The CUBOID: Reclaiming Eastern Javanese Craft and Speculating Fashion exhibition through the Metaverse

Michael Charles Daniel Rezandi and Philip Chee

LSALLE College of the Arts, Singapore 

Clarice Ng, Andrian Firmansyah and Nanda Handaru 

C+C&CO, Indonesia

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Indonesia is an archipelago comprising a diverse range of cultures and ethnicities as the islands spread across the Pacific Ocean. Indonesia was colonised for more than three centuries by Portugal, France, England, Netherlands, and Japan. In the colonisation process, we witnessed the acculturation process through motifs, ornaments, and materials. However, the effects of colonisation go deeper than just physical aspects – it also shapes the intangibles, such as locals’ mentalities towards their native culture. As fashion becomes increasingly globalised and homogenous, traditional techniques practised by various communities in the region are often relegated to “craft” rather than “luxury”. This diminishes the value they contribute to fashion products, thus creating a glass ceiling that impedes the growth of Indonesian design in the regional and global fashion industriess.

This project reimagines how dress and fashion objects would exist in East Java, specifically the island of Madura. We invite the viewer to imagine if the island was never colonised and how this would subsequently influence how Madurese dress and fashion objects presents itself in terms of form, function and technological innovation. The format to this showcase will be hosted on a hyper interactive website with a built metaverse exhibition with three objectives; to experience while interacting with the reimagined objects, to educate public on the intangible heritage of Madura and opening dialogues on public thoughts in decolonising Madura. Viewers will be able to observe, learn and engage with the reimagined objects while listening to the origins of dress and fashion objects said by native residents of Madura. 

Building on critical themes of xenocentrism and decolonised thinking, this project speculates the outcomes of combining historical heritage with modern technological interventions through a design lens. Spanning the boundaries of physical and digital fashion, it aims to be a hyper interactive digital experience that looks to the future while recontextualising the past. It also serves to be an accessible resource to educate and inspire the current generation and contribute to decolonial fashion discourse in Southeast Asia. Beyond the first iteration of this showcase, the CUBOID would be a platform to host virtual fashion exhibition that open dialogue while promoting discussion in offering alternative modes of thinking.

KnitWell: Recording emotional state through creative, open-ended knitting practice

Emily Rickard 

Nottingham Trent University, UK

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Research into the effect of craft practice on well-being suggests that craft has a positive impact on self-belief, self-worth, and well-being. This could explain why the UK is embracing a crafting revolution during the current pandemic.

KnitWell, a practice-based project, explores a particular avenue of knitting practice within an approach called ‘free knitting’. Free knitting explores the choices one can make within knitting, such as yarn, colour, gauge, and stitch choice in an open ended and creative way. This approach is more creative and complex than the repetitive forming of identical basic knit stitches, but more open-ended and exploratory than the practical projects typically undertaken by leisure knitters. Somebody exploring the KnitWell approach might knit once a day for a month, to capture their emotional state at the time of knitting like a form of daily journaling. The focus on the use of ‘free knitting’ to create a knitted journal is an intentional parallel of initiatives which use ‘free writing’ with the aim of improving subjective well-being. Thus, KnitWell poses the question: what opportunities and limitations can this style of knitting offer as a means of recording an emotional state and what (if any) effect this activity may have, when undertaken daily, on mental well-being.

This doctoral research is exploring the KnitWell methodology with 10 participants who will take part in three iterative phases of activity, creating a daily knitted journal for a period of one month in each phase. Participants will be issued with a yarn palette of varied texture, colour and thickness that will enable them to express their emotions and cater for different moods. The research is further complemented by autoethnographic enquiry by the researcher which will include activities like those undertaken by the participants, but over differing intervals with elements of added exploration and reflection.  Separate to this project, the researcher has several different experiences within the knitting industry, these include owning a yarn shop and developing classes for knitting and crochet, 2013-16, designing hand knit patterns, working as Brand Marketing Executive for Blacker Yarns, 2018-19, having hand knit designs published in leading books and knitting magazines internationally.

FEELING FICTION 

Emma Lynas

RMIT, Melbourne, Australia 

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This collection of 2D images explores key themes specific to Richard Flanagan’s 2020 work of fiction titled The Living Sea of Waking Dreams. On the surface, the story is familiar – estranged families and ailing parents – underneath the feverish consequences of climate change burn and ravage without exception. The loss of animals and habitat is commonplace, as is the disappearance of body parts. “Her face had begun dissolving, as if in some awful hallucination. As well as her nose, one eye had now vanished … and yet people brushed past her without comment “(Flanagan 2020 p. 223).

