JESSICA BUGG
designer, School of Media and Communication, London

THE CLOTHED BODY IN FASHION AND PERFORMANCE
TELO I ODEVANJE KAO PREDMET MODE I UMETNIČKE PREDSTAVE

Journal 7/2011 (Museum of Applied Art), pages 65-75

UDC:
7.05:646.4]:316.728 ; 391:316.728
ИД 188182284

Abstract:
This paper explores the clothed, communicating body as a site for the meeting of fashion and performance practice. It discusses the relationship between the body and clothing as a potentially shared form of communication in areas of contemporary fashion and performance practice and specifically investigates the symbiotic relationship between the two in conveying narratives and concepts from and on the body.

The methodology draws on an analysis of practice and theory in contemporary fashion and performance design, exposing cross disciplinary approaches and an interchange of ideas that point towards a hybrid practice between the two disciplines. By placing clothing at the centre of this debate it is possible to take into account how the emotional and physical factors as well as the site of the body itself contributes to the making, intention and reading of such work. It is suggested that this area of work could be seen as a type of body located scenographic practice in its own right.

The paper concludes that there are a range of embodied practices where practitioners work with materiality, clothing the body and conceptual approaches that seemingly function in cross disciplinary territory. Attempts to categorise within formal constructs can restrict creative progress and that it is through understanding the body as a site specific context that it is possible to move forward and give meaning to this practice in a contemporary context.

Key words:
the body as site, the clothed body, communication, conceptual, cross disciplinary, fashion and performance design, scenography

Summary (translated):
U tekstu se, sa aspekta dizajnera, istražuje odeveno telo kao sredstvo komunikacije i mesto susreta mode i scenske predstave. Razmatrajući odnos tela i odeće kao moguće zajedničke forme komunikacije u savremenoj modi i na sceni, posebno se ispituje simbiotički odnos tela i odeće, kojim se narativi i sadržaji prenose sa tela i ka njemu.

Smeštajući odeću u žižu teoretske rasprave i prakse savremenog modnog i scenskog dizajna, uzimam u obzir način na koji emotivni i fizički činioci, uključujući i samo telo kao prostor, doprinose stvara- nju, nameri i čitanju takvih dela. Uverena sam da se ova oblast može posmatrati kao svojevrstan scenografski postupak na samom telu.

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