The human body is a central aspect in design and is considered to be a fundamental starting point in body-based design processes. During the design process, both the existential and functional aspects of the body are explored in relation to the different activities that need to be considered with regard to the design of clothing, dress, and its association with objects in the world. Within these design processes, the models and alternatives to the human body that are used to develop designs are often confined by the body’s spatial and structural characteristics. This thesis both explores conceptions of the body and challenges conventional design methods and design thinking in fashion design processes in order to open up for alternative bodies as a methodological foundation.

Alternative aesthetic approaches and understandings of the body were explored through experiments, reflections, dialogues, and discussions. Observations on the insights attained are presented, as are the results of a process of insight sorting and an analysis workshop with both fashion and textile design students. Mixed methods and speculative design were used within the qualitative research approach, providing a creative spark for the research process. The explorations and their outcomes bridge theory relating to artistic research and art and design research.

This thesis suggests a set of concepts that have emerged from workshops and experiments that questioned preconceived notions of the body and facilitated a process of re-learning fashion-design processes. The explorations resulted in tools and methods that augment knowledge of and provide alternatives to standard methods used in fashion-design processes. They are alternative ways of working, constituting knowledge of recursive design methods and facilitating the enhancement of artistic approaches to design practices. The body alternatives that emerged from the exploratory experiments provide artistic openness in design thinking and introduce conceptions of the body that can facilitate or improve design practice. The results also contribute knowledge regarding design methods in general and how to facilitate learning regarding alternative methodological foundations and what a body could be within fashion-design education programmes.

The term ‘diaspora’ has evolved in the fields of both art and design, and is often cited in discussions of identity. Existing artistic explorations are reflections on diverse experiences of culture and identification, and express alternative narratives. They challenge the conventional structures of established thoughts and stimulate the need to further augment our understanding.

The multiplatform event ‘Diasporic Bodies’ brings together a group of artists from the Department of Visual Arts at Western University, London, Canada, and design researchers from the Body and Space Research Lab at the Swedish School of Textiles, University of Borås, Sweden. The artistic outputs focus on similarities between cultures, explorations of artefacts with connotations of cultural translation involving active processes of identification in terms of how materials and expressions are used to create relational aesthetics, and alternative approaches to modernity.

The works, which have been produced by artists and researchers from both Western University and the University of Borås, were exhibited at the Cohen Commons at the Department of Visual Arts at Western University in January 2024, and are accompanied by a catalogue documenting the research and artistic outputs. A series of workshops and talks will be held at Western University in conjunction with the exhibition.

The study of the interaction between body and space has taken centre stage in recent design and architectural debates. Space is being re-examined for its fluidity and ability to adapt, give dimensions, and how space measures change when understood as time. In contrast, the body inhibits this space and time and constantly changes.

The relationship between body and space is interdependent and intertwined, where they constantly affect, shape, and impress one another. The nuances, spirit and social implications of the many cultures and spaces we inhabit imprint on the body, while the body is where identity, reflexivity, soul, and mind mediate; thus, the two incessantly become sites of shifting cultural meaning.

This multi-platform event brings together an international and multigenerational group of artists, researchers and designers to share current understandings, opportunities and challenges of Body and Space Relations through basic experimental art and design research. The exhibition explores empirical artistic expressions and functional aesthetic ideas to examine the role of objects and materiality in cultural sociology, the relation between bodily perception and space, and how it affects people’s art experience whenencountered in an unconventional setting.

Curators: Tazeen Qayyum,Faisal Anwar and Faseeh Saleem

The human body and technology shape each other, forming human subjectivity and objectivity. This hybrid relation between the human body and technology concerns relational ontology, and is part of an ongoing discourse that considers humans and technology to be indivisible concepts. The digital technology incorporated in fashion practices expedites design processes, but the artistic relationship between the two has the potential to aid further exploration of design possibilities. The digital editing tools used in design processes mediate human experiences and practices. The research presented in this paper aimed to explore the artistic possibilities of fashion design processes by reimagining the body and observing and exploring material interactions physically and digitally through the use of editing tools. This provided artistic openness in design thinking in relation to the development of a silhouette for clothing. The exploratory process provided a method of reimagining the body, and the use of digital editing tools suggested alternative expressions for silhouettes. The artistic design process amalgamated alternative body from physical and digital design. The exploratory experiment augmented knowledge of standard methods used in fashion design processes, suggesting alternative ways of approaching these processes. The outcome addresses the ways in which new silhouettes are created using physical and digital interfaces, constituting knowledge of recursive design methods and facilitating enhancement of artistic approaches to fashion design practices. 

The 1st International Art Triennial Unpredictable Futures is a project of visions and research that responds to the current issues of the space and Anthropocene era focused on predicting life outside the Earth. The project is implemented in Molėtai and its environs, the town which, thanks to Lithuanian scientists and artists already several decades ago, became a place of visual, pragmatic, prognostic, ontological, and other connections with space. The 1st International Art Triennial Unpredictable Futures (UFNA) will search for answers to the question of what the world of the future will be.

