by helene.goedl -

IMPULSE #3 | Open House: Die Angewandte – Fashion Department and University Library

At their yearly Open House, the Angewandte (University of Applied Arts Vienna) opens its doors to everyone who wants to get to know the courses on offer at the university or is just interested in taking a look behind the scenes. At the Open House, the studios, workshops and departments of the University of Applied Arts are open to visitors. Students and teachers share insights into everyday university life. Information stands on site and online provide the opportunity for further exchange about the study programmes.1 This year, I seized the opportunity to visit the fashion department at the Angewandte Open House.  

Why was the Open House relevant for my Thesis?

Fashion study programs, fashion design education and their curricula are excellent indicators of where the fashion scene is headed at a given time. Sometimes, these study programs are on the pulse of current developments, sometimes they lag behind for one reason or another. My main objective in visiting the open house was to explore where the fashion department at the Angewandte stands on the role of digital fashion design, whether this development is incorporated into the education and if there are projects already on display that might show the status on this question. Additionally, I made use of the opportunity to take a tour of the Angewandte university library to explore the possibility of using it for my Master’s thesis research.

The Fashion Department

The fashion department at the Angewandte is one of the most successful fashion design education programs in Europe. The admission is highly selective, only taking on between 5 and 10 students each year. The program is currently headed by fashion designer Craig Green.

“London-born designer Craig Green MBE established his namesake label in 2012 shortly after graduating the Fashion Masters course at Central Saint Martins. He has since carved out a unique position amongst the industry’s most innovative talents and continues to earn both critical and commercial success globally.”2

The head of department position is re-staffed in short intervals in order to provide the students with exposure to different approaches during their 5 year study period. The degree program is a diploma, which means it is not divided into a bachelor’s and a master’s degree.

The Fashion Design programme highly values the development of a distinctive creative style and artistic vision in their students.  In close guidance from the professors, “students explore the critical potential of fashion between materiality, corporeality, and concept.The curriculum comprises traditional pattern cutting and construction skills alongside digital skills and techniques. Students benefit from a state-of-the-art, industry-standard sewing atelier, knitting atelier and a spacious studio with a personal work space for each student. Students are given the possibility to work in professionally equipped studio spaces and workshops both within the Fashion Department and other departments of the University of Applied Arts.”3

The department has seen many highly acclaimed professionals in the lead position, such as l Karl Lagerfeld, Helmut Lang, Jil Sander, Raf Simons, Vivienne Westwood, Viktor & Rolf, Bernhard Willhelm, Hussein Chalayan, Lucie and Luke Meier and  Grace Wales Bonner to name a few.3

“Graduates of the Fashion Department have founded their own labels, such as Bless, house of the very island’s, Wendy Jim, Petar Petrov, Femme Maison, Sagan Vienna, Kenneth Ize, and others. Others occupy leading positions in the fashion industry, working for brands such as Balenciaga, Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen, Lanvin, OAMC, Prada, Comme des Garçons or Maison Margiela.”3

With regard to digital fashion, I was able to find out that CLO3D is taught in the curriculum as an industry standard program. In terms of digital fashion collections or digital garment developments, I was not able to find any significant presence, suggesting that while the aspect of digital fashion has a place in the curriculum, it is not a focus of the program. The focus is still very much on physical tailoring and traditional skills in the fashion design process, which I believe is a good and solid approach and the successes of the graduating designers prove this. 

The Library

Since the Angewandte has a fashion department, their library catalog naturally is much more extensive than the one at FH Joanneum with regard to this design discipline. I took a guided library tool and created a library account for external students and will be making use of the resources for my thesis. 

Images

1“Angewandte Open House 2024.”
2Craig Green. “About.” Accessed November 11, 2024. https://craig-green.com/pages/about.
3“Fashion – dieAngewandte.”

Sources

“About,” Craig Green, accessed November 11, 2024, https://craig-green.com/pages/about.

“Angewandte Open House 2024,” Angewandte Open House 2024, October 14, 2024, accessed November 11, 2024, https://openhouse.uni-ak.ac.at/en/.

“Fashion – dieAngewandte,” accessed November 11, 2024, https://www.dieangewandte.at/fashion.

All Images © Helene Goedl 2024

by Hannah Albrecht -

Sound & Interaction in “Ein Flanellnachthemd”

“Ein Flanellnachthemd”, written by Leonora Carrington and staged in augmented reality in a collaboration between Augsburg State Theater and Ingolstadt State Theater, was presented at Digithalia Festival within the confines of one portable electronic device pointing towards a poster in which all the action takes place. The keywords for this play are surrealism, morbid interactions, and nightmare. It is evident from the beginning that the atmosphere is meant to be unsettling.

This is on one hand represented by the costumes and interactions that the actors have on the augmented reality stage, but mostly through the sound: A deep, dark pad texture somewhat close to being a constant in all of the house’s rooms follows the spectator through the narrative. There are diegetic sounds as well – droplets in a bathroom, doors creaking upon being opened and closed, footsteps, and fire in a kitchen where a murder took place. Despite all this, what was done with sounds seems minimal compared to the potential there is: A flood outside the window, a huge black swan made of paper, a tree growing inside a bedroom, a hyena crouching in the corner, and a crocodile in the bathtub. In my opinion, doing more here could have enhanced the experience of the surreal in these scenes, instead of simply brushing over them visually or maybe not even noticing them (i.e., if I already move my device to follow the dialogue and do not randomly move it up to see the leaves growing on the ceiling, will I even get an understanding of the absurdity beyond noticing it on a surface level?).

One factor that severely impacted the interplay between immersion and sound was the mix. Between dialogue, atmosphere, and switching to another poster, I found myself adjusting the volume multiple times to be able to take note of everything that was going on. This is something that I would want to focus on to create good continuity and cohesion in an experience that is already so bizarre without any additional disturbances (especially if the presentation does not take place in one continuous stream). If there’s already enough hassle with tilting the camera to witness what is happening in the story, having to adjust levels on top of that is just an additional distraction.

I really liked the music that accompanied the play. It was evolving and atmospheric, and although it was similar in most rooms, it fulfilled its purpose very well. One main lesson I learned from taking part in this critically is that if there are visual elements in augmented reality that add to the experience, but are not directly referenced in the spoken dialogue, it could make sense to use sound to draw the spectator’s attention to the visual input coming from another direction – it doesn’t need to be super obvious, but a subtle hint helps to take in the whole scenery.