Transforming shape: a simultaneous approach to the body, cloth and print for garment and textile design (synthesising CAD with manual methods)

Printed textile and garment design are generally taught and practised as separate disciplines. Integrated CAD software enables textile and clothing designers to envisage printed garments by assimilating graphic imagery with 2D garment shapes, and 3D visualisations. Digital printing can be enlisted to transpose print-filled garment shapes directly onto cloth. This research challenges existing 2D practice by synthesising manual and CAD technologies, to explore the integration of print design and garment shape from a simultaneous, 3D perspective. This research has identified three fundamental archetypes of printed garment styles from Twentieth Century fashion: 'sculptural', 'architectural' and 'crossover'. The contrasting spatial characteristics and surface patterning inherent in these models provided tlýe theoretical and practical framework for the research. Design approaches such as'textile-led', 'garment-led'and 'the garment as canvas' highlighted the originality of the simultaneous design method, which embraces all of these concepts. This research recognises the body form as a positive influence within the printed textile and printed garment designing process, whereby modelled fabric shapes can be enlisted to determine mark making. The aim of the practice, to create printed garment designs from a 3D perspective, was facilitated by an original method of image capture, resulting in blueprinted toiles, or cyanoforms, that formed the basis of engineer-printed garments and textiles. Integrated CAD software provided the interface between manual modelling, design development and realisation, where draping software was employed to digitally craft 3D textiles. The practical and aesthetic characteristics of digital printing were tested through the printing of photographic-style, integrated garment prototypes. The design outcomes demonstrate that a simultaneous approach to the body, cloth and print can result in innovative textile vocabulary, that'plays a proactive role within the design equation, through its aesthetic integration with garment and form. The integration of print directly with the garment contour can result in a 3D orientated approach to printed garment design that is empathetic with the natural body shape

Transforming shape: hybrid practice as group activity

Printed textile and garment design are generally taught and practised as separate disciplines. Integrated CAD software enables textile and clothing designers to envisage printed garments by assimilating graphic imagery with 2D garment shapes and 3D visualizations. Digital fabric printing can be employed to transpose print-filled garment shapes directly onto cloth. During a recently completed practice-led PhD (1998-2003), I researched the aesthetic design potential of combining new CAD technology with garment modelling methods to create new innovative printed textiles/garments. The merging of physical and screen-based making resulted in a hybrid 3D approach to the body, cloth and print referred to as the 'simultaneous design method'. In 2001 this hybrid practice provided the catalyst for a collaborative textile research project at the Nottingham Trent University, UK. The group included surface, shape and multimedia designers. The key group aim was to explore the transforming effects of computer-aided textile design through dialogues between two and three dimensions. In parallel with my own practice, print and embroidery were considered from a 3D starting-point through the relating of geometric cloth shapes to the form. Each designer took an idiosyncratic approach to the selection and integration of imagery with the shapes. The novel consideration of the final modelled textile at the start of the designing process influenced each designer in different ways, leading to a collection of contrasting, original outcomes that were displayed in the exhibition Transforming Shape (UK 2001, Denmark 2003). The exhibition demonstrated the design opportunities (and limitations) of new and existing technologies, specifically the relationship between innovative textile imagery and three-dimensional form. The designs illustrated the premise that surface designs can be engineered through different pattern shapes and that engineer-printed shapes transform the body

Why Robot? Speculative design, the domestication of technology and the considered future

One of the enduring objects used to represent the technological future is the robot. This legacy means that its promise has the ability to evolve in accordance with our societal and cultural dreams and aspirations. It can reflect the current state of technological development, our hopes for that technology and also our fears; fundamentally though, after almost a century of media depictions and corporate promises, the robot is yet to enter our homes and lives in any meaningful way. This thesis begins by asking the question: how does an emerging technology (such as robotic) become a domestic product? In addressing this issue I draw from the theory of domestication and the method of speculative design to describe three possible technological journeys: how technology does not, does and could become a domestic product: 1. Technology does not make the transition from laboratory to domestic life. Robots have made countless departures from the habitat of the research laboratory, apparently headed towards the domestic habitat, but the vast majority never arrive. This observation leads to the identification of a third habitat and the current destination for the majority of proposed domestic robots – robot-related imaginaries. _6 In this theatre-like environment, robots exist as either promises or warnings of a potential technological future. The habitat includes technology fairs, laboratory open houses, news articles and the films and novels of science fiction. I conclude by suggesting reasons why these visions of the future so often fail to become domestic products. 2. Technology does make the transition from laboratory to domestic life. Borrowing from the science of ecology and biological concepts of evolution and domestication, I make an analogy between the shift of habitats that occurs when an organism successfully goes through the process of artificial selection (natural to domestic) and the transition an emerging technology makes in order to become a suitable product for domestic use (laboratory to domestic). 3. How technology could make the transition from laboratory to domestic life. This section makes up the core of the thesis as I describe speculative design and how it can be used to present more plausible depictions of near-future technological applications. By stepping out of the normative relationship that ties technological development to commercial markets, speculative design opens a space for alternative perspectives, critical reflection and an examination of contemporary and near-future technological application. Throughout the thesis these theoretical investigations run parallel to the practice-based element, allowing for interplay between the two. This resulted in three projects that exemplify the speculative design approach applied to robots, inviting dialogue and contemplation on what a preferable robotic future might be

