Investigating agency and meaning-making through virtual costume design

Virtual reality technology affords new potential for artistic research in costume design. This practice-based research project investigates how meaning is made through playful interactions between virtual costume materials and the physical bodies that “wear” them. I hypothesize that designing for the first-person, embodied experience of costume can transform participants into co-agents of character creation within virtually mediated experiences. As a practice-based study, my method of inquiry is through remediating my own costume practice in virtual reality. I design virtual costumes in studio sessions and then test the designs with participants in exploratory workshops. Material is collected for thematic analysis through external video recordings, screen recordings, audio recorded interviews, and auto-ethnographic notes. The practice will be theorized through a Cyberfeminist lens to explore how “intra-actions” (Barad 2007) between virtual material and physical wearer can imperfectly construct and stitch together (Haraway, 1988) character identities. This research advances the field of costume studies by practicing and critically examining new possibilities for costume in virtual productions. When we know how virtual costume can shape critical thought, practitioners can be more intentional and ethical with the meaning-making and agencies they create through virtual costume design.

PHASE I: EXPLORATION

An exploration of how  costume can be "worn" in virtual reality.

PHASE II: INVESTIGATION

An investigation into how costumes can play people in virtual reality.

PHASE III: IMPLEMENTATION

A live, multi-user VR experience where participants wear and play with generative virtual costumes in a shared virtual space.