Image-Maker in Residence

This month we were pleased to participate in the Sociological Review Foundation’s Image-Maker in Residence programme.

It is a “monthly showcase of creative work by practitioners from diverse backgrounds and disciplines that puts visual sociology in the spotlight”.

POP took the opportunity to launch the first phase of our Speculative Sewing Inventory.

The Speculative Sewing Inventory  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 reimagining clothing inventions from historic patent archives.

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 stitch together facts about the invention (where and when it was patented) with details on how the inventor defined the problem they attempted 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 sports and activities); Concealing (wearables that defend privacy or keep secrets); and Working (wearables that address inequalities in the workplace).

This is the first 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 use by themselves. This follows my wider commitment to the public sharing of knowledge, DIY practice and know-how, as was also the case with the open-access Bikes & Bloomers patterns.