foreword to a
non-linear thesis
The aim of this thesis is to explore and develop a new form of fashion design prac-
tice in which the work of the auteur, whom has been assigned by a prestigious
fashion company, is replaced by the close cooperation of user and designer. Here,
groups of users working together in workshops will play a major role. The input of
the designer in this process is his or her inspiration and vision as expressed in pat-
terns, prototypes, operating instructions, and practical advice. This approach is
not intended to render the fashion industry obsolete but rather to offer a new line
of practice that takes fashion out of the context of what is more or less passive
ready-to-wear consumption. This practice can unfold the possibility for co-pro-
ductive communities and new means to develop an identity through practice, a
personal or individual style, but one that is related to the dominant expressions of
the contemporary fashion.
This thesis is part of the emerging field of artistic research, in which the studies are
not framed and focused on specific research questions and do not aim at results
that can be applied independent of the context. This type of research is based on
ideas for the development of a new kind of art and on the practice of art and prac-
tical projects. It is a matter of presenting unknown possibilities.
Personal ambitions rather than the answering of a certain question drive this type
of research, and it does not aspire for a research model leading to an objective out-
put. Aesthetic considerations and judgments always play a major role in the proc-
ess of such research. Consequently, in order to achieve results that are useful out-
side this personal context it is important to present the points of departure and
relate these choices with those made during this work to other ongoing processes
in society. The continual procedure of position-making constitutes the quality of
the artistic research and its value in the process of the knowledge production with-
in the actual artistic practice of design.
However, in artistic research there are no given criteria to with which to secure the
quality of the research and general proclamations of basic values are of little help.• An introduction proposing a non-linear and designerly method for artistic research. This is a method based on a multiplicity of examples and practices
that all form a network of becoming and a non-reductionistic system of design practice. A system that cannot be written as a linear sum of independent
components.