Creative methods involve both the adaptation of existing social science methods, as well as the use of methods from outsides the social sciences (such as arts based and design-based methods). This seminar will introduce material methods as an example of creative methods to think about how existing methods can be rethought (such as interviews can be adapted to object-based elicitation interviews), as well as examples of more design-based approaches (such as cultural probes). By taking the example of Professor Sophie Woodward’s fieldwork into dormant things (things people keep in attics, wardrobes and cupboards that they are no longer using), the seminar will consider how object-based methods allow us to ask new questions of our research and data. Focusing specifically on object-based ethnography and the multiple methods it incorporates (observation, participation, interviews and visual methods), Professor Sophie Woodward will think about how these allow insights into everyday life.