This international conference and exhibition of costume was held 25-27 March 2015, Helsinki, Finland, at Aalto University, School of Arts, Design and Architecture. It asked:
What does it mean to study costume in the 21st century?
Convened and curated by Professor Sofia Pantouvaki, and hosted by the Costume in Focus research group, this major event included over 220 international scholars and artists with representation from all five continents. Critical Costume 2015 included contributions from scholars and practitioners that seek to ad-dress the implications of research processes, new technologies and media for the study and practice of costuming today and in history. Contributions responded to the following themes: methodologies for researching costume in live performance, film and media; digital, interactive, and mediated costume, costume in media and media in costume; and new costume practices and performances. The event included keynotes from Prof. Deborah Landis (David C. Copley Center for Costume Design, UCLA School of Theater, Film & Television) and Prof. Peter McNeil (University of Technology Sydney).
The event included:
- an exhibition of artistic work and artistic research
- a conference comprised of academic presentations of cutting edge research
- flashtalks – short presentations by artists
- film and media screenings
Critical Costume 2015 was the second event within the Critical Costume research network, originally initiated at Edge Hill University, UK by Dr. Rachel Hann and Sidsel Bech in 2013. The biannual event investigates costume practices as a means of critically interrogating the body in/as performance. You can read more about the network and its other events here: www.criticalcostume.com.
Critical Costume 2015 was sponsored by:
