Blog Post 1: Lecture Reflection
I have very much enjoyed the Better Lives lecture series. At first, I was admittedly sceptical about the relevance of some wider ‘fashion’ subjects to my own degree area of costume for performance but I have found them all to be highly informative and they have introduced many new ideas to me from around the fashion world, how these ideas could be applied in a performance environment, and have also explored some of the issues I only had limited knowledge about in more detail. The lecture that stood out to me the most was Teleica Kirkland’s lecture on Representation.
As a performance student, issues of representation, diversity and inclusion were something I was aware of however the lecture highlighted to me many of the issues in greater detail, providing background to the issue, and clarified some terms such as cultural appropriation.
I was very interested in what Teleica had to say about the differences between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation and it made me think about how this could impact my design work, and how I can adjust my own research methods and general creative process to make sure I am conscious of the world and communities around me and that I always approach design work that has any potential to become appropriative with sensitivity. Her comments on monoculturalism and how it is spread easily through mass media was thought provoking. I would endeavour to ensure I do not contribute to the issue of monoculturalism through any media I create or collaborate on and after watching the lecture feel I am much better informed to make sure I do not do this, and that I also now have an awareness to tell the difference between appropriative and appreciative media when I see it.
Moving forwards, I would ensure that any designs were extensively researched, reaching out to members of the cultural background or community in question during this process. As a costume student, world dress is something I am likely to end up designing at some point and so I feel with this new knowledge I have a much better idea of how I would go about tackling that kind of job and also would feel more confident in my approach.
I found the concept of not just shooting for equal representation but for equal understanding fascinating and very relevant to the performance sector. It reminded me of what John Dyer said about diversity in theatre; “diversity is inviting people to the party, but there is only real inclusion when you ask them to dance.”. I think that representation has a long way to go within performance across all areas for many different groups but that with the knowledge of cultural bias and the effects of colonialism and monoculturalism, underrepresentation can be challenged.
Overall, this lecture has really highlighted to me how awareness, knowledge and interaction with the world around me can help to beat ignorance within the design process, and the importance of representation within fashion.
References
Kirkland, T. (2020) ‘Representation’ [Lecture]. Better Lives, London College of Fashion, 19 February.
Gardner, L. (2016) ‘Diversity in theatre: why is disability being left out?’ The Guardian, 16 February. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2016/feb/16/disability-theatre-diversity-arena-wolverhampton (Accessed: 19 March 2020)