13. Implications and applications¶
The Land Speaks in Frequencies by Amber O'Kelly
The Forgotten Knowledge¶
The Land Speaks in Frequencies¶
Project Overview¶
The Forgotten Knowledge is a speculative material and textile project that explores the lost relationship between people and land.
Using Irish mythology as a conceptual framework, not nostalgia, this project asks:
What knowledge was embedded in the land before it was erased, extracted, or forgotten?
And more importantly:
What if we could listen to the land again?
This project proposes textiles and materials as listening devices, interfaces between biology, technology, and memory.
Concept¶
Historically, land was not seen as a resource, but as a living system: - forests were sacred - rivers were teachers - fungi were connectors - people were participants, not owners
In Ireland, the destruction of the Celtic rainforest and sacred groves marked a physical and spiritual disconnection between people and place.
This project explores that fracture, and imagines how it might be repaired.
Key Question¶
What if textiles could listen to the land, and respond when connection is thriving?
Core Themes¶
- Land as a living archive
- Textiles as interfaces, not objects
- Biology + technology as collaborators
- Ancestral knowledge translated, not replicated
- Regeneration over extraction
Material & Technical Direction¶
This project experiments with bio-materials, digital fabrication, and sensing systems to translate environmental signals into visible or tactile responses.
Materials explored:¶
- Mycelium (grown, formed, or printed)
- Bio-based textiles
- Waste-derived materials
- Natural pigments and dyes
- Hybrid soft + electronic components
Technologies explored:¶
- Environmental sensors
- Bio-electrical signals (fungi, soil, air)
- Microcontrollers
- Light, vibration, or movement outputs
- Digital fabrication (3D printing, CNC, laser cutting)
Mycelium as Connector¶
Mycelium is central to this project, not symbolically, but structurally.
Fungal networks: - communicate underground - distribute nutrients - respond to environmental stress - form symbiotic relationships
In this project, mycelium becomes: - a material - a signal carrier - a metaphor made functional
“The Land Speaks in Frequencies”¶
Environmental data, from fungi, wind, moisture, or human proximity, is captured through sensors and translated into:
- light
- movement
- vibration
- subtle textile responses
The goal is not spectacle, but attunement.
If the land is healthy, the system responds differently than if it is stressed.
Textiles sit closest to the body.
They are: - intimate - responsive - ancient - universal
By embedding sensing and bio-materials into textiles, this project positions clothing and soft objects as interfaces between human bodies and ecological systems.
You don’t just wear the piece,
the piece teaches you how to listen.
Cultural Context¶
This project draws inspiration from: - Irish mythology and cosmology - Indigenous land-based knowledge systems - Ancient craft traditions - Oral storytelling and non-written archives
Rather than recreating the past, the project translates ancient logic into future materials.
Intended Outcome¶
The final output may take the form of: - a responsive textile or wearable - a sculptural soft object - a material archive - or a modular system combining all three
What matters most is not the object,
but the relationship it creates.
Reflection¶
This project is not about returning to the past.
It is about remembering how to: - listen - notice - respond - and live in symbiosis again
The land has never stopped speaking.
We simply forgot how to hear it.