Blog 1 – Reflection on Emerging Technologies in Fashion Lecture

Amongst the different topics presented under the Better Lives’s unit lectures, Emerging Technologies in Fashion stood out to me due to the idea of affordances in technology, introduced early on into the lecture.

“What technology can afford us to do,” is an interesting way to paved a new interest, especially in the area less explored. The idea that a single object can provide different purposes varies from one person to another promotes objectivity and criticality in approaching new subjects that could surely be developed further upon as emerging technologies.

Given the description of disruptive technology because it tends to displaced conventional wisdom and understanding, emerging technology unsettles to improve and replace at the price of familiarity. The discussion suggested some novel uses of these toolsets. A powerful political statement, rise of the new cycle of ethicality in fashion ie; the possibility of blockchain technology lending transparency and encourage peer-to-peer movement in the art and fashion industry to future method of trend forecasting.

Even with the rise of automation and utilisation of artificial intelligence, there’s still a limitation to this computation of patterns and probabilities; statistics based upon data of previous likeliness without putting ethics and morals into consideration, ultimately lacking in social intelligence unlike the human counterpart.

And this is where new wave of emerging technologies can enter the scene, in my opinion. That gap between the infinite possibilities offered by technology and a more refined approach by us. The seamless transition that instigates excitement rather than threatens is the ultimate goal of adapting emerging technology for a wider use in the fashion industry.