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From American Pop Culture Kitsch to High-end Japanese Reproduction: Cross-border Imaginative Geographies of the Aloha Shirt in European Menswear Retailing
No full textThe Aloha shirt is a pop culture fashion classic with origins in the islands of Hawai‘i. The shirt is symbolic of creolisation - adopted by native Hawaiians, but with origins in Portugal, the Philippines and Japan. Originally sold to tourists as beachwear and brought back to the mainland USA as souvenirs, after World War II the Aloha shirt became an item of everyday American wear (Arthur, 2006; Bahng & Reilly). Decades later, the 1990s retro revival of mid-century American popular culture cemented the Aloha shirt’s status as kitsch (Morgado, 2003; Morgado & Reilly, 2012). More recently, the Aloha shirt came to be hailed as a timeless icon of classic men’s style (Sims, 2011). Like many staples of classic menswear such as raw denim, flight jackets and loopwheeled sweatshirts, Aloha shirts are manufactured to a very high specification by Japanese reproduction clothing brands such as Sun Surf and Buzz Rickson (Marx, 2015). Having crossed borders from the USA to Japan and then back to the West, these Japanese reproduction Aloha shirts are sold at a high price point by specialist menswear boutiques in the UK and mainland Europe. This paper uses visual discourse analysis of European e-commerce sites to examine the imaginative geographies (Goodrum, 2005) through which Japanese reproduction Aloha shirts are marketed in Europe. The Japanese Aloha shirt is presented here as a product of Appadurai’s (1986) global cultural flow, Japan’s colonial modernity (Christy, 1997) and Japan’s post-war relationship with America (Hendry, 2000; Mettler, 2018). This paper argues that the shirt’s status as icon of American mid-century style and holiday wardrobe staple is superseded by narratives of Japanese manufacturing excellence. This mobilisation of craft consumption (Campbell, 2005) is approached in terms of Japan’s invention of tradition (Vlastos, 1998) and self-orientalising practices (Tobin, 1992; Kikuchi, 2004)
Human Hair in Focus: A Multidisciplinary Exploration of Its Chemical Composition, Morphology, Properties and Cultural Contexts
No full textInvited conference presentatio
Looking-beyond-Seeing: Assessing the interwar interior as mediated
No full textIn his article for the magazine Country Life on the houses of the designer Oliver Hill (1887-1968) the architectural historian John Cornforth suggested that it was only through the experience of Hill’s domestic settings that it would be possible to get an understanding of his approach to interior design. Cornforth emphasised that photography can never convey its strong imaginative quality, the combination of stylishness and spirituality, or the eccentricity and wit. Although the primacy of the immediate experience cannot be ignored it should not be seen as the only truthful way to gain a valid understanding of the experience of the interior, as this paper will show.
Taking the Interwar interior as mediated through photography, this paper seeks to move beyond the image of the interior that is understood as a two-dimensional representation and move towards Charles Rice’s conception of the doubled interior, which treats the interior as both an image and a spatial condition. Examining images of interiors (such as those by Hill), as presented through the interwar press, this paper seeks to approach the photograph as both performative and representational, allowing the image to be treated as a valve between the interior and the exterior and facilitating an active engagement with the depicted interiors.
Indeed, through the paradigm of Looking-beyond-Seeing, as will be argued, we can get a closer understanding of designers’ multi-sensory design approach when the embodied presence of a user is no longer possible. Through Looking-beyond-Seeing this article further proposes to foreground the experience of the researcher when encountering the photographed interior as a valid supplement to the reading and study of the early twentieth century interior
Extremity of the West
No full text(Extremity of the West author's title. The National Gallery events listing calls it 'The Unseen Story')
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/events/friday-lates-the-unseen-story-12-12-2025
Extreme widescreen digital video, made especially for "The Big Screen" in the National Gallery's newly refurbished Sainsbury Wing entrance hall. The screen is 9 metres x 3 metres and the resolution is an enormous 12480x3240 pixels
Based on “The Family of Darius Before Alexander” by Paolo Veronese, c. 1565–1570
R&D Studio Ltd with The National Gallery’s NGX innovation programme.
