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This case study covers the work of five researchers at University of the Arts London (UAL), who have played a role in establishing a field of academically rigorous fashion research with a new relevance for industry and society. This has been achieved through innovative curatorial practices, publications, collaboration with practitioners, and interaction with broadcast, print and new media. The work of this group of academics has influenced the way fashion is presented and communicated within the museum, gallery and publishing sector, and in the fashion industry itself, both nationally and internationally.
Emma Tarlo's research on modest dress and Islamic fashion plays a substantial role in combatting social prejudice and promoting understanding of religious minority groups in Britain and Europe. Addressing issues of the rights to religious expression and the need for socially inclusive design, it has attracted widespread coverage in British and international media, including religious and ethnic minority and fashion media, stimulating public debate on-line and off. Professor Tarlo has engaged with diverse publics in the context of museums, Islamic societies, inter-faith events, schools conferences, and through interviews on radio and film. Her research has been taken up in new educational curricula and by artists and designers seeking to combat social prejudice through design.
University of the Arts London (UAL) is a pioneer of research into both design-led practice and the theoretical concepts underpinning sustainability across the fashion and textile sectors. Work focuses on design strategies for sustainability, textile recycling and upcycling, new manufacturing practices, systems and processes, greater understanding of consumer behaviours, and how to develop informed consumer engagement with fashion and textile products and their use. Research aims to empower designers through education and innovative best practice to make better informed decisions and choices, to question the status quo, create significant improvements and foster radical changes to the existing system. Publications and collaborative projects have impacted on industry, influenced policy debate and practice within Government, and enhanced public understanding of issues surrounding fashion and textiles sustainability.
The two-year ROTOЯ programme of exhibitions and events has been a cornerstone of the University of Huddersfield's efforts to introduce new audiences to contemporary art and design, as encouraged by successive Arts Council policies for enhancing public engagement. As well as raising awareness, inspiring curiosity and providing cultural enrichment, it has initiated changes to local authority policies on providing cost-effective, high-quality cultural services and has functioned as a vehicle for research into how the impact of such programmes can be captured. As such, it has served as a model partnership for local authority and university sectors in offering cultural leadership, generating and measuring engagement and delivering public services.
Professor Pratt's work on the conceptualisation, measurement and operationalization of the cultural and creative industries has had significant impact within the field of cultural and economic policy at the urban, regional, national and international levels. These ideas have been taken up and used by policy makers to identify the contribution of the cultural economy. Professor Pratt's work has been instrumental in devising the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Framework for Cultural Statistics (2009), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Creative Economy Report (2010 and 2013), and the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) report on the economic and social consequences of copyright for the creative industries (2013).
Ulinka Rublack's research focuses on the history of Renaissance dress. Her work has enhanced public awareness that social groups beyond courtly elites created fashion in the past. It led to a re-creation of one of the most significant outfits recorded in the wardrobe of a sixteenth-century accountant. Rublack's work has reached beyond academic audiences by influencing theatre practices and education and has been disseminated through broadcasting, filming and print media. Most recently, it has led to collaboration with a fashion designer and an artist to create contemporary fashion and photography in connection with the story of the Renaissance accountant.
Dr. Miller, Professor Owen and Professor Wilks' research underpins Cultural Memory studies. It spans several decades and has engaged with and impacted upon academia and society via numerous forms of dissemination such as monographs, chapters in books, journal articles, broadcasts, exhibitions, websites, conference papers and public talks. Cultural Memory is a relatively new area of study that examines, and seeks to raise awareness of, the way in which society, the individual and cultural production is reconstructed via the remaining material evidence. Hence it focuses equally on material evidence and the problematical way in which it is often distorted by contemporary filters.
This case study focuses on three Science/Art collaborations Primitive Streak, Wonderland and Catalytic Clothing (CatClo) undertaken since 1997 by Professor Helen Storey. Storey's work is genuinely collaborative, spanning arts, sciences and new technology fields, and produces projects which illuminate aspects of science and well-being in ways that engage with the public, communicate complicated concepts, and demonstrate the potential of science in an innovative and accessible manner. The projects have reached huge audiences and have made a significant contribution to raising public awareness of science and issues faced by society.