For What It's Worth

Full description

RESEARCH BACKGROUND
The exhibition "For What It's Worth" was an engagement with the disciplines of architecture and fashion. It sought to uncover potential knowledge through professional and academic collaboration, to fathom and clarify ways in which advanced knowledge is developed collaboratively, and to determine the extent of the designers' respective disciplines. The project pursued the model of design interdisciplinary in place at RMIT, and manifested the designers' shared interest in the emergence of new practices that engage advanced technologies as design tools rather than purely as manufacturing tools.

RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION
The project explored the use of 3D printing, not only as a representational tool but also as a means of rapid prototyping, as a medium for recording and presenting speculative, unbuilt architectural works. It further argued that these comprise a body of knowledge relevant to both contemporary design and historical models of research. The project also involved the development of a more streamlined interface between the 3D digital model and the 3D seamless garment, through the development of a method that allows the unfolded form of a 3D model to be directly imported into WholeGarment ® 3D seamless knitting technology. Knitting information was programmed into the pattern of an unfolded digital model of an elephant, which was then produced as a set of garments. Seamless knitting technology is still uncharted territory, and any deviation from the generic garment database requires intensive development.

REASEARCH SIGNIFICANCE
The exhibition was reviewed in Architecture Australia in Jan/Feb 2011. Some of the early research was presented by Spooner to the Arakawa and Gins Third International Conference (AG3) in Brisbane in 2010. It also led to Bigolin's development of the 3 Jumpers Project for the Endless Garment exhibition.