Shapeshifting: A Conference on Transformative Paradigms of Fashion and Textile Design

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https://hdl.handle.net/10292/8553

This publication presents 30 selected papers developed from an initial 47 presentations made at the Shapeshifting Conference held in Auckland in April 2014. The conference explored transformative paradigms in fashion and textile design through four thematic frameworks including Ambiguous & Automated Forms; Surface & Structural Transformations; The Fashion System & The Ephemeral; and Transformational Strategies. Shapeshifting, as a process of change and responsive agency is considered in these papers as a concern with cultures of transformation, navigations of the social and technological and the transversal hacker who unpicks and revises in order to contest what is current and deliver our future.

Editors: Frances Joseph, Mandy Smith, Miranda Smitheram and Jan Hamon

All 30 papers selected for publication were double blind peer reviewed by an international panel of fashion and textile experts and academic reviewers.

The publication has been produced by the Textile and Design Laboratory and Colab at the Auckland University of Technology, February 2015.

ISBN: 978-1-927184-27-1

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Now showing 1 - 20 of 30

Transformation: the conjunction of crafted process and the brain as memory repository
(Textile and Design Lab and Colab at Auckland University of Technology, 2014) Little, Marlene
Acknowledging Otto Von Busch’s work, “Shapeshifting can be considered a capacity or potential of sentient beings, a capability of organisms to auto-transformations, as responsive agency to their settings.” Fusing textiles and photography, this paper considers the contribution a practice-based, conceptual approach to textiles can make to the exploration and visualization of the morphing of memory and, in the process, considers the transformative, “shapeshifting” powers at work within the human brain. A cluster of diagnostic descriptors (including vascular cognitive impairment, Alzheimer’s disease, dementia with Lewy bodies and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease) provide reference points for causal factors and anticipated transformative outcomes associated with changes in brain function. This paper explores new territory with its linking of this “wearing” or “abrading” of memory to analogue photographic materiality and the understated significance of textile substrates or objects. All share varying degrees of disappearance or transformation: from the “gaps” that appear in recall; the physicality of the unravelling thread and thinning construction of the worn textile substrate; the “invisible” ubiquity of textiles: and the creased, faded, well-handled materiality of the analogue family snapshot or studio portrait (now increasingly supplanted by digital files). The repositioning and revaluing of a return to craft, to labour intensive, accumulative practices, play their part in this evolving narrative of creative practice. The paradigmatic shift can be expressed through the conjunction of image and substrate; process and outcome – constructing, re-imaging, unpicking, re-forming, transforming and revealing – a transformation that calls upon this twinning of concept and substrate, craft and process to explore the universal human concern of the morphing of memory housed within the shapeshifting repository of the human brain.
Frozen waves: exploring the transformation between sound and object
(Textile and Design Lab and Colab at Auckland University of Technology, 2014) van Melle, Gerbrand; Marks, Stefan
In the project Frozen Waves, audio recordings are translated into physical objects and vice versa. Time is temporarily captured in space – space is released back into time. In doing so, the potential of visual music (Friedlander, 1998) and second order cybernetics (Von Foerster, 1975; Glanville, 2004) are used to develop a new experience that synthesizes sound and visual components into dynamic material form. In this “aesthetically potent environment” (Pask, 1969, p. 76), the research engages with digital ontology, sound visualization, sampling methods, and generative design practice. Similar works are Studio Realität (2008), Fischer (2010), Azzaro (2013), Paul (2012), and Ghassaei (2012). The idea explored in this project is that objects are continuously changing processes in time. Through consecutive iterations of sound recordings, sound spectrum analysis, parametric 3D model creation, and materializing methods such as 3D printing, temporary physical representations of the acoustic world around the observer surface and are recomposed. These objects can, in turn, be immaterialized back to sounds that they were generated from, albeit in a form that is modified and shaped by their transformation process. Emerging design work implies a semiotic polyvalence that is realized through a process of techno-transformative and generative methods. As such new patterns are created, comprising single parts that are restructured into rhythmic patterns. The individual samples do not act as quotes; instead they operate as generative material for systemic combination. This project aims to act as a Front End creative inquiry (Sanders & Stappers, 2012) and its purpose is to trigger the audience to consider the potentials of sound as a form of unique, material user experience.
S.A.R.A.: synesthetic augmented reality application
(Textile and Design Lab and Colab at Auckland University of Technology, 2014) Benitez, Margarita; Vogl, Markus
S.A.R.A. (synesthetic augmented reality application) is an App exploring the potential of using a mobile device as a unique and wearable musical interface. S.A.R.A. was originally developed as a standalone App to translate the surrounding environment into sounds on mobile devices (iPhone and Android), creating a digitally augmented synesthetic experience. The imagery captured via the mobile device’s onboard camera is translated into synesthetic-inspired sounds. Our interests in developing this project stemmed from the desire to explore the following research questions. Can technology be used to create a synesthetic augmented reality? What sonochromatic sound mapping should be used? Do we allow for a variety of mapping choices? Should a visual element be used as well? While investigating these research veins it led us to the realization that the S.A.R.A. App and interface would be best explored in a performance setting, therefore we arranged to collaborate with a local dance troupe that agreed to utilize S.A.R.A. as part of their repertoire. The performance version of the S.A.R.A. App is a fully interactive App that generates both its own sounds and visuals based on the camera video input and the movement of the device. The mobile device is complemented by a pico laser and mounted in a sleeve worn by each of the four dancers. S.A.R.A. becomes an extension of the dancer’s arm and allows for natural movement to occur. The role of the performers is also augmented as they are now gatekeepers of what sounds are made, as well as what images are projected, by deciding what live imagery and angles look most appealing to rebroadcast. Performers can choose to project images on themselves, their coperformers, or on to the architectural structures of the venue. This format allows for a completely new interaction with wearable technology; augmenting and mediating their performance via several technological input and output mechanisms while still maintaining choreography, as well as allowing for subjective choices during the performance. The performance setting brought up additional questions. How wearable can these devices be made in their current configuration? What is the best placement on the body for these devices that does not impede movement but allows for maximum control of the App? What does it mean when one performer wears a device like this? Multiple performers? Does wearing this device change the role or mechanism of the performer? Does the lighting need to be thought out differently for the stage and the performers? Should additional light be placed on the dancers if they can’t be lit in traditional methods? Can other dance troupes benefit from the technology? During various beta performances it became obvious that the lighting source needed to be on the performers’ bodies rather than from an external source. In response we are creating custom LED to provide a light source for the camera to pick up imagery more effectively. The LEDs were integrated into a neck cowl and the rest of the costume is designed in white to easily provide a surface to project on. Although within a set choreography, the performer’s role changes as their body’s interactions directly produce sounds. The Human Computer Interaction between the dancers and the technology as an extension of their bodies creates an altered/mediated/mitigated performance environment that is always unique to the specific performance venue. S.A.R.A. is not only an interface and an interactive software application for consumption, play, discovery and joy, but is also a jump off point for a larger discussion on transformational strategies in regards to both S.A.R.A. as a wearable musical/performance interface but additionally in the Open Source distribution of S.A.R.A. as a tool. The technology will be released open source and it is potentially possible to custom craft new versions for every performance or for other dance troupes to adapt the technology with their artistic vision. Creating the App for an existing platform device such as an iPod touch and utilizing a relatively inexpensive laser pico projector (less than $500), S.A.R.A. can be added relatively simply and cheaply as a versatile tool to their technology performance toolkit. Therefore the artwork we created provides a new tool set for other artists.
Tactility and experience as transformational strategy
(Textile and Design Lab and Colab at Auckland University of Technology, 2014) Riisberg, Vibeke; Louise Bang, Anne; Locher, Laura; Breuil Moat, Alina
The Awareness Project investigates the following question: Can dialogue tools that challenge tactile competencies support the development of fashion and textile design in a sustainable direction? In this article, we pay special attention to user engagement and design education and discuss experiences of tactile sensibility as a means to create increased awareness about the material quality of textiles and garments. The aim of our research is to develop new dialogue tools to be used in the teaching of fashion and textile design students in order to stimulate new ways of thinking and engaging with users. By employing participatory methods in the field of fashion and textiles, we seek to develop an alternative transformational strategy that may further the design of products and services for a more sustainable future. In the initial theoretical section, we define tactile sensibility, which is at the core of our research question. Next, we take a closer look at what constitutes an experience and how scholars in the field of fashion and textiles connect this to sustainability issues. Subsequently, we describe the methodical basis of the dialogue tool and our empirical material. We base our discussion on two experiments conducted as part of the Awareness Project. The outcome of the study shows new ways of establishing dialogue between users and designers, as well as furthering reflection and verbalization of areas within the perception of textile and fashion products that are often considered “tacit knowledge” and a “tacit experience”. Finally, we conclude that if designers wish to promote change related to sustainability, it is likely that an embodied participatory dialogue that builds on the combination of user experience and tactile sensibility can be further developed into didactic tools to support a “new design paradigm” and eventually contribute to changes in the fast fashion system.
