Dr. Daria Dorosh
School
University of East London
Year
2007
Keywords
grid, loop, abstraction, representation, pattern, sportswear, process, product, fashion, art
Thesis Title
PATTERNING:
The Informatics of Art and Fashion
Abstract
Patterning: The Informatics of Art and Fashion
The latter half of the 20th century saw a massive transition from the analogue way of life to the digital. This thesis compares and contrasts two sets of binary patterns in this transition: the ‘grid’ and the ‘loop’, and ‘representation’ and ‘abstraction’. My field of knowledge is Contemporary Conceptual Art practice, and the overlapping areas between three major disciplines: post-1970s visual art, fashion design and production, and digital media tools. The method is process-art analysis, in practice and theory. The thesis looks at several art and fashion case studies engaged with new media and shows that ‘Informatics’ also shares patterns with these emerging trends.
The thesis argues that an important shift in the surface and structure of art and fashion and dynamic patterns in these fields can be relevant to others working in cognate disciplines concerned with patterns of thinking, imaging and coding: i.e., Philosophy, Media Theory, and Computer Science. New insights can be gained from a cross-disciplinary field of vision in this regard. The broad questions addressed in the research are:
• Is there a vocabulary of pattern emerging between disciplines?
• Why do “˜grid”, “loop”, “representation” and “abstraction” emerge repeatedly as patterns across such a wide set of disciplines: from fashion and art to brain science and pattern mapping in computer science?
• What can we learn from documenting the apparent shift between product and process in these distinct fields?
The research concludes that the patterns in art, fashion, science, and technology all show that we are in a transition from a product-based culture to a process-oriented one. In that spirit, the conclusion projects a collaborative future for fashioning culture.
Bio
Daria Dorosh is an artist, educator, and researcher considering the significance of art, fashion, and technology converging on the body. Fashion Lab in Process, LLC, is her research platform that aims to re-imagine economic platforms for artists, designers, and creative culture makers.
Her PhD dissertation “Patterning: the informatics of art and fashion” 2007, was completed at SMARTlab Digital Media Institute (UEL), where she is currently adjunct faculty at University College Dublin, Ireland. Her practice-based analysis mapped two binary patterns operating in art, fashion and digital culture that indicated the ascendancy of process over product.
Daria is a co-founder and member of A.I.R. Gallery, NY, a community of self-identified women artists founded in 1972 as an alternative to mainstream art institutions that excluded women. She taught art at Parsons School of Design (1976-85) and fashion at the Fashion Institute of Technology, (1969-2014) NY.
Her presentations on sustainability, technology, and fashion include “Re-made in America”; “Take Back Your Body” at VSMM2017; “Artists Policing Data”, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, NY. ; A.I.R.+BATURU, Beijing, online; “The Scalability Project”, an online exhibition and publication.
