In an episode of popular science podcast Invisibilia entitled The Secret Emotional Life of Clothes, the complex and tangible relationship between bodies and cloth is described as enclothed cognition--a term coined by researcher Adam Galinsky. In his rendering, enclothed cognition speaks of the "magic to cloth, it can carry moods and abilities that exist outside of you into your bloodstream, your brain, and change you in quiet but measurable ways" (Galinsky to Spiegal, Rosin). 

With this project, Hannah Zbitnew endeavored to consider how energy can be carried on in cloth. How do we define our clothing as special? As worthy of preservation and care? In folktales, we see cloth, again and again, made and worn as allegories for the future, as forms of protection, and as visual representations of care. To care about something enough to pass it on through generations, be it folktales, shoes, or weaving techniques, there must be a force behind them, stepping forward. For my thesis, Hannah handmade a collection of shoes as a manifestation of enclothed cognition, using references from witch folktales.

The closeness of shoes to the body, a touch separating foot from ground, lends the element of magic to it, which cannot exist without contact with the body. From this investigation, the resulting three pairs of leather, ceramic and woven shoes represent the three phases of witch-hood, the Maiden, Mother and Crone.