personal experience is the key to understanding.

Since then, Svenja has been involved in several projects where she continues to explore textiles in relation to the elements, the seasons, and living organisms. One such project, Holding Surplus House, builds on the concept of a tiny house on wheels as a framework for experimenting with sustainable resource practices. Coordinated in collaboration with Linnaeus University, the project involves a team of researchers who bring the house to various neighborhoods and communities, setting up seasonal interventions that invite people to engage with resources in new ways, closely tied to the rhythms of nature.

Encouraging reflection

Svenja especially enjoys imagining and creating these seasonal interventions. She initiated the growing of grass inside the house and the installation of an insect tunnel that blurs the boundary between indoors and outdoors. Many of the interventions address environmental challenges and critique unsustainable cultural habits. One example, Living with a Forest Floor, questioned the common practice of removing fallen leaves in autumn – an act that disrupts vital winter habitats for many animals.

As a playful yet thought-provoking response to climate change, Svenja also initiated the flooding of the tiny house to simulate the experience of living with a temperature increase of 3.5 degrees Celsius – inviting reflection on the tangible effects of global warming.

“The impact of just a few degrees of temperature difference is immense – and can be physically felt, especially when using water as a medium. In this experiment, we first experienced the floor covered in a puddle, and just a few weeks later, we were ice-skating on it”, Svenja explained.

Svenja emphasized the importance of designing spaces that enable lived experience as a way of understanding – an area where she believes art and design have much to offer. 

Multisensory experiences are also central to another project she is involved in: the EU-funded initiative MuseIT. This project focuses on developing communication tools that make cultural artifacts more accessible to people with various functional or sensory impairments, such as deafblindness. It has added a new dimension to Svenja’s perspective and inspired her to initiate the VIBRA Research Network. This network brings together artists and designers with entomologists who study vibrational communication in insects, as well as MuseIT researchers and inclusive information practitioners.

I just love weaving connections - like a spider.

Recently, Svenja received funding for a new experimental project titled Weaving as Wordling Practices with Earth Beings (WeB), supported by the Swedish Research Council. The project explores co-creation as a method for generating knowledge and builds a bridge between the I.N.S.E.C.T. Community and the people of Sarayaku, who live in the Ecuadorian rainforest.

As a specialist in more-than-human perspectives in design and the leader of the project team, Svenja is eager to explore how vastly different cultures can connect through a shared reverence for all earth beings.

What drives you as a researcher and artist?

"I simply love connecting – building relationships, weaving networks like a spider. That impulse started early in my undergraduate studies, when I began combining textiles with porcelain and electronics, and it has continued ever since. Right now, I’m fascinated by the intersections between artistic design, biotremology, and inclusive information practices – areas I explore through leading the VIBRA Research Network and the Tactile Stories Project."

"I find it quite natural to see connections between disciplines that haven’t yet been linked, and I genuinely enjoy encouraging others to discover their own role in these emerging conversations—to find their excitement and carve out their own paths."

What do you hope to achieve with your research?

"I want to inspire and empower people to engage more deeply with their everyday lives and lifestyles – to do work that serves all forms of life. My goal is to cultivate awareness, and to express compassion and care through design. I believe design has the power to influence and shape all other fields, and I want to use it to create environments that support vulnerable human and non-human communities alike – environments that allow for rich, meaningful experiences for everyone."

Has it been difficult to get funding for your projects?

"I really enjoy developing innovative projects and crafting funding applications. They’re not always successful, of course, but I’ve been fortunate to receive support for several initiatives that allow me to continue my work. I’m especially grateful for the funding for artistic research provided by the Swedish Research Council – it’s a truly unique funding scheme, even in an international context."

What drives you as a person?

"Aesthetics, experiences, and connections: Looking at color combinations that look so delicious that I feel joy just by seeing them, being surrounded by natural and 'aesthetically vibrating' materials. Living close to the weather and wind, swimming in the lake, heating my house with fire, the wind passing through the open doors and windows in the summer. Seeing animals and plants interact with my objects, pass by or fly through my house, being with people who share similar values, following my intuition, developing new projects and involving other people in them, dreaming about how I could upgrade my living and working environment, witnessing others' joy and creativity and potential, experiencing a sense of wonder and bliss at night while walking through a full moon or dancing, shouting feelings of all kinds in a soft patch of grass or the horizon. I guess that's what makes me feel alive."

Do you live as you preach?

"I try – but I also realize that my needs and interests fluctuate. I try to balance comfort and convenience with experiences that make me feel alive. That's the luxury I'm after and want to share with others."

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Read more about Svenja Keune's research

Svenja Keune maintains a personal website where she showcases and documents her various projects:

Svenja Keune – Communicative Surfaces