Synopsis
In 1570 the artist Veronese playfully reframed a historical event. His painting of ‘Alexander the Great’ bestowing mercy upon the mother, wife and daughters of Darius, relocates the scene from the Persian desert in 333BCE to a fashionable Venetian square of his own era.
This new artwork updates the scene once more, this time to Trafalgar Square in 2025.
Summary of the creative approach and process
Under its NGX innovate programme the National Gallery ran workshops with ELEVATE; a group of young people from Tower Hamlets. The "Unseen Story" workshops focused on a number of paintings and then selected “The Family of Darius before Alexander” by Paulo Veronese.
After this phase, myself and Rachel Davies as R&D Studio were given the task of distilling the thoughts and impressions from the young people into a 90-second digital ‘film’ for the new large digital screen in the Sainsbury Wing Foyer.
The young critics had been fascinated by the fakeness, the gloss and the mischievous humour that Veronese had applied to a historical narrative, that was otherwise about conquest and Imperial power.
R&D Studio began a long process of tests exploring how to contemporise Veronese’s painting and how to add a layer of satire that echoed his playfulness.
This process led to the adoption of two approaches.
The first was to relocate the scene from a Venetian public Square to Trafalgar Square. There were obvious visual parallels in the architecture of both spaces. And Trafalgar Square accommodates a multitude of activities from tourism, to performances, to demonstrations which was perfect to include a panorama of ideas similar to Veronese’s interpretation. We created a moving-image digital collage containing over 200 layers.
The second and more controversial idea was to update individual characters in the painting to modern-day versions using A.I. The strange, slightly illogical and yet curiously generic figures that were produced by ‘artificial intelligence’ also included a slippery, glossy quality that seemed to us to echo Veronese’s highly glamorous portraits in his layered rendition.
https://www.rachelanddaniel.co/extremity-of-the-wes
The beauty of nature without people: An investigation of the roles of people, nature, and interpersonal touch in painting preference
Get PDFWhile art, nature, and social interactions are key elements of a healthy culture and lifestyle, how nature and social factors in paintings impact the viewer experience still remains unclear. This study aimed to explore how the number of depicted people, the presence of interpersonal touch, and the setting (indoor vs. outdoor) affect art preference. A total of 420 paintings were rated (online survey) on their liking across 300 participants. Across participants, paintings without people were significantly liked over paintings with people, which was especially prominent in depictions of outdoor settings. Furthermore, while people liked paintings without touch, this was only the case for paintings of outdoor depictions. The study also explored how these preferences were modulated by individual differences. The findings underscore the relevance and importance of social aspects in art and how this interacts with the viewer’s individuality
Sleeping Arrangements
Get PDFSleeping arrangements changed in the Age of Revolutions, as beds became lighter in structure, less enclosed, and, supposedly, more hygienic, and were covered in washable bedding. The spaces of sleep altered too, as beds moved upstairs and into specialized rooms and co-sleeping declined. New notions of privacy are often identified as the cause of these shifts in behavior, where the middle classes sought to demarcate the private from the public. Meanwhile, a rethinking, even a pathologization, of bodily intimacy as a moral, sexual, and social contaminant, and source of ill-health and disease, led elite social groups to impose distance between unrelated and related individuals during sleep and to police the dormant bodies of other social and racialized groups
Bridget Wilkins (1943–25)
No full textAn obituary for Bridget Wilkins who was an important female voice in the nascent study of design history as it emerged in the early 1970s. This overview sets out some key events in the foramlisation of the study of design history in the UK and also Bridget’s unique contribution to graphic design
Arts and Health for Older Adults
No full textThe numbers of older people are growing rapidly across the globe. There is increasing interest in creative ways to support older people to live well and to maximise their wellbeing, including those with conditions such as dementia. This chapter considers the evidence on arts and creativity to improve the wellbeing of older people with a focus on creative projects developed for those with dementia. Research across multiple art forms and outcomes in a number of key areas is presented, with ideas for future research suggested
