Materializing More-than-Human Data through Mapping Wools

This paper explores how data, through design, can take the form of new materialities, by mapping wool and revealing its close relationship with humans, sheep, and the more-than-human world. Globalization is putting local wool realities, along with their broader ecological systems, increasingly at risk. Focusing on local wool, which is connected to the animals and their ecosystem, we explore how invisible data can be uncovered and reinterpreted to foster a deeper understanding of the entanglements of highly vital material and highlight opportunities for alternative narratives. Using participatory methods and design probes as primary methodologies, the research examines how these approaches can reveal insights into the relationships between human and non-human actors. Through this lens, the paper aims to contribute to the discourse on material-driven design practices and the potential for data to serve as a medium for engaging with complex interspecies networks. It addresses the exploration, Mapping Wools of South Tyrol and Beyond, as part of the design-led research project Feral Wool to answer how data can be gathered and materialized with a more-than-human perspective. The wool mapping invites the public to look at and sense the relational data that comes from wool, the perspective of the sheep, and their relationship with their human caretakers. Drawing on the outcome of the mapping intervention, we reflect on the role of design in finding new ways of generating and representing data that transcends anthropocentrism. Moreover, we explore how materiality can help missing and neglected datasets to be generated and shared collectively.