Artisan, Agency, Place: Making Local Fashion

A collaborative, practice-led doctoral research project situated in the Olympicopolis in partnership with London College of Fashion, UAL East and Creative Wick, Creative Zoning, East London.

Project overview

The generation and expansion of new urban cultural zones significantly affects local communities. Many urban “cultural quarters” have undergone rapid processes of change, and in the case of urban sites producing creative zones that involve an identified commercialization of land opportunity through the ‘place promotion of investments’, such as being an Olympic Games host site, it follows that new forms of social interface and community emerge over time.

Interfaces are culturally defined, but politically determined, so that the kinds of lived social practices enabled, or denied, will contribute to the nature of the community. Furthermore, the kinds of social interfaces that the host site enables (in this case the artificial environs of the post-Olympic “Park”) contribute to the material relations that these communities inhabit in a degraded landscape ecosystem. The question arises: how does this kind of community-reshaping affect creative practices and practitioners?

Social interfaces manifest in a variety of ways, as seen across a variety of global examples, including the cultural rezoning of sites of Seoul and Barcelona, for example. The experiences of locals vary, but the preservation and recognition of a local community’s knowledge and model of living in new cultural development can be problematic. While some research has pointed to the notion of “Creative city” as a promotional tool, it can also be a “highly localised” indicator of the creative economy. Research on new and old community members that operate what we recognize as local organisation have received limited attention, suggesting a need for this project.

This collaborative doctoral project will undertake research into the creative fashion economy working with a community organization and ownership model at the heart of such a place change and contribute to the knowledge and analysis of how creative practices are active place and space changers. Situating the research in the East End, London, it aims to document and analyse local grassroots fashion practices, through a creative visual practice response to the material relations formed and observed. The larger political questions of how places connect local lives with tourism and commercial interests, and who controls the assets that the community generates, forms the backdrop for the research: artisan, agency and place.

The candidate will develop a working knowledge of how grassroots organisations can act autonomously, as well as be subject to the local governing policies, larger commercial business resourcing demands, and federal funding channels. The political economic factors at play in the creative zoning of land use will emerge, and the frameworks for future sustainable entrepreneurship practices will provide unique knowledge of commercial and not-for-profit community organisational skills. The practice and archival framework lens will provide the vernacular focus for the research into the grassroots fashion economies of the East End today. 

Partnership

The research will sit between the London College of Fashion at UAL East and the collaborative partner organisation Creative Wick, the latter which has had a significant creative impact on the shape of London East’s Cultural Zone at The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, East London, and the former seeking to educate future generations of creatives.

The research will consider how the needs of the local community must be balanced with the transient communities of tourists and the long and short-term engagement of other stakeholders (Colman 2020). The topics of the re-zoning of communities, creative practice methods, and creative practices and modes of alternate living, including the creative warehouse, and canal boat communities on the River Lea.

Supervision

Director of studies: Dr Paul Bevan

Paul Bevan is a photography practitioner, and theorist and holds the position of Subject Director: Media and Communication and MA Fashion Photography Course Leader at London College of Fashion, UAL East.

Paul has a proven track record of working with MA level students across an expansive (fashion) photography ethos, fostering new collaboration opportunities, and developing networks and communities of practice nationally and internationally.

Supervisor: Professor Lucy Orta

Lucy Orta is Chair of Art and the Environment, and Professor at UAL. Lucy Orta’s visual arts practice investigates the interrelations between the individual body and community structures, exploring their diverse identities and means of cohabitation.

Supervisor/partner: Will Chamberlain

William Chamberlain, founding director of Creative Wick and the founder and chairman of the Cultural Interest Group [CIG], a local business to business innovation network established in 2010. Co-founder of the Hackney Wick & Fish Island Community Development Trust.

Application Process

Applicants for this Studentship should first read the project brief and selection criteria in that document. In selecting applicants, the panel will be looking for skills and experience that directly address the themes and concerns outlined.

All applications for this studentship must be received by UAL by 20 May 2024.

PhD Applications submitted to the College where the project is based via one of the links below:

• London College of Fashion PhD Full time
• London College of Fashion PhD Part time

Applications should also include the following:

• The project title and reference
• A personal statement of up to one side of A4 demonstrating what they will bring to the project, how it fits with their skills, previous experience and interests.
• A CV to be uploaded to the UAL online application system
• A project proposal (no more than 1000 words) that addresses the ‘project brief’ as set out and articulates your particular emphasis or approach.

Your proposal should include the following:

1. Your focus/emphasis in relation to the Research Question(s)
2. Research context: Your how your proposed research relates to existing research on the subject
3. Methodologies/Methods that will be used
4. The contribution your research will make to your discipline and area of study
5. A short bibliography of any sources/publications you refer to in your proposal.