by helene.goedl -

10 | Invisible Bodies – an Idiosyncratic Design Choice in Digital Fashion Design

Exploring the many creations under the keywords “Digital Fashion” currently presented on the internet, one quickly finds a common and peculiar reoccurring phenomenon. Virtual clothings flows through digital space, draping, behaving and moving in a way that suggests the presence of a body underneath the clothing. But there is no body depicted in the renderings. The world of digital fashion, it seems, is on its way to becoming a world without bodies. This has both interesting implications for the future, but also prompts examinations of the past of fashion design. The invisible walk cycles of digital fashion unintentionally provoke a discussion of one of fashion history’s most interesting tensions – the clothed body.

Bodies are a subject which has naturally been present throughout the history of fashion. Over the course of its evolution, the fashion industry has treated and impacted bodies in a multitude of ways. There have been phases of fashion history in which the body was the leading force, fashion designers aimed to flatter the body, respect its qualities and varieties and find a way to make garments that interplay with the body. The body was a part of the fashion system which could not be ignored or neglected. Similarly, fashion has also gone through phases of extreme body negation, attempting to fight against the natural qualities of the human body, forcing it into unnatural shapes. Especially in women’s fashion, the relation between garment and body has been a constant point of contention which in recent times, has arguably reached its peak. Despite the modern movements for body acceptance and inclusivity, fashion remains a space in which bodies are a constant source of conflict. 

It seems ironic, therefore, that in digital fashion, the body appears to lose its significance altogether. Garments can float through digital space without physical limitations. On one hand, this could be viewed as a bizarre but logical consequence of current efforts towards inclusivity and diversity. If the body is invisible, there is no need to worry about skin colour, size, age and physical condition. The body becomes merely a suggestion of form, a sort of draping guide for digital garments that escapes all the pitfalls that depicting a true to life figure would bring with it. 

On the other hand, this complete negation of the body suggests that in fashion, no semblance of a real physical body is “good enough” to do justice to the garment. The body is an obsolete instrument of fashion, a tool that the modern fashion aesthetic has finally managed to evolve away from. Either way of viewing this development towards invisible bodies in digital fashion brings with it a myriad of questions and discussion points that could be elaborated on in their own essays. Further developments of this trend will show if it is here to stay, or if visible bodies, no matter in which shape will make a return to digital fashion in the end.

Further reading:

Ana Neto & João Ferreira (2023) Lasting Bonds: Understanding Wearer-Clothing Relationships through Interpersonal Love-Theory, Fashion Theory, 27:5, 677-707, DOI: 10.1080/1362704X.2023.2170706

Emma McClendon (2019) The Body: Fashion and Physique—A Curatorial Discussion, Fashion Theory, 23:2, 147-165, DOI: 10.1080/1362704X.2019.1567057

Lucia Ruggerone (2017) The Feeling of Being Dressed: Affect Studies and the Clothed Body, Fashion Theory, 21:5, 573-593, DOI: 10.1080/1362704X.2016.1253302

by helene.goedl -

04 | Tracing the History of Digital Fashion

Although digital fashion design has been around for years, there are still many aspects of this new design discipline that are difficult to trace and define. One of these aspects it the history and origin of digital fashion as an independent category. This blogpost therefore, will present several potential origin points of the discipline and discuss challenges and opportunities for further writing on this facet of digital fashion.

A review of the current literature on digital fashion reveals that a universal origin point of digital fashion has not yet been agreed on. One could postulate various reasons for this. Essentially however, the issue can be condensed in the fact that digital fashion design is still not clearly separated from the disciplines it originates from or even its analog counterpart, which it has seemingly become a subcategory of in the minds of people engaging with it today. A possible method for determining the historical origins of digital fashion is to trace its roots in other design fields which have enabled or influenced it and from which it has developed. Among these design fields are undoubtably video game design and 3D modelling. Furthermore, it might be argued that the general basis for digital clothing design also has origins in traditional 2D animation and arguably also digital material simulation.

