Research projects and publications

Research involving fashion theory, or the consumption and use of fashion products, requires a study into material culture as the communication of symbolic values. Within the study of fashion, material culture is defined as a meaning-making process developed through the exchange of symbolic values embedded within fashion objects (Crane & Bovone, 2006). While the perception of fashion, as a social phenomenon, has been positioned by users and researchers in relation to modernity, its social relevance is beginning to see a shift from an over-emphasis on interactions towards adaptability and longevity within diverse social groups (Buckley & Clark, 2012). This chapter addresses the interdisciplinary roots of fashion studies and introduces a research framework proposing the meaning-making process as a step towards achieving relevance and longevity. Following a sociological approach to fashion research, the role of fashion objects in everyday life is discussed as communicating design intent and extending into the construction of new meanings.

Citation:
Chon, Harah. "Exploring Research Space in Fashion: The Fluidity of Knowledge between Designers, Individuals and Society." The Routledge Companion to Design Research, edited by Paul Rodgers and Joyce Yee, Routledge, 2014, pp. 72-86.

25 YEARS OF THE SUBSTATION features the accounts of 25 artists and people who have been associated with The Substation since its founding in 1990. The book is organised around 25 words, which serve as entry points for an extended conversation about The Substation, its stakeholders, and Singaporean society and the arts.

Citation: 
Wong, Audrey. 25 Years of the Substation: Reflections on Singapore’s First Independent Art Centre. Ethos Books, 2015.

During a time when the idea of Europe, and the EU in particular, is tainted with economic crisis and democratic decline, Aleksandar Brkić's analysis of the role of cultural networks in helping Europe serve people is both a wake-up call for European authorities which support cultural networks and a tool for cultural networks themselves to check that they are fulfilling their European and intercultural remit as well as they should.

Citation:
Brkić, Aleksandar. Cultural Policy Frameworks: (Re)Constructing National and Supranational Identities: The Balkans and the European Union. European Cultural Foundation, 2014.

The article examines the interactions between the various modalities - poetic text, live stage performance, sound design and video projection - in a 2013 theatrical production of T.S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land (1922). It particularly focuses on the creation of the sound design for the performance and how this relates to the themes and sensibilities of the poem, its inherent sonorities, and what Eliot called "The Music of Poetry" (1942). It explores the range of musical and compositional strategies employed for the project, from textual analysis to associative methods, and particularly emphasizes the complex interweaving of and interactions between synthetic and concrete sound samples which complement and, it is argued, enhance the "musical', imagistic and psychological elements within the poetic text. The performance built on Eliot's 434-line poem, and is a collaboration between Steve Dixon, who produced, performed and created the video projections, and Joyce Beetuan Koh, who composed the music and soundscape. It has been performed in Singapore, Brazil and the United States between 2013-17.

Citation:
Dixon, Steve and Joyce Beetuan Koh. "The Music of T.S. Eliot's Poetry: Integrating Text, Live Performance, Sound Design and Video in a Multimedia Theatre Production of 'the Waste Land'." eContact! Online Journal for Electroacoustic Practices, vol. 16, no. 2 - Special Edition: Sound Art and Interactivity in Singapore, 2014.