As part of our online interview series for The Textile Museum Journal, contributing scholar Myriem Naji explores “designing without design” in the Sirwa weaving communities of southern Morocco. 

In this online discussion, Dr. Naji questions the idea that carpets must be designed with precise and prescriptive representational devices. Using an approach that highlights knowledge, creativity and hands-on making, Dr. Naji focuses on ways that weavers create without  knot plans, cartoons or other tools to guide their work — instead using their bodies, materials and social surroundings. Her insights are based on ethnographic fieldwork with several Tashelhit-speaking Amazigh weaving communities in the Sirwa Mountains.