New digital processes are changing how garments are designed and developed. From wearable electronics to motion capture, to crafting a pattern on a virtual mannequin, what does rapid digitisation in fashion education and industry mean for touch? Has the role of touch and tactile material engagement in the garment development process been fully understood yet? How does one go about studying touch practices in the contemporary fashion studio?
In this episode, Lili Golmohammadi speaks to UAL lecturer, researcher, and fellow IN-TOUCH PhD candidate Douglas Atkinson about how he came to frame his study, and the ethnographic approaches he employed to understand how fashion students and tutor-practitioners use touch. Now in the final stages of the PhD, Douglas also reflects on how digital touch technologies might best support fashion designers’ touch practices in the future.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Podcast | Google Podcasts
Content referenced in the podcast:
- CLO, a 3D fashion design software program
- An example of motion capture work
- Arduino used in fashion projects
- Sensory ethnography
- Thing ethnography
- Autoethnography
Further links:
IN-TOUCH: DIGITAL TOUCH COMMUNICATION 