Interactions between the matter and bodies, cosmic light and sound, alpha, beta, and other particles, black holes, gravity, and other space experiences will be embodied in artifacts. With the help of traditional and interdisciplinary media, triennial participants worldwide will present their work, identify their relationship with space, their own, and other bodies, explore innovative materials and technologies, or even use the enigmatic X (12) dimension. The triennial presents art and design objects, artistic research from more than 60 artists, and art researchers from Denmark, Iran, Canada, Lithuania, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, Finland, and Romania. The research project DRAFTS: Design Research Artifacts in the Context of Exhibition is a part of the UFNA Art Triennial that presents emerging topics in the field of fashion and textile design. 

The human body has been considered to be an active element and is a common starting point of fashion design processes. However, during these processes, understanding of the body and how it is used to design is often confined by the body’s standard spatial and structural characteristics. The research presented in this thesis aimed to examine body alternatives in fashion design processes in order to explore and open up for alternative body expressions for developing silhouettes for clothing. 

Alternative aesthetic approaches and understandings of the body as a design tool were researched through experimental explorations, reflections, dialogue, and discussions. These created an embodied dialogue between thought and execution which was further developed and informed by the EDI (Embodied Design Ideation) framework for analysing and refining understandings of the interactions between the body, materials, and movement. These explorations and their outcomes bridge the theory of research for the art and research for art and design.  

The explorations were based on the varied ways in which the body is perceived during body-material interactions, and were explored through movement, human-technology interfaces, and an exploratory workshop conducted at the Swedish School of Textiles. These explorations expanded our understanding of the body’s aesthetics in relation to material interactions and embodied experiences. The explorations questioned our preconceived conceptions of the body and facilitated a process of re-learning these through fashion design. 

The results of the explorations were alternative methods and tools that use the body as a central variable in fashion design. The research culminated in the development of conceptions of the body in design processes that increase the design possibilities by introducing new concepts, tools, and methods. The body alternatives developed provide an openness in terms of design thinking and introduce conceptions of the body that can facilitate or improve design practice. The results have implications for design methods and contribute to methods in general and fashion design education programmes in terms of how they facilitate design processes.

DRAFTS:3 invited more than 80 researchers and designers to discuss the role of artefacts in research and design activities within disciplines such as fashion, textile, and interaction design. Specific to the third iteration of DRAFTS, researchers and designers contributed material and immaterial artefacts to the exhibition with the aim of framing discussions around the role of artefacts in communicating knowledge. The various schools of thought that the participating researchers and designers follow, allowed for a multifaceted dialogue to emerge, suggesting various approaches to communicating knowledge through design research artefacts.

This multifaceted dialogue was expressed through three events across two venues: A ten-day research exhibition was held at designtransfer in an international collaboration between the Berlin University of the Arts, Germany and the University of Borås, Sweden. 45 design researchers from various academic institutions across Canada, Germany, Iran, Lithuania, Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, Romania Sweden, and the United Kingdom showcased their work together.

A symposium was held at designtransfer that invited all participating exhibitors to present and discuss their perspective on the role of artefacts in communicating knowledge in relation to their exhibited projects. The dialogue that emerged was further deepened by two keynote presentations, which were held by Sarah Kettley, Professor of Material and Design Innovation at University of Edinburgh, Scotland and Daniëlle Bruggeman, Professor of Fashion at ArtEZ - University of the Arts in Arnhem, the Netherlands.

A one-day pop-up exhibition was held at the Berlin Open Lab that featured the work of 36 students enrolled at various academic institutions in MA Fashion Design, MA Textile Design, MA Costume Design, MA Product Design, MA Design & Computation, MA Spiel & Objekt, MS Physics, and BA Fashion Design to exhibit their projects in the context of the DRAFTS:3 theme.

Together, these events suggested various perspectives on questions relevant to DRAFTS:3: What is an artefact? What roles do artefacts play in design practices and research? How do design practitioners and researchers communicate ideas and knowledge through artefacts? What are the possibilities and challenges of artefacts when communicating ideas and knowledge? What do design practitioners and researchers need to mind for framing the role of the artefact in this context?

All contributors to the three events suggest varying perspectives to these questions on the following pages. These perspectives may show similarities to one another, or challenge each other. Together, they are a time stamp of evolving perspectives on the role of artefacts in practicing and communicating design and design research.

This collaborative project, entitled: SOMATIC PROVOCATIONS, brings together a group of internationally acclaimed academicians, researchers, designers, and artists associated with the field of fashion and textile. The aim is to share and exchange diverse somatic perspectives in design processes through basic experimental art and design research projects. 

To manifest our thoughts an introductory webinar was held, followed by a symposium, finally culminating into an exhibition of selected works. The exhibition was curated to generate and demonstrate knowledge of current philosophical inquiries on the body through both pedagogical experiences and practice. 

The project was launched in partnership with COLABS, Lahore, Pakistan and exhibited at Art Next Project and Tasweer Ghar.