Media: p5js code, textiles, mixed media
Timeframe: fall 2019
Role: Sole designer on college project
Timeframe: fall 2019
Role: Sole designer on college project
Generated
Is any idea actually new in the world of fast fashion? Rapid fashion production cycles give us the illusion of choice in a world constantly trying to get us to buy the next new thing.
In order to explore ideas surrounding fast fashion, fashion waste and the illusion of choice, my project created computer-generated clothing using data scraped from zara.com. The generated items were interpreted into living garments using all second-hand materials.
I first created a javascript program that ran in the command line to auto-download images from zara.com. I batch processed these images to resize, change background transparency, and rename them. The images were used in a p5js program that collaged together elements at random to generate wholly new garments.
With the computer-generated images, I collaged garments together matching the patchwork aesthetic that the program created. I followed the form, shape, and materials as closely as possible, only making accommodations for structural support or based on the limitations of the materials available to me through only sourcing second-hand.
My code took on a second life as part of a project run by the Trash to Treasure project at UT Austin. My peers Diego Allison (project lead) and Mark Yoder (coder) adapted the project to use with their store of thrifted clothing collected from UT campus residences. Students can select garments to collage and check them out from the organiation to make their own reworked fashion. The goal was to make a collection of clothes that is continually growing and reinventing itself over time with the various students that collaborate on it.
