cloTHING(s) as conversation is an interdisciplinary research initiative founded by Associate Professor Hélène Day Fraser (MAA '08) and co-investigator Keith Doyle, Adjunct Research Associate.
The pair have been successful in securing a three-year Social Sciences Humanities Research Council of Canada grant to pursue this project which seeks to broaden contemporaryperspectives of the clothing we wear. Rather than limiting garments to creating statements, linked to who we wish to be, what we do, who we are, and where we feel we belong, they intend to explore the possibilities of clothing as conversation.
Hélène and Keith’s intent is to disrupt a broad range of current assumptions connected to the garments we wear. Seeking to create empowering new platforms for interaction and organization pertaining to sustainability in the garment trade, social innovation and wearable technology, their research will explore alternate means of:
- thinking about the role of clothing (from statement to conversation);
- communication;
- means of production and use.
To date the cloTHING(s) as conversationteam at Emily Carr University, made up of students, designers, artists, and engineers, has conducted a range of material and form studies, through weaving, unconventional clothing construction, 3D printing, and wearable circuits. In situ explorations of worn artifacts and vestiture in social spaces are key to this work.
Using conversation as a focal point provides a unique approach to design research that is relevant to sustainability in the garment trade, social innovation and developments in wearable technology.
View cloTHING(s) Team Bios.