Imagining with smartphones and retro-futurism: Personal interpretation of the human-technology relationship through fashion design
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School of Arts, Design and Architecture |
Master's thesis
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Date
2022
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Master’s Programme in Fashion, Clothing and Textile Design
Language
en
Pages
94+7
Series
Abstract
Smartphone, an essential daily item, was the starting point of the thesis. The recent informational technology has occupied the life of most people who are utilising smartphones for all kinds of purposes, such as communication and information searching. People are increasingly immersed in, reliant on, and transformed by technology. This thesis aims to explore the assumption of changes that we are facing but are yet to define, and, accordingly, extend to personal interpretation. The investigation is embarked through the practice of fashion design and a fashion collection as an artistic and visualised result. The thesis applies the practice-based approach. Research is inspired by Giuseppe O. Longo’s (2002) concept “Homo Technologicus,” which refers to a state of Homo Sapiens transformed by technology, evolving into other species when immersed with technologies in everyday lives. Another inspiration is the “retro-futurism” art movement that provides a visual reference and explores the invisible tension between past, present and future. In order to explore the possible changes in the phone-human relationship and create the imagined scene accordingly, the thesis adopts the two spirits and divides the fashion collection into two sections respectively – garment and print design for presenting a status of becoming; they built the foundation for the design practice in the process and even served as the fundamental notion for the decision-making. The main outcome of the thesis is the documentation and analysis of the creative process, the print design, and the womenswear collection. First, the creative process began with the observation of phones using postures, and generated certain shapes that guided the alternative pattern making. Second, inspired by retro-futurism, the print design resulted in contemporary storytelling with personal imagination in the means of sublimation print. Lastly, the collection as the final outcome for the thesis explored the entanglement between humans, technology and anticipation and presented the progress of changing through the print and silhouettes. The thesis provides creative methods and exploration of design processes in the scope of fashion design. With the personal interpretation of Homo Technologicus and retro-futurism, the collection presents the evolving human-technology relationship in a visualised form. It offers the possibilities for garment construction such as triangle patterns developed from the phone using postures, and print exploration with the sublimation printing method which formed the solid solution from an abstract start progressively. Moreover, it enables individuals with similar interests to explore and open up the theme by following the same mindset embedded in the thesis.Description
Supervisor
Ervamaa, AnnaThesis advisor
Hyötyläinen, IlonaSärmäkari, Natalia
Keywords
fashion design, print design, draping, technology, retro-futurism, practice-based