The fashion system and the ephemeral: ballet and costume
(Textile and Design Lab and Colab at Auckland University of Technology, 2014) O’Brien, Caroline
This paper interrogates the theory that dress is synonymous with the identity of the ballerina. Rooted in the seventeenth century French court, classical ballet is perhaps our last vestige of aristocratic manners and civility. The early court dances were encumbered by dress of the day, arguably identifiable in its silhouette and material composition. In 1832 Marie Taglioni made a landmark contribution to the ballet, the combination of the romantic tutu and the satin slippers that allowed her to elevate onto her toes. The ballerina evolved over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as an iconic symbol of feminine virtue, permitting an earthbound mortal with a gift for movement to transcend her corporeal bonds and hover over the earth. The religion of the ballerina might be described as an art of high ideals and self-control in which a public aristocratic bearing and grace symbolize private virtue and an elevated state of being. The classical tutu is an esoteric garment, an evolution of theatrical pragmatism and ephemeral fashion, but in its lightness, sparkle and elegance, in the craft and dedication that go into its making, the tutu embodies everything that ballet is about. This paper considers the ways the tutu constructs and articulates an appropriate ballerina femininity, demonstrating that this iconic functional artefact of the ballet is beautiful in its own right. Expressive of the dichotomy inherent to the life of the ballerina, the pristine surface exists in sharp contrast to the stains of sweat and makeup combined with the tang of anxiety embedded in the layers, illuminating the signs of a ballerina’s work. The trained and honed contours of the ballerina body become transformed in the adoption of the carapace that is the bodice bordered with a wide froth of pleated netting. The garment offers a fragile, protective space that defines a boundary between the unfinished, vulnerable, leaky-at-the-margins body and the pristine and glittering seamless surface. The geometric and architectural shapes performed by the ballerina present an infinitely recognizable silhouette on the stage. The ballet costume sustains and is sustained by the aristocratic codes of manners and behaviour, and has continued to transform itself innumerable times during its history. If classical ballet is about movement, theatrical presentation and storytelling, the tutu becomes the only material evidence of the performance while the dance itself remains an ephemeral art form, leaving no record.
Flirting with uncertainty: mutability, metamorphosis, and fashionability in the Greco-Roman imagination
(Textile and Design Lab and Colab at Auckland University of Technology, 2014) McFerrin, Neville
For many ancient Greek and Roman men, fashion was fear: fear of the unknown, fear of the other, but most importantly, fear of the uncontrollable. The distinctly female ability to adopt and maintain multiple identities- shifting from daughter to wife to mother- was essential to the success of the creation of stable familial units, ensuring that wives could effectively transfer their loyalties from their natal households to that of their husbands. Despite the fact that Greek and Roman societal structures obligated women to take on multiple guises, their ability to do so fostered deep anxieties in their male counterparts. These anxieties centred on the limits of female mutability. For if change continued unchecked, women who might once have made respectable brides could become literal shapeshifters, monsters such as Medusa and Scylla, existing on the borders of society, out of the boundaries of male control. While living women could not shift from woman to beast in the manner of their mythic counterparts, they had the ability to exert their agency through mimetic acts, deliberately altering their physical appearance using cosmetics, dress accessories, and clothing. Such trappings of femininity loom large in both Greek and Latin textual sources and in visual representations of female dress. This article will explore the range of ways in which Greek and Roman audiences articulated connections between fashionable dress and both physical and mental alteration. By analysing sumptuary legislation and moral discourse on female dress, it will argue that the fear of semiotic confusion central to myths of female monsters was articulated in the real world through a distrust of fashionable women. But while textual sources give insight into the male viewpoint, to grapple with potential female conceptualizations of selfhood and its connection to selfpresentation, we must turn to the visual. Through a close visual analysis of the wall paintings of Room 5 in the Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii, this article will conclude that while Greek and Roman men might have believed that fashion made women into monsters, in the hands of women, fashion was an instrument of transcendence. In the complex visual sphere of Room 5, the reduplication of depicted dress and adornment allowed women to exert the positive aspects of mutability, picturing a metamorphosis from woman to goddess, rather than from woman into beast.
MakeUse V2: digital textile technology for user modifiable zero waste fashion
(Textile and Design Lab and Colab at Auckland University of Technology, 2014) McQuillan, Holly
The evolving discourse on zero waste fashion design addresses justifications and approaches for designing and making these garments in ways that attempt to fit within the existing structure of fashion education and industry. However, little has been explored about the relationship between the outcomes of zero waste fashion design and the potentially elevated fashion user experience it might enable. This paper and associated creative works explore the emerging field of enriching the fashion user experience: the post-production and post-retail environment; an area that historically the fashion industry has given little attention to. MakeUse builds on Kate Fletcher’s work within Local Wisdom, specifically in the context of what she terms the Craft of Use of clothing, and the application of knowledge and skill which enables us to “mitigate … intensify, and adapt” clothing to suit our lives. MakeUse places zero waste fashion practice in the context of user practice, where the user becomes an agent in both the design and ongoing use and modification of the garment. Through actions and opportunities facilitated by the designer, an enriched designer/maker/user relationship is possible. Using methods such as digital textile print and embroidery, embedded instructional material, online support and distributed production, MakeUse provides user modifiable zero waste fashion products and an associated product use experience that acknowledges both the opportunities and limitations each user brings, while intensifying their skills, knowledge, needs and desires.
