The Body as Site: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Dress in/as Performance

This chapter reflects on the development of embodied and performative methods in the authors practice based research that have enabled inter-connected approaches to design, communication and performance. The chapter discussed the development of these methods that have involved thinking, practicing and researching in the active site of the body to understand lived experience of dress both in and as performance.

The research approaches clothing design for embodied communication as a form of site specific practice in the context of the body, as scenography and as performance. Methods employed include practical experimentation case study design, observation, semi structured interviews and analysis that draws on the lived experience of designers, performers and viewers in the context of cognitive science, psychology, embodiment, memory, kinetic, haptic and sensory perception and phenomenology.

The research focuses on questioning existing modes of clothing production and consumption to develop embodied design and communication methods by drawing on interdisciplinary practice and concepts and processes informed by the body. Through research led practice and practice led research new methodologies have been developed to investigate and extend an understanding of the communication between designer, wearer and viewer of clothing for performance in fashion, live performance and art contexts. The research demonstrates the potentials of practical and theoretical approaches to embodied clothing design and communication and how can be extended through cross disciplinary dialogue and analysis in the site of the body.