Anneke Smelik
Professor
of visual culture
Radboud
University, Netherlands
Visiting
professor Iuav 2022
Fashion
Matters.
Beyond
the Canon of the Made in Italy
on the
proposal of
The aim of Fashion
Matters is to investigate the new paradigms at the intersection of fashion
cultures, by connecting the interrelated issues of the human body, identity,
and sustainability. This is necessary and urgent to bring the Made in Italy beyond
the canon of cultural heritage, art history and the handmade tradition.
There are
two reasons to redirect the Made in Italy.
First,
fashion is in rapid transition.
The system
of fast fashion is cracking at the seams, because the fashion industry excels
in pollution and waste due to over-production and over-consumption.
Second, the
human body, identity, memory and the imaginary are crucial to fashion. However,
issues of identity and embodiment have not been researched in relation to the
on-going structural changes in the fashion system.
This
project will bring a new-materialist theoretical framework to specific case
studies of bio-fashion. New materialism delivers the necessary
interdisciplinary approach to study the interrelation between identity, creative
practices, and sustainability (Smelik, 2018, 2021). The application of smart,
bio- and new materials affects how consumers relate to themselves and their
surroundings. Recent innovations such as bio-fashion, solar fashion, biomimetic
textiles and responsive clothing invest the formerly passive and mute matter of
fashion with the capacity to act and react. The integration of technology or
biomaterials into garments introduces a whole new array of materials for fashion,
ranging from sensors, micro-bacteria and LED lights to optic fibres, fungi,
fruit skins, algae, solar cells, and microchips.
Together
with prof. Alessandra Vaccari, Fashion Matters will intertwine with the on-going
research ‘BioFashion. Weaving the Lagoon Between Ecocriticism and Visual
Imagery’, focusing on the production of value in terms of sustainability within
the current creative practices in Venice and Italy. Among these creative
practices, are fashion, textiles and clothes produced from algae. During the research,
prof. Smelik will deliver a series of seminars (articulated in about six sessions)
for the Iuav research community, including postgraduate students and PhD
candidates. The aim is to bring together fashion theory and fashion design; analyse
Italian and international case studies of the 21st century; improve
students’ practices and experimentations; and finally to provide a
contribution to reframe the Made in Italy.
The
proposed research is informed by the hypothesis that creative practices mediate
people’s experiences of themselves and their ecological surroundings in a
material as well as an imaginative way. By developing a framework of
new-materialist theory we will study how the design practice of bio-fashion
transforms the interrelations between individuals and their social, imaginary,
and ecological environment.