FASHION: USING FASHION ACTIVISM

 Gene Sharp’s grouping for non-violent action, lists a range of methods to enact activism. our own fashion practice can challenge norms through practices of repair or alteration, or using the garment as a canvas for expressing feelings. social media platforms can play important roles in convening dialogue, 

https://www.brandeis.edu/peace-conflict/pdfs/198-methods-non-violent-action.pdf

challenging injustice directly, raising awareness and acting in solidarity with others (with warnings regarding performative allyship). fashion business and design can be embedded in practices of equity and social justice, many different campaigns can help coordinate support for social justice movements. activism takes many forms. Fashion can be used as a means to articulate activism. Activism can directly challenge practices within the fashion system itself. 

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5d5d34e927fded000105ccc4/t/5db4f29c7161a11f1860ea66/1572139687280/DESIGN%252BJUSTICE%252BZINE_ISSUE1.pdf

https://www.akpress.org/emergentstrategy.html

ETHICS

“Ethics is the process of questioning, discovering and defending our values, principles and purpose. It’s about finding out who we are and staying true to that in the face of temptations, challenges and uncertainty. It’s not always fun and it’s hardly ever easy, but if we commit to it, we set ourselves up to make decisions we can stand by, building a life that’s truly our own and a future we want to be a part of.” - The Ethics Centre

https://www.carnegiecouncil.org/media/article/ethics-in-online-activism-false-senses-of-social-action-or-effective-source-of-change

 resilience in activism. One needs to be aware of the laws in our region that may affect forms of activism, and how to ensure you are considering practices of care to preserve the health and wellbeing of yourself and others.

This is part of taking an ethical approach to activism, where you have an understanding of:

• The reasons why you are developing your activism
• Who is likely to be impacted by your actions
• Who is likely to participate in your activities
• What may be the unintended consequences of your actions.

https://ethics.arts.ac.uk

This may involve considering parameters around privacy, consent or data protection if asking for the participation of others. You may need to consider the intentions and impact of your actions if acting in solidarity with others, or contributing to an established cause or movement.

“In the context of power relations, speaking for, about, and on behalf of, is very different from speaking with and nearby… what has to be given up first and foremost is the voice of omniscient knowledge.” - Trinh T Minh-ha, via the UAL Ethics for Making website

personal  ethics of your activism. Would you be happy if your activism was headlining the news tomorrow? How would you feel about your actions being publicly visible?

1. Do you need to put measures in place to protect yourself or others participating in your activism? What might these measures be?
2. What might be the unintended consequences of your activism? How could you mitigate against these risks?

MAKING A PROTOTYPE

Prototyping is a scaled down and inexpensive way of bringing an idea to life. By creating a mock-up of your idea you can get feedback to assess how well it meets your objectives and responds to your problem statement. Prototyping will allow you to identify opportunities for refining and improving the idea.

There are many different ways to prototype. These depend on the kind of idea, the form that it would take in the real world, your creative and making skills, and the materials you have to hand. In every case, the prototype should be quick and cheap to make. This allows you to minimise emotional attachment and disappointment when identifying problems (which there will be!).

https://www.colorlines.com/articles/three-lessons-adrienne-maree-browns-emergent-strategy#:~:text=“Emergent%20Strategy”%20is%20a%20lyrical,perused%2C%20returned%20to%2C%20and%20jumped

there are many questions to consider when planning your prototype.  one should stay open-minded, work quickly and don’t get too attached to your idea or prototype. This is the place to test and learn.

Finally, remember that the process doesn’t stop here. To achieve good design thinking and the best potential for your idea, you may need to revisit previous steps multiple times and re-work through new ideas as you continue to test and develop. Going through a process of iteration to refine your idea, and making and testing multiple prototypes, is key to good design thinking. After prototyping your idea, you may find that the idea is not feasible as you initially thought. Or maybe it has strayed away from your problem statement. This is perfectly okay. We encourage you to revisit the earlier stages of the design thinking process as many times as you’d like until you have refined your prototype. keep in mind that the most important part of prototyping is the learning that is catalysed through the process of making. It is the process of critical thinking and design thinking skills that we hope to emphasise through prototyping. Whilst creating a polished workable outcome is desirable, it is not the key objective of this activity.

 Design Thinking: Get Started with Prototyping.