Transient materials and textile techniques became conduits for the unsettling feelings experienced while reading this novel. The orange filament pulled free from a net once housing mandarins references the endangered, Orange-bellied parrot. Plastic milk bottles add a filmy translucence. My own hands – distorted and reimagined feature, as do Andrew Crawford’s exquisite photographs of critically endangered indigenous plants. The two living elements are filtered through the sleepiness of plastic or manipulated using digital tools. 

The ‘doing’ of textiles was done in an agitated state, brought about by someone else’s fiction, rather than my own. The work is an extension of the ideas explored in my PhD (2019) titled: Post-material making: explorations for a materially-connected textile design practice. My research seeks to find methods for sustainable textile design practices in an era of material abundance. Feeling Fiction imagines an unsettling future where living things can only be experienced via an artificial lens.

Reference‍

Flanagan, R. 2020 The Living Sea of Waking Dreams, Knopf, New York. 

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Acknowledgements  

Thanks to the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) and the DBCA Library Image Collection for permission to use photographs of two critically endangered plants located in Western Australia, the Banksia Fuscobractea (Dark-bract banksia) and Daviesia Bursarioides (Three Springs Daviesia). 


Image credit: Banksia Fuscobractea and Daviesia Bursarioides by Andrew Crawford. 


Materials used: plastic milk bottles and orange filament yarn pulled from a net bag used to contain mandarins. 


Techniques used: photography, mixed media, stitching, digital collage

SHADOW WEAVE 

Kate Nartake 

North Carolina State University, Raleigh, USA 

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From the conception of an idea to the production and consumption of a final product, fashion practices are increasingly entering a digital space.

Engagement with material is now augmented with simulation technologies and the need to understand materiality through physical touch is shifting.

This stop motion animated film explores the disruption of form and tactility, and the tension between an actual surface and the representation of texture. Building on what art historian Alois Riegl (1858 – 1905), defined as the haptic, film critic Laura Marks describes haptic visuality as “a way of looking where the eye operates as an organ of touch”. As colours shift through changing threads and woven structures create the illusion of folds, this film invites the viewer to experience tactility through a form of haptic perception. 

To create this animation, a series of sequential images that depict a moving “shadow weave” pattern, were woven on a jacquard loom. The woven fabric was then scanned not the digital format and animated frame by frame. Shadows appear, not through creased fabric, but through the structure of the material itself. The aim of this work is to explore the optical contrast between an image and the fibre it rests on, and the investigative act of deciphering or coming to know a material object. 

Redesigning PPE: Enhancing the comfort and safety of healthcareworkers wearing isolation gowns to treat patients withCOVID-19

Katherine Townsend, Sonja Sterman*, Eloise Salter & Karen Harrigan
Nottingham Trent University, UK & *University of Maribor, Slovenia

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This design innovation project responds to the urgent need for research into the redesign of PPE isolation gowns, to be more fit for purpose, bespoke and reusable to enhance the experiences of healthcare workers (HCWs) treating COVID 19 patients. The proposal addresses the Engineering based UKRI question: “What new materials, design and manufacturing approaches should we start to consider in preparation for pandemics e.g. reusable PPE to replace single use?”
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Since the COVID 19 outbreak there has been adverse publicity about the shortage of appropriately designed PPE and particular dissatisfaction with the performance of disposable, oversized gowns, as highlighted by The Royal College of Nursing who described the generic “one size fits all” approach to PPE as being “problematic” and “restrictive” when worn for up to 12 hours during shifts. The lack of understanding of HCWs roles, practices and specific PPE needs has resulted in health authorities necessarily providing the best fit possible in a crisis situation and the PPE industry adopting a disposable ‘non circular’ approach to meet demand, leading to human centred and environmental issues.
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Through collaboration with an established PPE manufacturer and leads in Clinical Procurement and Therapies from two NHS healthcare trusts, the investigators have established a research infrastructure to systematically focus on the design and production of a new ‘reusable PPE isolation gown system’ comprising multiple sizes By integrating expertise in practise research, clinical production and clinical practice, the investigations will focus on the technical, emotional durability and longevity of the PPE system.

Memories: Apparel Design, Blending Art, Craft & Digital Technology

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Krisi Riewe Stevenson
Kent State University, Ohio United States

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Expanding on stripe exploration, this garment uses a boxy silhouette to challenge the capability of stripe to create illusion, shape and depth. The pattern work moves the stripes across the body. Several colour ways were developed digitally before selecting the final design. The green stripes have three tones, to further push the depth of the print.

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