Gillian Steel (She/They)
I am an artist, researcher, filmmaker & design activist with specialist knowledge in textiles, sustainable design and a strong track record of connecting and engaging with communities. Since 2015 I’ve been building an organisation called ReMode where I am Creative Director.
My research masters at The Glasgow School of Art with the Innovation School focussed on co-design of future clothing fibres through solidarity research.
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[post_content] => Clouture - a new word derived from the Scots word for clothing – ‘cloot’ - mashed with ‘couture’ – it’s a gesture towards challenging the business of designing, making, and selling branded clothing, usually associated with exclusivity and limited access. Revolving around clothing as human-shaped shelter for protection, and aesthetic fulfilment – this study aimed to support creative speculations in two Scottish communities to generate a new awareness of locally occurring resources and how these might be used for clothing. The immediate global climate crisis is, potentially, an historic turning point prompting opportunities to re- evaluate future material resources.
Situated accordingly, this study revolves around the axis of clothing as human-shaped shelter – for protection and aesthetic fulfilment – generating creative visioning that is cognisant of, and sensitive to, the cultural positioning and geographic situation of the two sites of the study in Paisley and on the Island of Tiree. It did s so in support of a resetting of narratives around the materials and infrastructures involved in the production of clothing by instigating and charting a creative social process that re-imagines dress, connecting it to the reality of evolving future material resources, collective motivations, and adaptability to change.
As a means of focusing on current societal change, the research approach utilises Alexander Mackendrick’s film The Man in The White Suit (1951) and its handling of clothing as a provocative device to engage anxiety around change and the conflicting values of community, industry, and innovation. Specifically, to explore how globalised models of mass production and wealth accumulation might be challenged to nurture new levels of human sensory capacity and imagination in relation to the use of finite planetary material resources.
[post_title] => Clouture: Collective 'conjurings' for re-localised future material resources.
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Clouture: Collective ‘conjurings’ for re-localised future material resources.
Clouture – a new word derived from the Scots word for clothing – ‘cloot’ – mashed with ‘couture’ – it’s a gesture towards challenging the business of designing, making, and selling branded clothing, usually associated with exclusivity and limited access. Revolving around clothing as human-shaped shelter for protection, and aesthetic fulfilment – this study aimed to support creative speculations in two Scottish communities to generate a new awareness of locally occurring resources and how these might be used for clothing. The immediate global climate crisis is, potentially, an historic turning point prompting opportunities to re- evaluate future material resources.
Situated accordingly, this study revolves around the axis of clothing as human-shaped shelter – for protection and aesthetic fulfilment – generating creative visioning that is cognisant of, and sensitive to, the cultural positioning and geographic situation of the two sites of the study in Paisley and on the Island of Tiree. It did s so in support of a resetting of narratives around the materials and infrastructures involved in the production of clothing by instigating and charting a creative social process that re-imagines dress, connecting it to the reality of evolving future material resources, collective motivations, and adaptability to change.
As a means of focusing on current societal change, the research approach utilises Alexander Mackendrick’s film The Man in The White Suit (1951) and its handling of clothing as a provocative device to engage anxiety around change and the conflicting values of community, industry, and innovation. Specifically, to explore how globalised models of mass production and wealth accumulation might be challenged to nurture new levels of human sensory capacity and imagination in relation to the use of finite planetary material resources.