Imaginative voyaging: fashion practice as a ‘site’ for wonder and enchantment
(Textile and Design Lab and Colab at Auckland University of Technology, 2014) Chant, Armando
The aim of this paper is to explore the state of wonder within a transitional and transformative context and its potential to inform experimental fashion practices. In particular it will focus on the emotionally generative possibilities that wonder and enchantment can have on our experience of fashion. Wonder itself can take a number of forms, whether it entails being “wonder struck” by an event or something that has been seen, or to wonder as in to question, to be curious, to harbour doubt. It is this questioning and openness that is the basis of wonder’s connection to the artistic process and this paper examines how it can be applied within a fashion context. This approach to creative practice and its connection to wonder has its theoretical foundations in the work of authors such as Greenblatt and Kosky. The state of wonder itself has the potential to engage our imagination with fashion “encounters”. Familiar enchanting sites for encounter and possible wonder sites within a fashion context include the fashion show, which in recent times has expanded to encompass installation and presentation formats. These shows and their inducement of a potential sense of wonder, owe much to their large scale and performative nature. Examples of this include the presentations and collaborative projects of designers and practitioners such as Alexander McQueen and Hussein Chalayan. Here the fashion “experience” is transient and ephemeral in nature, where those present gain the full impact or experience of the encounter. As Andrew Bolton (Bolton & Koda, 2011), referencing Alexander McQueen’s immersive and sometimes confronting presentations states, “McQueen validates powerful emotions as compelling and undeniable sources of aesthetic experiences”. This paper explores how, rather than the ephemeral fashion experience or “moment” being seen as a final outcome, one which is the domain of large scale fashion brands, it can also have relevance to small scale experimental fashion practices and within this context be present within the design process itself. The paper focuses on exploring the transitional “moments” or potential encounters that happen within the fashion design process for both practitioners and their audience. The paper reframes the fashion design process as a series of potential wonder sites, where further creative exploration can occur, not within the clearly defined areas of a traditional practice, but those that exist in the shadows or void. This reframing is further enhanced within the context of an interdisciplinary approach, where the oscillation between mediums, creative approaches and technologies has offered opportunity for innovation and for traditional approaches to fashion practice to be broken down. In conclusion the paper explores how an interdisciplinary approach to fashion practice provides a destabilized or disruptive experience of the fashion process, therefore opening up possibilities for our engagement with wonder in fashion, thereby potential sites of fashion encounters are expanded and go beyond traditional final outcomes.
Triangles in silk: piecing together a practice of upcycling
(Textile and Design Lab and Colab at Auckland University of Technology, 2014) McCorkill, Georgia
Sustainable fashion design is typically approached through the deployment of a combination of design strategies. One such strategy that enjoys popular use in the sustainable fashion lexicon is ‘‘upcycling”. Upcycling, an evolution of the term recycling, means to increase the value of something through creative intervention and enable it to re-enter the product life cycle. This term is placed in opposition to down-cycling, which implies a transformation to something of lesser value. Locating upcycling as a value term is contentious as there is no universal measure by which greater worth than the original can be assessed. Upcycling within fashion design is accomplished by various methods depending on context. Bespoke creation of one-off pieces is one method that is appropriate to collections of quality fabrics of non-uniform size and quantity. Such materials must be individually crafted into one-off garments by the designer/maker in the manner of a bespoke craftsperson. In doing this, designers draw on a unique combination of qualities including aesthetic taste, exploratory problem solving and hand making techniques. They also derive pleasure from immersion in the laborious toil of executing painstaking work. This paper seeks to tease out practices of upcycling within the bespoke designer/ maker context through reflection on a creative research practice titled “The Red Carpet Project”. This practice is focused on the design of special occasion dresses informed by principles of design for sustainability. Projects involve engaging stakeholders in the processes of designing, making and wearing special occasion dresses for significant events referred to as “red carpet” situations. These projects each use a strategy of upcycling of fabric remnants sourced from local Melbourne bridal couture businesses. The approach to upcycling, with which this practice is aligned, treats the textile source as laden with information that guides the form of the new garment; the bridal couturier uses large pattern pieces to form garment components. This results in substantial remnants that are generally triangular in shape. On observation, patterns emerge; piecing together the shapes in such a way that utilizes the drape of the fabric, and creating an end product that is aesthetically distinct from the dresses the fabric was initially intended for, are two factors that lead the design process. In sustainability terms, the justification is made that, because the textile remnants have been diverted from landfill, their use to create new garments constitutes upcycling. This paper will discuss the strategic deployment of upcycling within the context of this fashion practice, and will emphasize the value of the bespoke design system as a crucial enabler in sustainable fashion practice.
