SOUND TO WEAR
This is an exhibition in which senses other than sight are used to create and experience fashion. Here, the creation and experiencing of sounds are in focus. The exhibition consists of a collection of experimental objects connected to the body; these stimulate hearing, and create an understanding of the fact that sounds are also a part of experiencing fashion. As a visitor, you are invited to try on the objects and explore sounds to experience fashion in a new way and conceive of new thoughts regarding what fashion can be.
Sound to Wear is based on Vidmina Stasiulyte’s PhD thesis, which she undertook the research for at the University of Borås. In her research, she re-thinks and re-defines garments and develops new methods of fashion design through sound. Auditory perception and sound thinking, in contrast to visual perception and image thinking, fundamentally change how we experience a dressed body. Sound is created through action, therefore, the action of wearing is the focus of Stasiulyte’s research.
From seeing and being seen, to listening and being heard. Looking at and listening to a person who wears high heels are two entirely different experiences. What are the sounds created by getting dressed and moving around in clothes? What do different textile materials sound like?
If you close your eyes, you can hear people talk, breathe, walk... Fashion makes itself known through for example the rattling of metal bracelets on an arm, the sound a zipper when one closes or opens a synthetic sports jacket, the crackling of static electricity when someone takes off a knitted sweater in winter, the clicking of high heels, and the squeaking of sneakers. It is even possible to identify people from the sound of their unique gait.
Vidmina Stasiulyte
Vidmina Stasiulyte is a Lithuanian artist, researcher, and fashion designer, whose work merges the field of non-visual aesthetics, sonic identity, design archives, and inclusion. Within the current PhD research, she investigates the dressed body as a temporal form and expression based on sounding acts in order to develop new methodologies in fashion design. The project Sonic Fashion Library (SFL) is a part of the research practice. It is a virtual library that consists of different sound records of various fashion items: fabrics, materials, clothing, accessory, and footwear. Prior to her doctoral studies she has worked with, among other things, fashion collections, dress-performances, interactive sculptures, and installations, and has investigated design methods based on non-visual aesthetic in artistic-social projects such as ‘Anti-ideal’ and ‘Beyond Seeing’.
photo by Jan Berg