Discussion of the significance of the new Material Turn in Humanities and Social Sciences for the research methods of art and design practices. The paper was originally given to the Line Studies Research Group at RCA 2014 and is developed from the AHRC funded project Empathy By Design (2013-14) which documents the emotional impact of embodies relationship between maker and material. The essay discusses the mutuality of abstract concept and material embodied experience, beyond the phenomenological paradigms of the 19th and 20th century philosophies, into contemporary paradigms of subjectivity. With special interest in the textiles cultures of pre literate society this essay discusses the Kristevan concept of the dyadic nature of semiotic and symbolic textuality. The gendered dimension of soft and hard logic of knowledge are discussed.