In high heels on shifting ground: fashioning lives in the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquake
(Textile and Design Lab and Colab at Auckland University of Technology, 2014) Cie, Christina
Clothing serves as a marker of identity, but how do you dress when you have nothing left but the clothes that you were wearing when you had to run? Who are you, when dressed entirely in someone else’s choice of clothes? Does the resourcefulness necessary for self-expression under such circumstances also reinforce our ability to cope and survive on a more than material level? What can losing everything help us to remember? Taking the earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand as its starting point, this article will examine the usefulness of fashion, sometimes dismissed as a “frivolous” concern, during times of crisis. It will consider examples from these and other catastrophic events, considering how individuals and communities have used fashion as an expression of resilience and to defy the devastation wrought by disaster (Howell, 2012; Labrum, McKergow, & Gibson, 2007). The article will be structured to consider the “epicentre” of the effect of the earthquake, as on the individual, the wider social ramifications as the tremors ripple out, and the aftershocks that can continue to disrupt attempts at re-establishing daily patterns. “Habitus” is defined as a state of mind by the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (Bourdieu & Nice 1977). It is what we practice, what has been “preached” to us, and what we have picked up from our surroundings. However, this mental space, a culmination of personal and cultural memory, requires a habitat, a physical place for its expression and evolution. Analysis of the success of the temporary Re:START mall, created from shipping containers, offers a case study on the role of fashion, as retail and spectacle, in the vigorously debated regeneration of this city. Workplaces, offices, bars and clubs serve as venues for interaction, identification and individuality, but if we dress up to go out, what happens when there is nowhere left to go to? If the street is gone, how could a shop serve “street style”, and act as a site for social interaction as well as retail and revenue? What role can fashion play in reinvigorating public spaces and events in a devastated area? From individual efforts to community initiatives, what is the role of fashion in the recovery of a city, and the cultural life of a region?
Wear, repair and remake: the evolution of fashion practice by design
(Textile and Design Lab and Colab at Auckland University of Technology, 2014) Cramer, Jo
Through my postgraduate, fashion practice-based research project, The Living Wardrobe, I have become increasingly interested in garment design that specifically facilitates future alteration and modification. There is potential for such a simple design approach to encourage habits of reduced consumption when garments are kept in use by adapting to wearers’ changing needs. Once a common provision in garments, the capacity for alteration is largely missing from contemporary women’s wear. The economies of mass production reduce seam allowances to the minimum required for assembly, while complex industrial construction methods deter intervention. At the same time, the practical skills of repair and alteration are rarely learnt anymore. So passive has fashion consumption become and so disposable are the products that a dropped hem, ripped seam or missing button usually consigns a garment to the (charity) bin and justifies another trip to the boutiques. In an attempt to disrupt this cycle, my research looks at design strategies with the potential to re-engage the wearer in habits of wear, repair and remake. Designing garments with the adaptability required for prolonged, active use enables garments to better keep up with the times, changing style (not merely fit) over time. This approach to product longevity considers the use of the garment across multiple lifetimes, acknowledging that a garment may have several sequential owners. Through a discussion of recently developed garment prototypes, this paper will outline the challenges I have encountered in designing garments to actively engage consumers in this cycle of wear, repair and remake. These challenges range from the practical, technical and the aesthetic to considerations of participatory design strategies, consumer education, design authorship, and alternative models of fashion production and consumption. This discussion further considers the impact of this research on my fashion practice. The Living Wardrobe aims to be a fashion practice that accepts responsibility for the design agency of the garments it creates. Remaking my practice to this end has fundamentally shifted how I approach design development, fashion production and communication, suggesting a new model of fashion design practice for sustainability.
The transformative cuts: new foundations in pattern cutting and approximations of the body
(Textile and Design Lab and Colab at Auckland University of Technology, 2014) Lindqvist, Rickard
Fashion designers are presented with a range of different principles for pattern cutting, and interest in this area has grown rapidly over the past few years, due to both the publication of a number of works dealing with the subject in different ways, and the fact that a growing number of designers emphasize experimental pattern cutting in their practices. Although a range of principles and concepts for pattern cutting are presented from different perspectives, the main body of these systems, traditional as well as contemporary, is predominantly based on a quantified approximation of the body. As a consequence, the connection between existing theories for pattern construction and the dynamic expression and biomechanical function of the body are problematic. This work explores and proposes an alternative theory for pattern cutting, which unlike existing models, takes as its point of origin the actual, variable body. As such, the research presented here is basic research. Instead of a static matrix of a nonmoving body, the proposed model for cutting garments is based on a qualitative approximation of the body, visualized through balance lines and key biomechanical points. Based on some key principles found in works by Geneviève Sevin-Doering, the proposed model for cutting is developed through concrete experiments by cutting and draping fabrics on live models. The proposed theory is an alternative principle for dressmaking, which challenges the fundamental relationship between dress, pattern making, and the body, opening up for new expressions in dress and functional possibilities for wearing.
