LivingArchive_KAkiwowo_Peer Reviewed Manuscript.pdf (469.25 kB)
The Living Archive: facilitating textile design research at undergraduate level through collaboration, co-creation and student engagement
journal contribution
posted on 2018-11-23, 10:56 authored by Kerri AkiwowoKerri Akiwowo, Lucy Dennis, George WeaverGeorge Weaver, Guy BinghamWith an emphasis on reinventing dress histories through a CAD approach, fashion and textiles archive, The Collections Resource Centre in Leicestershire, United Kingdom, was utilised as the springboard for a visually rich and materially vibrant exploratory investigation. The project married historical artefacts with creative digital technologies in order to redefine fashion/textile objects from the past through practitioner-research. The study focused on textile design research from an
Integrated Digital Practice perspective within Higher Education, in relation to learning and teaching at undergraduate level. The archive was employed as a fundamental pedagogical basis to aid research – visual, historical and contextual; observational; hands on experimentation; and design demonstration by investigating archives as pedagogy. The overarching aim was to tease out novel
findings by exploring a palette of digital tools, methods, techniques, processes and parameters that may lead to the acquisition of new knowledge, skills and design innovation relevant to academia and
industry. This was achieved through a 10-week student bursary scheme at Loughborough University that enabled: institutional and external collaboration between the student-and-staff and the studentand-archive;
student-staff co-creation; and by the student engaging with outside organisations,
institutions, places, people, events and media relevant to the project. Employing a collaborative and interdisciplinary methodological framework supported the concept of the archive as ‘having life’,
based on the initial study, exploration and digital interpretation of selected archival items which resulted in a comprehensive portfolio of artistic ideas, CAD developments, technical enquiry and
scientific experimentation. As such, an environment which enabled a dynamic design-research study within a scholarly context was established. The research process was substantiated by the involvement, experience and expertise of academic and technical staff whilst encouraging autonomy
from a student perspective. This steered the research and helped to identify potential areas for further work beyond the scope of this project.
History
School
- The Arts, English and Drama
Department
- Arts
Published in
Journal of Textile Design Research and PracticeVolume
7Issue
2Pages
155 - 193Citation
AKIWOWO, K. ... et al., 2019. The Living Archive: facilitating textile design research at undergraduate level through collaboration, co-creation and student engagement. Journal of Textile Design Research and Practice, 7 (2), pp.155-193.Publisher
Taylor & FrancisVersion
- AM (Accepted Manuscript)
Rights holder
© Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis GroupPublisher statement
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Textile Design Research and Practice on 8 April 2019, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/20511787.2019.1593297.Acceptance date
2018-09-02Publication date
2019-04-08Copyright date
2019ISSN
2051-1787eISSN
2051-1795Publisher version
Language
- en