Europeana Fashion International Conference 2015 Antwerp: Digital Fashion Futures (Day 1)

Tuesday 24 February simultaneously marked the start of the Digital Fashion Futures conference and the end of the three year run of the Europeana Fashion project.

The first conference day started off with some reflections by Europeana Fashion’s team leader, Dieter Suls. Suls explained the technical aspects of the fashion heritage portal, but also talked about the development of the collaboration between all the different European partners. In the course of the day many subjects were touched upon, and many questions were raised. Below, a summary is given of all keynote lectures, panel discussions and relevant questions that were raised by the audience.

Development of the Europeana Fashion Project

Over the last three years, the Europeana Fashion project has become more than an aggregator of the digitized content and metadata of the existing fashion collections of its partners. Today the project not only encourages and supports collaborations between institutions, it also promotes user participation and contribution to the expanding content of Europeana Fashion. Although the collaborating institutions had to review their performance in an increasingly digitized world due to the targets of this project, all participating partners have decided to open up their archives to Europeana Fashion, and, in doing so, to the rest of their international network.

Digital Fashion and Academia

In the panel discussion ‘Digital Fashion and Academia’, chairman Caroline Evans focused on the influences the digital world has had, and will have, upon the different educational practices relating to the field of fashion, and the  different ways in which scientific research has changed due to the expansion of this digital world. The panel concluded that due to the quality of the digital to enable the image of fashion to be distributed internationally at enormous speeds and in a wide variety of formats, it has impacted all aspects of fashion and its related academic practises. For example, fashion websites have not only changed fashion journalism, but the rest of fashion academia as well. For the first time in history fashion brands publish photographs of their whole collection online. Although fashion journalism and photography in itself is nothing new, the status of the image has changed as a result. One of the remarks made during the panel discussion is that the digital image nowadays should be considered as more than just a representation of the tangible.

Another conclusion was that since it is possible to deposit all recorded files online, there is a need for a certain focus; currently an overload of information is found on the internet. Therefore, decisions have to be made concerning what to collect and how to represent these collections in a clear manner. One overall observation by the panel was that the web has had an enormous impact on our media, on the academia and on the way we perceive fashion. Although in the past some have worried about the disruption the digital media would create with respect to print, it has become clear that it is an evolution rather than a revolution.

Engaging Communities

In the following lecture, keynote speaker Tamsen Young from the Museum at FIT in New York spoke about how the FIT is changing the way it represents its exhibitions online. In the past, all exhibitions at the museum had a personalised website. However, one of the technological difficulties the FIT faced were the many different kinds of screens their website had to adapt to. Therefore, it was necessary for Young to develop a standardized format for the websites so they could be displayed on all digital devices. Young also mentioned in her lecture that the museum is aiming at an interactive communication with its visitors through the use of digital media: ‘In the age of digital reproduction everyone is a potential broadcaster; and these days museums are opening their doors to these different voices.’

The Digital Future of Academic Fashion Publishing

Anna Wright, senior commission editor of Bloomsbury Publishing, spoke about the changing role of publishers in the age of the web. Fashion research can thrive online. Bloomsbury is aiming to serve researchers by providing everything they need on just one platform. Although the prospect of resources becoming fairly easy to find, the discussion afterwards posited some concerns among researchers. Wouldn’t the resources be tainted by the ones who provide them, because of too little critical evaluation on the website itself?

Anna Wright, senior commission editor of Bloomsbury Publishing, spoke about the changing role of publishers in the age of the web. Due to the abundance of images and information online fashion research is able to thrive. While Bloomsbury aims at providing a platform (Bloomsbury Fashion Central) containing a large amount of information concerning fashion, the audience raised the question whether or not this is a favourable option. In order to do a critical scientific research, students and academics are accustomed to consulting a variety of different sources. If the information is provided by one organisation, how could one be certain the information on this platform is critically evaluated, and therefore, useful for scholars?

The Future of Fashion Journalism in the Digital Age

Representatives of various fashion magazines, that publish in print, online or both, elaborate on the goals and perspectives of their magazines. The main focus lay on the perceived dichotomy between the romanticism of print media and the commercial necessity of digital. Questions were raised concerning the gains and the losses in printed versus digital media. One of the advantages of publishing online is that the financial cost is considerably lower compared to publishing in print, since printed magazines are in need of certain amounts of sponsoring. A concern raised by Karen Van Godtsenhoven is that there seems to be a need for speed in the publishing of information: ‘There seems to be a pressure in fashion journalism causing the need for everybody to cover the newest of the newest. For instance, publishing about previews of exhibitions. Then who covers the real exhibition?’ It was decided that online media is able to cover this speed, although the panel signalled that this speed could become problematic. It was questioned whether or not there is any room left for the in depth coverage of fashion.

Walking Dinner at MoMu

A fruitful day filled with discussion and relevant questions was brought to an ended with a wonderful walking dinner in the MoMu. During a stroll down the beautiful exhibition Dries van Noten: Inspirations we were able to discuss our findings and the sentiments expressed and explored during the day. The conclusion of the day would be: Just experiment, develop by doing.

On behalf of Europeana Fashion, thank you all for such an inspiring day!

Text contributed by ModemuzeImagine the harm that could be done to a student if professional profile writers poor performance were leaked to another student