Volumetric shape making and pattern cutting
(Textile and Design Lab and Colab at Auckland University of Technology, 2014) Campbell, Lesley
This paper, in light of pedagogical observations, seeks to explore and examine an alternative approach to pattern cutting through volumetric shape making and a practical, process led investigation using Alien body shapes as a teaching resource. The holistic fashion designer explores and engages with both silhouette and pattern cutting, by developing the skills of volumetric shape making. The process of pattern cutting and volumetric shape making is an iterative translation between two dimensions and three dimensions which requires a practical, experimental approach. A sequential series of interactive workshops have been developed using irregular shaped mannequins to facilitate and develop this process, promoting creative outcomes and a deeper understanding of pattern cutting. This hands on improvisational approach without a known outcome allows for design to progress organically. The above process of thinking, “drawing” and pattern cutting in three dimensions can be extremely challenging and alien to fashion students who often have a pattern cutting foundation based on technical drawings and drafting principles mostly in a two dimensional format. The aim is to explore whether a synaptic link created between hand, eye and mind through an algorithm, can assist the holistic fashion designer and enhance creativity. The vehicle of delivery for this investigation is a series of experimental workshops undertaken by all three levels of BA (Hons) Fashion Design students at Sheffield Hallam University. This dynamic working method challenges conventional teaching methods of demonstration, books and handouts and promotes enjoyment of the journey, thus reducing preconceived ideals, allowing more scope for spontaneous outcomes. Student workshops also explore morphology as a challenge to the traditional western convention of body contouring through flat pattern cutting. Morphology is explored through a series of irregular shaped, non-humanoid forms: Alien Bodies. Full-scale Alien Body mannequins are provided as a resource in the workshop on which to apply the method of direct working in three dimensions to generate an initial pattern. Reflection, analysis and discussion of the pattern shape when transformed back to the flat plane, aims to promote comprehension and underpin the holistic designing/pattern cutting approach. “Alien Body - Pushing Pattern Parameters” workshops culminated in an exhibition at the Sheffield Institute of Arts Gallery where a selection of 18 garments and their flat patterns, all created by students during the previous six month period, were displayed. This paper evaluates data captured and draws on anecdotal evidence gathered from students attending these workshops as well as looks at the methodologies used including process led investigation and peer review within the university environment. It forms a cornerstone for further questioning of whether the fashion designer and pattern cutter is the same person.
Eye tracking to establish a hierarchy of attention with an online fashion video
(Textile and Design Lab and Colab at Auckland University of Technology, 2014) Payne, Ryan
Engaging customers online is fast becoming a focus for entrepreneurs, researchers and marketers as it offers a platform with a lower barrier of entry and is heavily utilized among the tech savvy millennial generation (aged 18-24) through social applications currently such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat. Often, using it as an entertainment source to replace television shows, online videos for today’s millennial generation have become the new and socially acceptable way to interact with peers as well as with various brands. This research explores how fashion videos have risen in prominence and how they are perceived by the millennial generation. It explores attitude formation and online image processing to generate a hierarchical list of traits which participants focused upon when viewing a fashion video. The result is an established order to engage, direct and hold the attention of audiences for the longest time possible; eyes of the people in videos, lips, motion, size, images, colour, text style and, lastly, position. Using optometric or eye gaze tracking technology to capture where participants directed their focus, a comparison of what participants believed they valued to what they actually focused upon was demonstrated, with 30 semi-structured interviews and pre/post questionnaires to measure perceptions of the portrayed brand. This article articulates how the hierarchy generated is based upon a social referencing scheme for the viewer, followed by an attribute information search, to the situation and branded objects portrayed. Additionally this study, unsurprisingly, found that participants did not fully remember the full videos that they were exposed to, nor the content upon which they had directly focused. However, it is important to note that participants could recall considerably more amounts of information when their eye pupils dilated, presenting an opportunity for additional research.
