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Doctoral research in the department of
Arts, Design, and Architecture at Aalto University
Costume in Focus Research Group
Virtual Costume Workshop
Dec 15 & 16, 2026Virtual Costume Workshop
Espoo, Finland
This workshop explores what it means to “fit” costumes made of digital materials on actual bodies. Over two days, participants will learn how to design virtual costumes that they can “try on” in extended reality. We will begin with material exploration exercises, “fitting” virtual costume mockups and discussing their restrictions and potentials. Then participants will learn how to use the general 3D software Blender to remodel the mockups and explore new design ideas. On day two, participants will “try on” each others’ virtual costumes and discuss how they “fit!” The workshop will conclude with a written exercise and a “virtual costume parade” for sharing our creations.
Enmeshed
Enmeshed
An extended reality experience that explores how virtual costume can shape the space between two bodies through play.
Aim + Objective
Investigate response-able design practices in virtual embodiment
by designing responsive costumes in extended reality
Theoretical Framework
Cyberfeminism
(Haraway, 1991; 2016)
New Materialism
(Barad, 2007; Malafourais, 2026)
Response-ability to weave
intra-actions between
bodies and technologies
for a better future.
Desiging virtual costumes for physical bodies
Desiging virtual costumes for physical bodies
A VR demo project that explores the creative expressive potential of costume design in virtual reality.
Screen recording of first-person perspective "wearing" a virtual costume.
Screen recording of first-person perspective "wearing" a virtual costume.
Screen recording of first-person perspective "wearing" a virtual costume.
Method
I am crafting costumes with 1's and 0's, 'costume thinking' with extended reality technologies, to investigate how virtual materiality entangles with human presence.
Re-embodied vision
Re-embodied vision
A case study that examines virtual costume practice through the lense of Donna Haraway's 1991 essay on situated knowledges.
External recording and screen recording of first-person perspective "wearing" a virtual costume.
Screen recording of the virtual body (by MOVERSE) wearing the costume.
Results
This research advances costume studies, HCI, and artistic research by practicing and critically examining new possibilities for costume in extended reality. When we know how virtual materials can shape meanings and bodies, practitioners can be ethical with the agencies they create through extended reality technologies.
This research will cumulate in a doctoral thesis for the department of Arts, Design, and Architecture at Aalto University.
References
Barad, Karen. Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning. Duke University Press, 2006. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822388128.
Barbieri, Donatella, and Melissa Trimingham. Costume in Performance: Materiality, Culture, and the Body. Bloomsbury Academic, 2020. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781474285353.
Candy, Linda. The Creative Reflective Practitioner: Research through Making and Practice. Routledge, 2020.
Doyle, Denise. Digital Embodiment and the Arts: Exploring Hybrid Spaces through Emerging Technologies. Intellect, 2024.
Haraway, Donna. Simians, Cyborgs, and Women. Routledge, 1991. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203873106.
Haraway, Donna. Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene. Duke University Press, 2016.
Höök, Kristina. Designing with the Body: Somaesthetic Interaction Design. The MIT Press, 2018.
Malafouris, Lambros. People Are STRANGE: Material Engagement and the Creation of Self-Consciousness. The MIT Press, 2026. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/10284.001.0001.
Marshall, Susan. Insubordinate Costume: Inspiring Performance. Focal Press, 2024.
Monks, Aoife. The Actor in Costume. Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
Østergaard, Charlotte. Crafting Material Bodies – Exploring Co-Creative Costume Processes. Research Catalog, 2025. https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/3184425/3219026/3132/8746.
Pantouvaki, Sofia. “Researching with and through Costume.” In Insubordinate Costume, 1st ed., by Susan Marshall. Focal Press, 2024. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003341000-11.
Schön, Donald A. The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. Basic Books, 1983.
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