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OpenDress - algorithmic sewing patterns
by Verena Ziegler & Frauke Link
Today's manifold information and data streams, “the colonisation of everyday life by information processing,” tend to become meaningless, to the point where we are losing ourselves and where manifoldness has begun creating an isolated perception of the world (Greenfield, 2017; 113). In this colonial, Biedermeierish view on technology, people focus on domestic, “panoptic” (Foucault, 1976) isolation. Consequently, representations and simulations of things come to replace those things themselfes and active engagement is reduced to clicking a “Like” button (Gordon & Mihailidis, 2016; 38). These constitutive effects of massed media and simulations have created a hyperreality. Today's hyperreality is by no means a new phenomenon. In Ancient Greece, hybrids in form of supernatural creatures were the Gods of Olympus, an eminent example of how the familiar self and otherness were merged into a single complex being. These hybrids combined the savagery of nature with the intelligence of humans, making them powerful allies. The concept of “otherness” (Baudrillard, 1994) discusses the aspect of the “other” — similar to how they describe nature, technology and digitality. The concept of the “otherness” (i.Bid.) overcomes the dualism of subject and object and thus enables the alterity of the non-human or supernatural to appear (Braidotti, 2019). Today, “otherness”(i.Bid.) has begun appearing in different forms of digital cyber cultures, avatars, cyborgs, the quantified self, artificial intelligence (AI), where the digital merges with the physical as a constituting effect of technological mediations.
The emerging field of computational fabrication is making new ways of designing and manufacturing supported by generative design (parametric design) more and more accessible. These new manufacturing methods also allow exploring different algorithms, their differences and the generated results in physical space. The role of designers is therefore shifting. Today, designers need to embrace complexity and processes between different sources of intelligence (algorithms, material behaviour, aesthetics, sewing machine conditions). As a result, they adapt objective initializations of parameters from their own perspective and reiterate these in a symbiotic process between virtual modelling and real-world cutting.Ignoring assumptions about the historical art and rules of sewing patterns, the OpenDress project starts from an experimental body-centred approach to create individual sewing patterns using off-standard intersection lines. Instead of trying to adapt the body to standardized norms, this project explores the beauty of imperfection, quirks and identity.
Virtual processing of 3D surfaces, generated from human body scan data via a mobile app, will be used to create algorithmically body-generated clothing. The result is a completely new pattern design technique and pattern design aesthetic. This considers the individual human body and enables creating fitting personalized clothes through machine learning, without distortions, pull lines and gapping. Verena und Frauke achieved this by sewing experimentally through prototyping and by iteratively rethinking the programming and manufacturing process. This interdisciplinary, iterative and practice-based investigation spanning computer science, architecture, textile design and mathematics, algorithmic thinking, artificial intelligence and practical exploitation of pattern-form formation, they developed a sustainable approach to reducing waste consumption, among others, by striving to counteract the standardization of S to XL and by genderfying norms and rules.
By way of a brief outlook to a possible future scenario: This algorithmic approach to sewing patterns might not merely entail a symbiotic process between virtual modelling and real-world cutting. It might also involve other sets of data (e.g., digital avatar profiles of phantasy characters, heroes, or utopies, as illustrated by Björk`s recent album Vulnicura and her otherworldly virtual avatar). Thus, in our present context, this alternative conceptualization might contribute to generating an innovative physical approach to pattern creation.
The curators
Verena Ziegler joined the Zurich University of Arts in Switzerland, Department of Interaction Design in 2013, after studying Architecture (Technical University of Stuttgart/G), Master of Arts in Textile Design, (University of Applied Sciences Reutlingen/G), Master of Design (Auckland University of Technology/NZ) and her currently being completed PhD thesis at Linz University of Arts and Design in Austria. She conducts research and teaches in the area of embodied interaction- and computational design, with an emphasis on new materialism and post-humanist theory. Her recent research includes applications of topology based algorithms for bespoke sewing patterns, that put industrialised standardisations and genderifications in question. She also investigates the development of an alternative global/local "Crafting 4.0" business model to reduce waste pollution through mass customisation and sustainable distribution supply chains. In Verena`s general research and various teaching formats, she explores utopianism futures through practical prototyping and building of experimental machines and robots, to explore post-digital, sensory and embodied engagements with technologies.
Frauke Link is a mathematician (University of Hamburg/G, University of Freiburg i.Br./G) with a doctorate in didactics (Technical University of Dortmund/G), especially in the field of technical communication and problem-solving processes. She works at the University of Applied Sciences in Constance (HTWG Konstanz/G). Since 2016, she has been part of establishing the Open Innovation Lab at HTWG Constance, an interdisciplinary learn laboratory for digital fabrication technologies. Her research interest lies in the implementation of digital innovations in practical use applications, especially in the crafting sector. She believes that the different technical languages of the trades and faculties hinder real innovation and that abstract patterns and structures help the translation processes, especially in the form-finding and fitting process of fashion, where crafting experiences merge with digital fashion production.
