On the 25th of January the symposium 'Unfolding Practice. Creative Research, Reflections, Experiences', took place at LCF, organised by Dr Flavia Loscialpo (CHS and CfFC) with the support of the Centre for Fashion Curation and the Cultural and Historical Studies Department.
Open to the broad UAL community and the public, the event featured as speakers: Prof Judith Clark (curator, exhibition maker and CfFC co-director), Caroline Stevenson (curator, writer and CHS Programme Director - UAL), Silvia Bombardini (writer, film curator, academic - UAL and RCA), Hanan Tantush (adaptive designer and UAL alumna), Dr Eve Lin (researcher, designer and academic - UAL), Dr Elizabeth Kealy-Morris (fashion researcher - Manchester Metropolitan University), Dr Sebastiane Hegarty (artist, writer and academic - UAL and Solent University).
As anticipated by the title, the symposium intended to unpick creative practice as research from an interdisciplinary perspective, and provide a space for considering how it can offer nuanced, situated, embodied and interdisciplinary approaches to research, which can value also the tacit knowledge gained through hands-on experience.
The programme was as follows:
Unfolding Practice. Creative Research, reflections, experiences
PANEL 1 - 'On Process: Sites, Stories, Encounters'
On working at 1:12 – JUDITH CLARK
‘The Other Story, The Untold One’: Thinking With Shoplifters’ Clothes - SILVIA BOMBARDINI
In all the wrong places: Curatorial Acts and Sites of Encounter – CAROLINE STEVENSON
PANEL 2 - 'On Listening, Creating and Undoing'
Design for the disabled community. Questioning theory to develop practice – HANAN TANTUSH
Thinking through making: Navigating the PhD journey - EVE LIN
Performative Autoethnography: Embodied knowledge of practice and the self - ELIZABETH KEALY-MORRIS
Withdrawn from use: for silence, voice, turntable and pause – SEBASTIANE HEGARTY
The first panel titled ‘ On Process, Sites, Stories, Encounters’ reflected on exhibition making, archival research, making and wearing, as well as the continuous crossing of the boundaries between practice and theory, while the second panel explored ‘Listening, Creating and Undoing’ from a design-making, an auto-ethnographic and artistic perspective.
This rich afternoon disclosed the opportunity to peak into the research notes, sketchbooks, experiments, the evolution of ideas, and the many different ways of embracing practice as research, in and beyond fashion, as disclosed by each speaker.
