part of MA Critical Fashion Practices, ArtEZ
During the Online Fashion Systems module, we will explore the many ways fashion manifests itself within and through digital culture. We look at earlier more utopian ideas of online networks, as prompt to reconsider the importance of counter narratives, and look at the way fashion has weaved its way through these networks
in our current socio-political setting.
As transformative power seems to be the promise of the virtual, the inherent need arises to critically assess how digital representations of fashion manifest itself online. The Online Fashion Systems module examines and draws upon examples of engagement with online spaces, publics, and imaginaries, as well as the (non)capital formations that exist within the overlaps of fashion and digital culture. It considers fashion as a communication vehicle for both mystification and critical thinking. As we examine how critical practitioners from other disciplines deal with digital materiality and connectivity, we unpack how this could inform and shape fashion practices, and explore the potential parallel pathways for working with fashion's online fabric.
Through theory, contemporary examples, experimentations and vocations we investigate the various ways digital culture impacts the ways we create, experience and think about fashion. We will get acquainted with digital systems by utilising them, as we navigate and (re)define different online spaces and tools while articulating their cultural urgency.
The overall aim of this course is to highlight the importance of digital agency & literacy in the context of fashion. By approaching ‘the digital’ not only as medium for output, but as alternate structure for connection, communication, creation and dissemination, participants develop perspectives to inform their personal practice, positioning or approach.