Scholarly research has yet to acquaint itself with the rapid contemporary developments in the field of digital fashion design. The fast paced nature of technological innovations and advancements makes it challenging for researchers in the field to draw tangible conclusions on the guiding questions the young discipline faces. In reading fashion industry publications and consulting online resources, one is frequently under the impression that digital fashion manifested out of thin air several years ago and has since been quickly expanding and gaining importance in the fashion sphere. 

This status quo on the history of digital fashion suggests that for further research into the topic, a history of digital fashion needs to be developed. As a fundamental step to this endeavour, a solid definition of the discipline should be established. If we accept a definition along the lines of Doyle 2022 which reads „Digital fashion is clothing that is not physically manufactured, including game skins, avatar clothing and Non-fungible tokens (NFT)”1 , we must accommodate a large variety of digitally existent clothing products into the term “digital fashion”. A more narrow definition might serve better when it comes to developing a clear history, but would potentially exclude interesting liminal and marginal case studies. It might further be useful to delineate digital fashion from traditional analog fashion by developing definitions of the two fields that point out their overlaps as well as their differences. 

To close this brief exploration of digital fashion design history, three main conclusions can be drawn. Firstly, the current literature on digital fashion does not reveal a comprehensive account of the discipline’s origin and history. Secondly, an effort to develop such a history could endeavour an investigation into the relevant disciplines which digital fashion design emerged from. Thirdly, the exploration of the disciplines history requires a working definition of digital fashion in order to provide a solid basis for further investigations into the subject.

References:

1 Doyle, Megan. (2022, March 2). Could digital fashion be an eco-friendly replacement for fast fashion? Ecocult. https://ecocult.com/digital-virtual-fashion-sustainability/.

by stefanie.weber -

#08 Tanz im Film Geschichte – Literatur

Zu Beginn direkt etwas Literatur die ich zu meinem aktuellen Thema gefunden habe und für die Zukunft sehr hilfreich sein kann:

  • Köhler, Kristina: Der tänzerische Film. Frühe Filmkultur und moderner Tanz. Marburg: Schüren Verlag 2017
  • Bucher, Ladina u.a.: Tanz im Film. Das Politische in der Bewegung. Berlin: Verbrecher Verlag 2017
  • Hilton, Penny: Design in Motion. Applying Design Principles to Filmmaking. Ort?:Bloomsbury Publishing 2020
  • Gibson, Steve u.a.: Live Visuals. History, Theory, Practice. London/New York: Routledge 2023
  • Rosiny, Claudia (14.02.2018): Videotanz. nach dem film. In: https://nachdemfilm.de/issues/text/videotanz (zuletzt aufgerufen am 07.02.2024)
  • Cheung, Ming u.a.: Visual Background Recommendation for Dance Performances Using Dancer-Shared Images. IEEE International Conference on Internet of Things (iThings) and IEEE Green Computing and Communications (GreenCom) and IEEE Cyber, Physical and Social Computing (CPSCom) and IEEE Smart Data (SmartData) (2016),S. 521-527
  • Naess, Joan: A developmental approach to the interactive process in dance/movement therapy. In: American Journal of Dance Therapy Vol. 5 (1982), S. 43-55

Der Tänzer tanzt mit seinem Mittel, mit dem Körper. Die Kamera tanzt mit ihrem Mittel [. . .], erst die Hilfe von kombinierten Fahr-, Schwenk- und Kranaufnahmen, erst die Hilfe von spezifisch filmischen Mitteln ermöglicht einen lebendigen tänzerischen Eindruck. (Drommert 1962: 32)

Jeder versteht nämlich unter Tanz etwas anderes, der eine etwas Ballettartiges, der andere Pantomimen, der dritte wieder etwas Kultisches, was seiner persönlichen Vorstellung von griechischen Tänzen entspricht, und die meisten ein Hüpfen und Sichdrehen nach schnellen Polka- und Walzertakten, das dem geselligen Vergnügen des Volkes und der Ballsäle mehr oder weniger ähnlich ist. Andere wiederum wollen mit jenem Satz eine ihrer Meinung nach einwandfreie Formulierung des strengen ästhetischen Begriffs Tanz einleiten oder sie erachten diesen Begriff als schon gegeben, als bereits vorhandenen festen Maßstab. (Brandenburg 1921: 16, Herv. i. O.)

