Journal & Book Publications

The current challenges portray the existence of a regional gap in manpower for well-trained pattern cutters to support the designers wishing to produce their collections in Southeast Asia. One such response to this demand is recognised in the current trend of universities offering courses and programmes in creative pattern cutting. Pattern cutting is traditionally seen as a secondary by-product of the fashion design discipline, rather than its own professional career pathway. Against the Asian context, pattern cutting is considered a vocational operation that requires very little formal education. However, the introduction of creative pattern cutting as a specialism within tertiary design education is beginning to challenge existing misconceptions and reshape the role of pattern cutting as an extension of fashion design. This paper aims to review the current value of highly skilled creative pattern cutters in Southeast Asia through discussions of educational support and potential production capabilities within the region.
Citation:
Tan, Jeremiah and Harah Chon. "Growing and Sustaining Creative Pattern Cutting as a Recognised Profession in Asia." International Journal of Fashion Design, Technology and Education, vol. 9, no. 2, 2016, pp. 161-167.

The instrument is controlled by a bioengineered neural network or ‘brain’ derived from skin cells using induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology that is housed in a custom built synthesiser ‘body’. This paper introduces the cellF project highlighting the background, biotechnology, embodiment, design and performance capabilities.

Citation:
Moore, Darren et al. "CellF: A Neuron-Driven Music Synthesiser for Real-Time Performance." International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, vol. 12, no. 1, 2016, pp. 31-43, doi:10.1080/14794713.2016.1161954.

Instances of space for creative interaction between the performers in these compositions have been far and few between. The work, time:space:, has unveiled new possibilities for interaction and a blurring the line between performer and composer creating an artistic interconnectivity and interdependency.

Citation:
Stromberg, Dirk Johan and Robert Casteels. "Having a Ball with the Sphere." ICMA Array: Special Issue: Proceedings of SI15: 2nd International Symposium on Sound & Interactivity 2015 Singapore, 2016, pp. 98-100.

By assessing the perceptual interaction with generative art, we will continue to question the narrative and performative qualities of this relatively new form. These two sections will introduce us to the contemporary smart cities as venues for generative practices and a notion of engaging city dwellers to participate in this complex system of networks and devices. Furthermore, we will discuss the new potential divergences of generative art practice. Biotechnology and quantum mechanics open another unimaginable field of generative activities that, equally to other venues, require critical, analytical and creative use of technology.

Citation:
Dejan Grba et al. "Divergent Generative Art Practices." ISEA 2016 Hong Kong CULTURAL R>EVOLUTION: Proceedings of the 22nd International Symposium on Electronic Art, 2016, pp. 408-413.

The characteristics layered by sequential, experiential and iterative learning, and pedagogical knowledge and understanding are not acquired passively but in an active manner through personal experience and experiential activities; and that learning is based on problem-solving and an exploration of a particular line of inquiry and an active engagement with ideas. As part of studying the development of design education, the Linking Cities, Designing Experiences project underpins a critical inquiry into the issues of urbanism and urbanity. The city encapsulates engaging multifaceted insights and intriguing phenomenon. Students from Singapore and Seoul share different ideas on themes and subjects based on the ‘city'. This project includes ideas of the urban typology, the urban environment, the social settings of cities and their physical infrastructures. The information sharing and collaborative ethnographic research under pinned the critical discourse, as the students are inhabitants of two different cities. The research puts forward an ‘Open Design' concept in learning and teaching design through a cross-cultural design experience in the urban. Ideas related to iterative participatory design, cross-disciplinary design practice, experimental place-making and ‘reflection-in-action' (Schön,1983) formed the important pillars to this project. Designers alike meet to deliberate, collaborate and forge new relationships and exchange ideas with cross- cultural references and insights. This research proposes methods and approaches that could manifest in promoting pedagogical discourse for the future.
Citation:
Hidayah, Nur and Michael Chen. "The Education Flâneur - a Global Studio, 2 Cities, 5 Years, 200 Students and Communities of Practice." Cumulus Hong Kong Proceeding 2016: Cumulus Working Papers 33/16, 2016, pp. 158-162.

Case studies are presented of performances by The Wooster Group, Societas Raffaello Sanzio, Jennifer Ringley, Paul Sermon and Steve Dixon, and analysed with reference to the concepts and innovations of cyberneticians including Gregory Bateson and Existentialist philosophers including Jean-Paul Sartre and Gabriel Marcel. A number of philosophical notions are explored including Bateson's 'the difference that makes a difference', Marcel's disponibilité (availability), and Sartre's discourses on 'the look', Nothingness, and being-for-others. The argument highlights the complementary and intersecting concerns of cybernetics and Existentialism and how fusing knowledge from these fields can throw light on fundamental issues and developments within arts, culture and everyday life including interactivity, telepresence, frames, questioning, Angst, and 'separation with communion'.

Citation:
Dixon, Steve. "Cybernetic-Existentialism." International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, vol. 12, no. 1, 2016, pp. 11-30. 

Mainly focusing on the first two editions of the project in Kenya (2008) and Shenzhen (2009), the paper argues that the artist's approach to the environment of others and his own demonstrates his frustration towards cultural hegemony while drawing attention to the notion of sustainability proposed by Ziran, which is built on an independent and self-generating system.
Citation:
Wang, Ruobing. "Xu Bing's Cross-Cultural Fertilization: Ziran in Transplanting." Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, vol. 3, no. 3, 2016, pp. 325-335.

An overview of the process is given drawing on the experiences of the teachers and students involved, informing a discussion around the issues inherent in the internationalization of the curriculum. Tutors created a shared private Facebook group to connect London College of Fashion students with students at City University Hong Kong and LASALLE College of the Arts Singapore. Students worked on separate but aligned briefs that mirror contemporary working patterns and allowed co- creation of educational experiences beyond the geographic and time constraints of working internationally, specifically addressing issues around global and local communications. The Facebook platform was used separately and collaboratively to support students’ learning and the digitally mediated collaboration allowed for flexibility in when and how education took place, providing a third space for co-creation of learning: a global classroom.

Citation
Radclyffe-Thomas, Natascha et al. "Creative Cross-Cultural Connections: Facebook as a Third Space for International Collaborations." University Partnerships for Academic Programs and Professional Development (Innovations in Higher Education Teaching and Learning) edited by Patrick Blessinger and Barbara Cozza, vol. 7, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 2016, pp. 243-266.