[ISEA2011] Panel: Otto von Busch – Fash­ion Hack­ing as Shapeshifting

Panel Statement

Panel: Open Culture + Wearables

At the in­ter­sec­tion of fash­ion and tech­nol­ogy there is a fer­tile grey zone of in­ter­me­di­al­ity and trans­dis­ci­pli­nar­ity, a vital de­sign space, which trans­gress the media of both fash­ion and tech­nol­ogy. How is this space con­sti­tuted and how can we work there? This pre­sen­ta­tion will take as its point of de­par­ture the prac­tice of fash­ion hack­ing, where fash­ion is re­verse en­gi­neered and tuned to make users “fash­ion-able”. Here, for ex­am­ple, so­cial media is used to am­plify ex­pres­sions and ex­pand trans­ver­sal tac­tics for the dis­sem­i­na­tion of fash­ion codes among users. Other traits ad­dress the shaman­is­tic rit­u­al­ity of fash­ion and how par­tic­i­pa­tory prac­tices can ex­pand the realm of fash­ion be­yond the cat­walk and ready-to-wear par­a­digm. Pro­jects by von Busch are ad­dressed as well as de­signs from his stu­dents at Malmo Uni­ver­sity as ex­am­ples of using in­ter­ac­tive tech­nolo­gies to in­ten­sify ex­pres­sions of fash­ion. The ques­tion re­mains: How can tech­nolo­gies ex­press the ephemeral and myth­i­cal beauty of fash­ion?

  • Otto von Busch is a re­searcher at the School of De­sign and Craft at Uni­ver­sity of Gothen­burg,SE, ex­plor­ing the emer­gence of a new “hack­tivist” de­signer role in fash­ion. He has also been teach­ing the course Fash­ion and Tech­nol­ogy at K3, Malmo Uni­ver­sity as well as Cre­ative Tech­nolo­gies at Auck­land Uni­ver­sity of Tech­nol­ogy, NZ. selfpassage.org

Full text (PDF) p. 2509-2514