Awaken: New Textiles Inspired by the Archives & Collections at the Glasgow School of Art

The Archives and Collections Centre (ACC) at The Glasgow School of Art (GSA) exists as a resource for the study of art, design, architecture and education. It comprises a wide range of material from School records, textile pieces, garments, pattern books, posters, artworks, architectural drawings, plaster casts, photography and a collection of works by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. This publication accompanied the Awaken exhibition which was an output from a research project undertaken involving staff from the ACC, the Department of Fashion and Textiles, and the Centre for Advanced Textiles (CAT) at GSA. The project examined the conceptual possibilities of re-interpreting archive material for contemporary fashion and textile related design work. This was underpinned by an explication of the creative process characteristic of this specific approach to design. The following questions directed the project: • To what extent will the ideas produced be derivative or unoriginal? • Will we be re-interpreting, reproducing, initiating, appropriating, parodying or deliberately abstracting? Or will archive material simply act as a prompt, a trigger, or ‘fodder’? • How will working from archive material differ from our normal working practice? • Will we be collaborating with the originator of the archive piece? • To what extent will we make sense of the original artefact by working from it? Awaken involved case studies with fashion and textile practitioners working individually and collaboratively. Data collection methods involved the practitioners observing, recording and reflecting on responses and processes using creative process journals (CPJs) and focus groups to stimulate critical reflection, share, question and articulate issues associated with the research. The resulting fashion and textile artefacts were exhibited alongside extracts from CPJs and original archive material in the Mackintosh Gallery at the GSA, 24th January - 28th February 2009. This publication provides visual documentation of the Awaken exhibition. It provides insight into textile and fashion design processes using extracts which highlight the formulation, evolution and development of products. Using the individual voice of each participating creative practitioner the author enlightens viewers about the often idiosyncratic influences, process and factors which positively and negatively impact upon the creative process when it comes to working from archives. The evidence contained within each CPJ was gathered, examined and the findings presented as eight keynote sections populated with illuminated research log entries