Product-Service development for circular economy and sustainability course

ABSTRACT: This book is an output of the ERASMUS+ KATCH_e project. KATCH_e stands for “Knowledge Alliance on Product-Service Development towards Circular Economy and Sustainability in Higher Education”. This was a 3-year project (2017-2019), aiming to address the challenge of reinforcing skills and competences in Higher Education and within the business community, in the field of product-service development for the circular economy and sustainability, with a particular focus on the construction and furniture sectors.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Proceedings of EVA London 2024

The Electronic Visualisation and the Arts London 2024 Conference (EVA London 2024) is co-sponsored by the Computer Arts Society (CAS) and BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, of which the CAS is a Specialist Group. As for 2022, the EVA London 2023 Conference is a physical and online “hybrid” conference. We continue with publishing the proceedings, both online, with open access via ScienceOpen, and also in our traditional printed form, in full colour. The main conference presentations run during 10–13 July 2023, with workshops and other activities, especially for students, on 14 July 2023

Patent ownership in Malaysia - a comparative legal analysis of the Patents Act 1983.

PhDPrior to 1986, Malaysia had a system whereby patents issued in the United Kingdom could be registered in Malaysia. On registration, the patent owner would have privileges and rights as those conferred by the issue of the patent in the United Kingdom. The Patents Act 1983 introduces a completely new code for patent protection in Malaysia. This thesis analyses and evaluates the current provisions relating to the various incidents of ownership of patent and utility model rights in Malaysia with the aim of assisting in the proper construction of the relevant provisions. The issues of entitlement, the rights of co-owners, the exercise and scope of rights as well as the limitations to and loss of these rights are examined. The main objective of this study is to seek to achieve a proper balance between the rights of a patent owner and the public. Where necessary, proposals for reforms are made to amend various aspects of the Act with the aim of achieving this objective, ensuring at the same time that the relevant provisions are in conformity with Malaysia's obligations under the Paris Convention and the GAIT-TRIPS Agreement. Since there is a dearth of legal writing and judicial guidance on the relevant provisions of the Act, the approach adopted in the thesis is based on a comparative study of equivalent provisions of patent statutes in various Commonwealth countries and the United States, with special emphasis on United Kingdom law. Common law doctrines are also examined to determine their applicability in the Malaysian context. Where of assistance, the laws of other jurisdictions are examined. The experience of the working of the patent system in these countries is drawn upon in the search for a proper and viable balance between the rights of the competing groups

Globalistics and Globalization Studies: Global Transformations and Global Future

The present volume is the fifth in the series of yearbooks with the title Globalistics and Globalization Studies. The subtitle of the present volume is Global Transformations and Global Future. We become more and more accustomed to think globally and to see global processes. And our future can all means be global. However, is this statement justified? Indeed, in recent years, many have begun to claim that globalization has stalled, that we are rather dealing with the process of anti-globalization. Will not we find ourselves at some point again in an edifice spanning across the globe, but divided into national apartments, separated by walls of high tariffs and mutual suspicion? Of course, some setbacks are always possible, because the process of globalization cannot develop smoothly. It is a process which is itself emerging from contradictions and is shaped by a new contradiction. They often go much further than underlying systemic changes allow. They break forward, as the vanguard of a victorious army, and then often meet resistance of various social and political forces and may suddenly start to roll back just at the moment when everyone expects their further offensive. We believe that this is what is happening with globalization at present. The yearbook will be interesting to a wide range of researchers, teachers, students and all those who are concerned about global issues