Seit es Film gibt, gibt es Tanzfilme. Zwischen dem tanzenden Licht und der Bewegung menschlicher Körper besteht eine ambivalente Verwandtschaft. Zwei gegensätzliche Erkenntnisweisen begegnen einander: der geometrisierende Blick und die Unmittelbarkeit körperlicher Erfahrung. Ob in Quentin Tarentinos »Pulp Fiction«, Jean Luc Godards »Bande à part« oder Lars von Triers »Dancer in the Dark«, in »Flashdance«, der »Step Up«-Reihe oder den amerikanischen Klassikern, überall lassen sich Einstiegspunkte zu Fragen finden, die das Feld der Tanzwissenschaft sprengen und zum Kern der Gesellschaft vordringen.

by vinzenz.weber -

XR 2 // The Evolution and Current Landscape of Extended Reality

From Sensorama to Apple Vision Pro: A Journey Through XR’s History

The Beginnings: Sensorama and the First HMD

The journey of Extended Reality (XR) dates back to 1956 when cinematographer Morton Heilig created Sensorama, the first Virtual Reality (VR) machine.

This innovative movie booth combined 3D, stereoscopic color video with audio, smells, and a vibrating chair, immersing viewers in a unique cinematic experience. Heilig’s pioneering work didn’t stop there; in 1960, he patented the first head-mounted display (HMD), merging stereoscopic 3D images with stereo sound, laying the groundwork for future VR technologies.

Early Steps in Augmented Reality: The Sword of Damocles

By 1965, the field of XR took another significant leap with Ivan Sutherland’s development of „The Sword of Damocles“ Considered the first augmented reality (AR) HMD and tracking system, it aimed to enhance users‘ perception of the world. Despite its primitive user interface and simple wireframe graphics, it marked a crucial step in the evolution of AR.

Mediated Reality and the Reality-Virtuality Continuum

In the 1970s, Steve Mann’s research into mediated reality, which later influenced tech giants like Google, Apple, and Microsoft, focused on augmenting human perception through digital overlays in the real world. Building on this concept, Paul Milgram and Fumio Kishino introduced the Reality-Virtuality continuum in 1994, illustrating a spectrum of experiences from purely real to purely virtual environments.

The 1990s: Pioneering AR and the Birth of Sportsvision

The 1990s saw Thomas Caudell & David Mizell develop the first see-through HMD, coining the term „augmented reality.“ In a significant mainstream breakthrough, Sportsvision broadcast the first live NFL game in 1998 with a yellow yard marker overlay, revolutionizing sports broadcasting.

Modern Advancements: The 2010s Onward

The 2010s heralded rapid advancements in XR technology. Key developments included:

  • First Oculus Rift Prototype: A milestone in VR technology.
  • 2014 – A Landmark Year: Sony and Samsung jumped into the VR headset market, while Google launched the affordable Cardboard VR viewer and the Google Glass AR glasses.
  • Microsoft’s HoloLens: Released in 2016, it introduced a more interactive AR experience, often referred to as „mixed reality.“
  • Pokémon GO: This 2016 game brought AR to the masses, demonstrating the technology’s mainstream appeal.

A Push into the Mainstream

Apple’s AR Kit and Google’s MR Toolkit made AR accessible on smartphones, broadening the technology’s reach. In 2017, the IKEA Place app showcased AR’s practical use in retail, allowing users to visualize furniture in their homes before purchasing.

The Current State: Meta Quest 3 and Apple Vision Pro

Today, we see state-of-the-art AR and VR combinations through devices like Meta Quest 3. The recent announcement of Apple Vision Pro signals a potential expansion in audience reach, acceptance, and continued research and development in mixed reality technologies.

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