LINNEA BÅGANDER

BODY FRAGMENTED – TEMPORAL EXPRESSIONS

In response to digital technology, new methods, thinking and aesthetics have emerged that challenge the way we design. In particular, the extraction of movement introduced by motion-capture technology propose a design process wherein the motion rather than the form is used as a material in a design process. In such a process the motion is extracted form a defined set of points that creates a digital representation. In this exposition, the strategies utilized when capturing a motion is translated into the process of garment making with the purpose to challenge bodily aesthetics through dress. Practically, this exposition builds on two independent studies with the shared aim to define parameters for transformations of the moving body’s expression applied to a garment making process. Yet, the transformation is approached from two perspectives; the first study is non-material and borrows theory and references from the field of dance and motion capturing technology. It maps the body as a point-based system based on the body as a moving form and pin-points body functions that affect these points. This part serves as a foundation for the second study that adds material aspects, in particular, it maps material parameters that relate to how the material is arranged in relation to these points.

In conclusion, strategies of extraction of movement as attachments and the scale of fragmentation of materials are considered the main contribution to the garment making process. As it proposes a new usage of movement, the work has implications for fashion design, costume design but also other body movement-based mediums as it is about the expression of body movement and not just the body as a form.

Biography

Linnea Bågander is PhD-student in Artistic Research, Fashion Design, Swedish School of Textiles. Through collaborations within various fields she is exploring dress as movement as material in the process of designing dress. Her work ranges from how material interprets and expresses the body's movements to how materials give impressions, inspiration and movements to the body and how this enables new bodies entwined with materials.