1st Blog Post —- Lecture Reflection
During these two weeks, I have been attending all the Better life lecture. Some of the lectures was eye opening, made me reflect on my current lifestyle, and found new possible directions for my work for the next stage.
Firstly, Nick Almond’s Lecture, Emerging Technologies in Fashion, left a deep impression on me. It aroused my attention to new technologies. More or less, I had heard about some technologies which connect with fashion before, such as the textile made from the new material—-fungal culture, and the VR and AR technology. However, I thought these were far away from me. Compared to learning these unfamiliar technologies, I was rather than stay in my comfort zone and shooting traditional films and photographs.
Nick’s lecture made me realize that in our life, technology is everywhere, new technology is constantly emerging, and these technologies will have an unpredictable impact on the fashion industry, from the production to how it present. In the ever-changing fashion industry, as a content producer, I need to encourage myself to learn about the latest technology, which will be the guarantee that my content will stand out. Therefore, recently I have been quite a few times to digital learning lab at Lime Grove on the weekend. Through these workshops, I have been learning the software of projection mapping, how to do audiovisual control for installation, and how to establish responsive media experience. I am looking forward to what surprises those technologies will bring to my work.
The second Lecture I find very provoking is John Lau’s Cultural Sustainability Lecture. He explained the definition of cultural appropriation and appreciation, which happened a lot in the fashion industry, and the difference between them. He showed a range of examples of both situations, and I think it’s helpful for him analyzing why those happened. This kind of analysis made me reflect on how to avoid cultural appropriation in my later works. After seeing those cased I realized that, sometimes, it hard to tell whether the incident is appropriation or appreciation, especially for people from unrelated cultures. It’s such a shame to see designers unsuccessfully attempt to pay homage to the culture that inspired them. There are, of course, exceptions to bring up outrage marketing for those who knowingly offend. Furthermore, there are always people offended but some others do not understand. People whose culture is not involved may not sensitive enough to understand why the product or the campaign is offensive to the people whose culture belongs to.
All in all, most of the lectures exposed me to the shortcomings of the current fashion industry. There is an urgent need for improvement, from the business model to the production. Crisis and opportunity always come at the same time, and I am excited about my following work inspired by these themes.