EKSIG 2019: Knowing Together – experiential knowledge and collaboration Collaborative Ecologies through Material Entanglements Miranda Smitheram, Auckland University of Technology Frances Joseph, Auckland University of Technology Abstract This paper addresses aspects of collaboration and conceptual frameworks in practice that are central to our project, Phenomenal Dress. The research has been informed by material thinking, posthuman theory and New Zealand Māori perspectives, through processes of “making-with” (Haraway, 2016). Working with an ecosystem, engaging with localized non- human phenomena as well as cultural and scientific experts, mediated materials, textile surfaces as new forms of “dress-action” (Tiainen, Kontturi and Hongisto, 2015) have been developed through relational entanglement. The artefacts produced in the project are not functional or fashionable products, they are matter flows, formed through diverse perspectives and collaborative processes. They suggest a reconsideration of dress as material-aesthetic activations and pathway towards co-emergent understanding. Through this approach, the ecosystem is recognised as the primary collaborator, repositioning human and more-than-human relationships. This approach is informed by Māori knowledge and ways of knowing (mātauranga Māori), perspectives of kaitiakitanga (stewardship) and deeper relationship with the lifeworld through acts of sensing, noticing, making and following. The methodology is grounded in an ontological shift away from human-centredness, where matter and place have been positioned as object, to focus instead on matter as vital collaborator and place as habitat where the interconnections between things can be expressed. Keywords Collaboration; Whakapapa; Materiality; Making-with; De-centred design The complex environmental impacts of human actions on the world cannot be addressed within a single disciplinary framework. Collaboration is fundamental to the exploration of these pressing issues, with a growing body of research into forms and methods of interdisciplinary collaboration (Darbellay et al, 2014; Szostak, 2017). Collaborations between the arts and sciences have gained momentum, however, there are fundamental assumptions behind most cross-disciplinary research approaches that stems from our immersion in western knowledge frameworks. If research is to move beyond disciplinary boundaries and transcend the limitations of their established worldviews (Klein, 1990) attention must be paid to ontological positions outside of established western paradigms and to emergent methodological approaches that enable new conceptual frameworks in practice, supported by more interconnected forms of collaboration. Anna Tsing (2015) argues that staying alive— for every species—requires liveable collaborations, and that collaboration means working across difference. This paper addresses the emergent frameworks, collaborative forms of engagement and