Made in Code: Re-Imagining the Experience of Fashion Attitudes
A couple of weeks back I was sent a link to an event the V&A was putting on in collaboration with UCL and the University of the Arts as part of a funded research project around Fashion and Technology, this part of the project exploring virtual clothing. The study, lead by UCL anthropology Department researchers sought to understand what trying on clothes digitally meant to people and their experience of Fashion.
There was the opportunity to sign up for viewing a screening and participating in a motion capture experience whereby the participant could select a virtual garment, digitally recreated from a collection by Maria Grachvogel, to be mapped to their body in movement.
Whilst being very familiar with the concept, technologies and process of motion capture in my line of work, it was different to be the subject and active performer in this context. Quite unpleasant at first, especially if introvert, the process is nonetheless interesting, the interest being driven in particular by the result, as , I believe, ego often drives interest, in particular with being the subject of a piece of exhibited “art”.
Not realising at first we were part of a research projects aimed at understanding what this technology might bring to Fashion, its culture, its trends, how people engage with it, what processes exist in people’s ways of buying clothes, wearing clothes, thinking about clothes, we engaged in the first part after some dutch courage, and all in all enjoyed the superficial experience.
The research however, and the participant’s interview, brought it all together and made it for a more interesting experience, whilst bearing your thoughts to the researchers, gave you the opportunity to engage with the concept and its meaning on an intellectual level, helping with a better understanding of how I approach fashion and technology and how differently my project partner engages with the idea.
It seemed I embraced it fully with all the potential for accessibility, hybrid works and future designs emerging form a new way of processing information, my project partner feared it for the perceived loss of the traditional crafts in garment making.
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