DRESSED

The Widespread Role of Clothes, Textile Production and Clothing Concepts in Society – Interweaving Perspectives

The BMBF-funded InnoTexGes project presents the first conference in the international DRESSED series about the multifaceted relationship between clothing and society. Twenty-three researchers and scientists from different research fields covering four continents will represent the wide range and variety of perspectives, sources and methods on the complex topic of clothing.

The conference will be held via zoom from the 22nd to the 24th of June 2022 (Wednesday to Friday).

Clothing has been central to human existence for many millennia. However, its multifaceted relationship to the various areas of society is still vastly underestimated. The DRESSED conference intends to open new ways to think about and investigate this complex phenomenon that has been central to us for thousands of years and will be central to us in the future. The three tracks will provide different perspectives on the topic and interlink textile and design research and practice with data science.

Please download the flyer and program here: Flyer and Program

Track 1 — Perspectives on Dress History: Understanding the past and finding the big picture

Clothing strikingly characterises the social structures and epochs in their ongoing change through its many functions and qualities. Therefore, historic and ancient clothes are layered with hidden insights. Like data archives, they contain their creators‘ ideas and strategies within themselves, even after several thousand years. And like forensic scientists, the researchers from the various fields will unravel the different layers of the many-sided meaning of our clothes throughout history.

Track 1 will present multiple perspectives and methodological approaches to discover clothing from different angles. We will explore the various insights we find in translating the complex language of clothing through versatile data and sources. The keynote about visuality, body language and identity will start the conference and Track 1. We will present archaeological, historical, linguistic and experimental research and cover different sources, methods and approaches. The presentations will give new insights into the multifaceted relationship between clothing and society from Ancient Egypt and Roman Empire as well as Central Europe and China.

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Track 2 — Pattern Recognition: Structuring data methodically

Producing clothes is a complex task that almost always includes an impressive fusion of diverse skills, elaborate strategies and creative thoughts. Consequently, a vast amount of wide-ranging information is archived in the material culture and other relevant sources related to the many functions of clothing and clothing production. However, carefully and systematically extracting those data from the sources is just the beginning. How can we structure the collected data to gain those interesting hidden insights that go far beyond an individual object or a specific group of sources? How can we create methodological and systematical standards to interlink our data? And how can we create adaptable and expandable structures to analyse, understand, communicate and exchange relevant information?

In Track 2, we will explore how to structure and interlink data efficiently and, by doing so, learn how to problem-solve, think creatively, and ask meaningful questions. Furthermore, we will discuss how to wire data and our thoughts by extension. The keynote about pattern recognition and methodological standards will start the second day. We will explore the analysis of textiles from different viewpoints like patterns, fibres and the bimolecular methods. We will present various projects and their efforts to build interconnected data archives.
Finally, we will discuss the multiple challenges and explore the value of the data-driven methods in interlinking the interdisciplinary research field.

Track 3 — Creating the Future: Responding to Society

Designing clothes is an exceptionally creative and equally problem-solving discipline, responding to and even shaping social, cultural and technological developments. Today, we even widen the range of clothes‘ practical communicative and social functions by implementing new technologies, experimenting with novel materials, and realigning the production process. Doing so influences every area of our society and our lives. So how do we want to understand, define, cultivate and research clothing‘s current role in society? Track 3 explores the political dimension of clothing, and the recent part clothing holds in society through new production strategies, materials, clothing concepts, and research approaches. How do we choose to understand and reinvent ourselves through our clothes and create our future?

Track 3 will provide a multifaceted view of new research approaches and critical artistic practices, starting with the keynote on new research methods and practices. After that, we will explore the essential political and social dimension of clothing in recent histories, such as colonial
Spanish America, the Sarong Revolution and the Spanish Franco Dictatorship. Finally, we will close the conference
with a data-driven outlook of trends in current research and introduce our exhibition about „Interweaving the past and
the future.“

Program