Fashion beyond representation
(Textile and Design Lab and Colab at Auckland University of Technology, 2014) Shand, Peter
The promise of transformation is fashion’s most significant gift. In ideal form, fashion is a site of profound elasticity. That ideal appears as both a reflection of constant becoming with its attendant stimulation and as a means by which we might embrace and actively reveal such a state. As a notion, fashion offers almost pure encounter by virtue of: its existence in duration; a directionless or productively purposeless mode of proposition; its social provocation; and an intimate relationship to the body politic. Its ceaselessness and relentlessness activates imagination, memory, wonder, shock. Its proximity to lived experience actualizes degrees of phenomenological and psychological connection with a striking capacity to move us, to reflect in material form a life immanent. As a mode of generative creative practice, fashion has a seemingly inexhaustible capacity for invention, distinction and contestation. It both reflects and anticipates existing social and cultural conditions and contributes to their overhaul. Its capacity for revolution is a condition both internal to its own logic and manifest in its realization in the world. As a means for personal or individual expression it is a toolbox par excellence. Individuals are able to reflect their membership of community and to exhibit idiosyncrasies of temperament, outlook, belief or taste. Nor does fashion of itself constrain those activities – as with any good box of tools ideas and items both may be picked up, worn, discarded, modified, returned to or destroyed at the behest of the user. Fashion enables us self-actualizing exhibition whilst simultaneously pointing to the necessity of its own redundancy. Janus-faced, fashion affords a means by which we may both advance and attempt to still the ceaselessness of our becoming.
Past, present and future: transformational approaches to utilizing archives for research, learning and teaching
(Textile and Design Lab and Colab at Auckland University of Technology, 2014) Britt, Helena; Stephen-Cran, Jimmy; Shaw, Alan
This article focuses on transformational approaches to utilizing archives in the creation of textile and textile-related products. The existing context in terms of historical resource and archive use by the textile industry and for textile-based creative practice, research, learning and teaching, is discussed. Literature, projects and examples reviewed indicate reproductive, adaptive and transformative approaches to working from historical and archival resources. In the context of this article reproduction involves copying, adaptation refers to alterations and transformation involves complete change in form, nature or appearance. A deficit in existing studies surrounding articulation of approaches to archive utilization is identified. Three projects undertaken at The Glasgow School of Art (GSA) are presented as case studies, which seek to fill the identified gap and contribute to existing research. For each case study, the aims and contributions to research are described and an overview of the project context and methodology is provided. Findings in terms of approaches to archive utilization are discussed, as are the outputs and outreach activities resulting from the projects, which ensures that to some extent, examination of the past informs creative activity in the present and impacts upon the future creation of textiles. The paper concludes by discussing how the case studies have evidenced varying approaches to archive utilization and proposes recommendations to formulate forthcoming strategies and activities.
The beast trilogy: an evolving experiment in fashion ideation
(Textile and Design Lab and Colab at Auckland University of Technology, 2014) Splawa-Neyman, Tania; Wilde, Danielle; Mitford Ha, Winnie; Lacey, Jordan
Masses of leathery membranes, wild furs and etched bones. Intangible caresses of bodily fields. Sonic skins stretching on expanded skeletal structures. Answers to the question: What does The Beast unleash? This question, when posed as a series of provocations, acts as catalyst within a setting in which practitioners as pedagogues set the conditions for beastly emergence. As a conceptual device, The Beast realizes unthought potential by forcing interactions with the unfamiliar. When The Beast is channelled through the medium of unyielding materials, an unconventionally framed body, or unidentified sound, the setting for inevitable altercations is established. The Beast does not submit easily. It intimidates, fights and retaliates in response to the practitioners’ grappling and desire to easily know. The process enables a shift from familiar actions, thoughts and processes to states of “unknowing” and affords new, unexpected and surprising outcomes. The asking of “what is beastly?” further coaxes The Beast and moves seeking beyond physical realms. Within the individual, the qualities of “beast” and “the beastly” invoke curiosity and discomfort through searching made internalized. In this circumstance unfamiliarity emerges and the hunter becomes the hunted. Framed within the context of fashion practice; centred around the “body” and “the bodily” and inherently expressed through making: how do we contend with these emergent beastly qualities? Can they be tamed or do they tame us? Investigations are led by moving, making, and through the expanded practice of listening. As a framework for expanding possibilities of practice, The Beast was tested within a series of undergraduate fashion design studios. Through the outcomes emanating from the trilogy of studios, this paper examines The Beast as an innovative tool for fashion ideation. As an enigma defying definition, The Beast pushes to unpack unknown imaginings, blur disciplinary boundaries and irreversibly reshape practice.
Transformative textiles: integrating material and information in the design of sonified textiles
(Textile and Design Lab and Colab at Auckland University of Technology, 2014) Alexander, Charlotte
Digital technologies are now deeply embedded in our everyday lives, becoming seamlessly integrated with objects and materials that we engage with routinely. Digital information is no longer confined to screens as “painted bits”, but is spilling into our environments creating a seamless extension of the physical affordances of objects into the digital domain. This seamless integration is enabling information to be explored through new modes of interaction, utilizing interactive materials that can be manipulated, accessed, and programmed. The progressive, ubiquitous nature of computing is creating a need to re-evaluate the ways in which new technological emergences affect how we relate to and understand the world around us. A key area of material technologies development contributing to this seamlessness is “interactive textiles”, also known as smart textiles or “e-textiles”. These materials are the amalgamation of digital technologies and textiles, allowing materials the ability to sense, react, and display. This utilization of digital media within our materiality is producing textiles that are no longer mute, but are responsive, amplified through a number of outputs, including light and sound. This transformation of materials from passive to responsive is being driven by the informational capacity of embedded technologies. Küchler (2008) describes e-textiles as existing not simply as material but also informational. This material-informational duality highlights a need to understand the way in which we relate to material in our changing technological world, and a closer consideration of our “dual citizenships” between our physical (material) and digital (informational) spaces. Through a practice-led investigation, utilizing the processes of the creation, prototyping and performance of sonified textiles, this paper presents current research into the relationship between textile as material and information and the way in which these dimensions may be aligned successfully through design. It also draws on key theoretical texts and the work of other designers. Considering closely this transformation of textiles, this investigation intends to understand the evolving relationship between material and information; the physical and the digital.
