Building Methodological Tools for Research in the Field of Costume Design
The ‘Costume Methodologies’ FiDiPro project ran from 2014 – 2018, with its main objective being the establishment of methodological strategies to investigate the creation, production and function of costume in different areas of live performance (theatre, opera, dance, circus, other stage- or site-specific performance events) as well as in film, television and other camera-/media-based creative projects.
The field of Costume Design had employed theories and research practices inherited or borrowed from social sciences, fashion, film and performance studies. Yet costume design is a defined field of artistic practice, addressing multiple layers of interpretation for which appropriate analytical tools are needed. The project incoporated case studies, which enabled the investigation of a theoretical and methodological frame within which an equal number of research methods on costume are examined, tested, and developed. The project was structured in four stages: mapping research methods; creating new multi-disciplinary methods; demonstrating how the proposed methodologies work; and sharing, evaluating and disseminating the proposed methodologies for costume design within an international network.
The results of the project include sharing approaches for research in costume, developing specific methodological tools and research guidelines, as well as training early career researchers. The results were presented and reviewed amongst peers during international artistic and research events such as Critical Costume 2015 and World Stage Design 2017, as well as through numerous publications and public events. These included:
ReseaRCH KNowledge Exchange
FiDiPro – the Finland Distinguished Professor Programme
Sofia Pantouvaki, Professor of Costume Design for Theatre and Film was the project’s Principle Investigator, with the project funded via FiDiPro, the Finland Distinguished Professor Programme, which enables distinguished researchers, both international and expatriates to work and team up with the ‘best of the best’ in Finnish academic research. Costume Methodologies was the recipient of one of these prestigious grants.
With the contribution of the invited FiDiPro Peter McNeil, Professor of Design History, University of Technology Sydney, Australia, a leading scholar in the fields of art and design history and fashion studies, this project aimed at introducing Costume Design as a dynamic field of research in which Finland can become an international leader, building the foundations for further research.
Finland Distinguished Professor Programme
Led and financed by the Academy of Finland and Tekes, FiDiPro provides competitive grants to projects recruiting highly merited scientists, who are able to commit to long-term cooperation with a Finnish university or research institute.
PostDoctoral Fellowships
The project also funded several postdoctoral fellowships and positions, with researchers coming from the UK, Australia and Bulgaria. You can read more about these researchers on the Teams page.
Thinking Costume Research Seminar
Thinking Costume was a two-day research seminar that brought together a multidisciplinary group of researchers and practitioners working on costume-related and costume-led research projects. The seminar offered peer-support for doctoral candidates, MFA thesis students and early career researchers, conducting research in the field of costume, or in related artistic fields involving dress and performance in theatre, film and media. Participants were selected by blind peer review, and each presented for 20 minutes about their research, and then offered extensive written and oral feedback about their project from other particpants and the experienced respondents. This event also mapped current research in the field.
The results of the project include sharing approaches for research in costume, developing specific methodological tools and research guidelines, as well as training early career researchers. The results were presented and reviewed amongst peers during international artistic and research events such as Critical Costume 2015 and World Stage Design 2017, as well as through numerous publications and public events. These included:
Collaborations
The project included collaboration with major national and international institutions and researchers related to costume in live performance or film. At a national level, we collaborate with all major Finnish institutions related to costume in film, media and the performing arts, such as the Theatre Museum of Finland and the National Audiovisual Institute (KAVI).
International parteners include researchers from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology – RMIT (Australia); London College of Fashion (UK); UCLA, School of Theater, Film and Television (USA); University of Surrey (UK); University of São Paulo (Brazil); Oslo National Academy of the Arts – KHiO (Norway); Edge Hill University (UK), Southampton Solent University (UK); University of Applied Arts and Vienna Academy of Fine Arts (Austria); E-Campus (Italy); Athens University Museum (Greece); Queen Mary University of London (UK); University of Huddersfield (UK); Centro Universitário Belas Artes de São Paulo (Brazil); Centre National du Costume de Scene – CNCS (France); and the Costume Design Group of the International Organisation of Scenographers, Theatre Architects and Technicians (OISTAT).
It also included research visits by CiF members to other institutions.