Today we launch our first phase of the Speculative Sewing Inventory. This is an open-access digital archive that documents our inventive practice research. Over the past five years, we have been not only researching but also reconstructing and re-imagining clothing inventions from historic patent archives. All our work explores the role of clothing as ‘acts of citizenship’ (Isin and Neilson 2008) and making and wearing clothing inventions as a research method. (More about this is in various publications).
Entries in the inventory are based on individual patents over the last two centuries (the majority of which cover the period from 1850 to 1970). We focus on inventions that do more than one thing, offering something unexpected, surprising and undercover, which enables wearers to make, claim or subvert social expectations and push against limitations. Each inventory entry includes an animation that demonstrates the convertible, multiple, combinable, reversible or invisible features of the invention.
We weave facts about the invention (where and when it was patented) with details on how the inventor defined the problem they attempt to solve, and their design aims. We include the patent drawing, feature highlights from our research into the life and motivations of the inventor and, where possible, trace the development, use and travels of the invention across newspapers and periodicals, at events, on bodies and around the world. We also include links to other parts of the project where those patents have been explored in more detail—such as through collaborative filmmaking, in journal articles, talks and presentations.
All entries in the inventory are categorized into one or more themes that emerged in our research and map onto other parts of the project. Research themes featured in this initial launch of the inventory include: Expanding (wearables that push physical, social, and political boundaries); Moving (wearables that enable participation in a wider range of sport and activities); Concealing (wearables that defend privacy or keep secrets); and Working (wearables that address inequalities in the workplace).
This is the initial phase of the digital inventory. More entries and categories will be added over the year, with the aim of sharing 50 reconstructions along with related research, and a collection of historic patent-inspired sewing patterns. The latter will be available to download for free, for people to make themselves.
POP are pleased to be launching the Speculative Sewing Inventory as part of our Image-Maker in Residence for the Sociological Review this month. An interview with Kat is available here.