Using social media as a toolkit for co-creation when designing fashion with communities
(Textile and Design Lab and Colab at Auckland University of Technology, 2014) Lapolla, Kendra
This research introduces a transformational strategy for using social media as an access point to engage a wider community in the co-creation of fashion design. Past research in co-creative fashion has examined participatory opportunities through mass customization and crowdsourcing, but has undervalued the source of “user-generated content” from social media as an initiative in co-creative fashion design. This usergenerated content on social media platforms can be used as a co-creative toolkit to encourage active engagement in the beginning of the fashion design process. Cocreative toolkits are used to invite non-designers into the beginning of the design process and allow further creativity to trigger different feelings, emotions and desires (Sanders & William, 2001). This approach provides more than mere product selection and customization. Otto von Busch (2008, p. 32) states: Perhaps there can be forms of fashion participation, beyond mere choosing, in which we can create our own parallel but symbiotic arenas and practices. This does not mean becoming the new dictators of a new microculture, but instead of being able to experiment with radically participatory forms of fashion. This research explores a new approach for participatory fashion by addressing the question, how can social media be used to engage communities throughout the entire fashion design process? Through examination of a case study, new strategies illustrate how social media can be used for co-creation in the fashion design process. This case study employs Pinterest.com as a co-creative toolkit for a small community of young urban professionals to virtually pin inspirational ideas that inform designers throughout the design process. Designs are added to the website where the community is further able to add input. The ability for these co-creators to post inspiration, thoughts and ideas initiates a creative conversation with the designer. Further, this open dialogue continues when the co-creators eagerly “like” and comment on previous posts. This provokes a fluid visual and verbal discussion that allows for more globally accessible co-creation over time. Unlike other co-creative toolkits used in a timed session, these co-creators are guided by their own desire to contribute when and where they want. When social media is used this way as a toolkit for co-creation, communities are invited to not only be involved in the design process but also to have greater influence over the final designs.
Designing a two-phase glow-in-the-dark pattern on textiles
(Textile and Design Lab and Colab at Auckland University of Technology, 2014) Kooroshnia, Marjan
Although many research projects have explored ways of creating light- emitting fabric displays using LEDs, electro-luminescent wires, and optical fibres, fewer research projects have investigated ways of designing glow-in-the-dark surface patterns using photo-luminescent pigments in textile and fashion design. This may be due to a lack of adequate experimental exploration, as well as a lack of documented information with which to guide textile and fashion designers regarding how these pigments can be used to create such patterns. This article reports on findings based on the design properties and potentials of photo-luminescent pigments with regard to textiles. Through practice-based research, a series of design experiments were created which demonstrate ways of understanding and working with photo-luminescent pigments when designing glow-in-the-dark patterns for textiles. Through experimentation with plain and complex motifs, the influence of using photoluminescent pigments on the process of creating of a glow-in-the-dark surface pattern was examined. The results indicated that, since the colours of positive and negative spaces were reversed in dark conditions, it provided an opportunity to create tessellated surface patterns similar to those of patterns created by Maurits Cornelis Escher. Predicting the effect produced by complex printed patterns was not as easy as predicting that produced by plain printed patterns, stressing the need for tools that allowed the designer to simulate and observe the glow-in-the-dark effect before starting to print. A two-phase pattern was then created, with different expressions in daylight and darkness. For this purpose, each colour of textile pigment paste was mixed with a combination of photo-luminescent pigment and binder, and then printed on to the chosen fabric. The effect produced by the mixture in darkness was a gradation of light, like a tone or value halfway between a highlight and a dark shadow and similar to that produced by a printed, glow-in-the-dark halftone. These research experiments provide textile and fashion designers with a textile printing method that allows them to create two-phase glow-in-the-dark patterns with identical forms in daylight and darkness, but with two expressions in each. It also offers recipes for print formulation and documents results, offering a new design resource for textile surface pattern designers to promote creativity in design. In so doing, the article provides fundamental knowledge for the creation of glow-in-the-dark surface patterns on textiles.

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