Final major project #1 Designing a brief

Overview: To understand how political conversations can be conveyed through clothing and to understand the movement.

Background: The Sudanese women’s national dress had emerged in the 1800s, it was called the tobe. The national dress symbolised womanhood, socioeconomic status and served as a platform for women to express their political views when silenced. Women strategically and creatively named new styles of the tobe to enter into political and social conversations within Sudan and the world. For example, “Khartoum at Night” was about women excitement to explore the capital city at night and “The Doctor’s Ribs” (the 1930s) referred to the first graduating class of Sudanese doctors from Kitchener Medical School as well as pop culture such as “The Russian Satellite” (1960s) whereby Sudanese women were remarking on their excitement of space travel. The 1950s saw a rise of women in the public and political involvement as feminism led to outlets being created such as “the Woman’s Voice.” In 1953, in one of the country’s first nationalist demonstration, hundreds of women defied the social conventions of seclusion and marched from Omdurman to Khartoum (23.3 km) shouting, “Long live Sudan!” At that time, all the demonstrators were wearing white tobes, Then as now, the tobe’s ability to carry multiple messages has made it a vital instrument in women’s activism. In recent demonstrations, people on social media were turning their profile pictures blue to stand in solidarity with Sudan and bring awareness to the recent uprising  – a revolution that brought a major shift of political power in Sudan that started with street protests throughout Sudan on 19 December 2018 – late 2019. Due to the current outbreak, the Sudanese economy is suffering, people are breaking their silence again using the #standforsudan, therefore this will be the name of my project.

Users/Audience: Young Sudanese women and an international audience.

Deliverables: Digital outcome that demonstrates to young Sudanese women that they are a part of a movement, and another outcome that will create room for exploration to learn about the clothing.

Next Steps:

1. Research (What is fashion and politics? What is the tobe? Who are the users? What are the goals?)
2. Document (Sharing an interactive presentation and writing blog posts)
3. Collaborate and build relationships (lecturers, course-mates and users)
4. Create early low-fi designs and communicate my progress with my lecturers, course-mates (Using XD and working on feedback from my lecturers , course-mates and potential users)
5. Iterate & test  (user test where possible)
6. Create website, 3D model and mockups
7. Iterate & test (user test where possible)

References/Bibliography:

Aksioma (2019) Adam Harvey: Computer Vision, Surveillance, and Camouflage . Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6V8K2hkAjo

Allahyari, M. (2018) ‘ Issue No 0 — Digital Culture, Theory & Art: Web Residents Refiguring the Feminist Future’, Schloss -Post, 12 July. Available at: https://schloss-post.com/web-residents-refiguring-feminist-future/

Brown, M.G.(2017) Khartoum at night: fashion and body politics in imperial Sudan. United States: Stanford University Press

Cunningham, P.A. (2015) Reforming Women’s Fashion, 1850-1920 : Politics, Health, and Art. United States: The Kent State University Press. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central

Ebtehaj, R (2018) ‘Green hope’, Roya Ebtehaj. Available at: https://www.royaebtehaj.com/copy-of-green-hope

Nabag, E. (2012) Movement in tradition: tobe. B.A. Thesis.University of Ontario Institute of Technology. Available at:  https://tinyurl.com/y6uvj5cm

Shades of Noir (2020) The Three ‘ism’s: Negotiating Race, Sex & Class. United Kingdom: University of the Art London. Available at: https://issuu.com/shadesofnoir/docs/isms

Thunderclap (2017)’Thunderclap’. Available at: https://thenewnushu.hotglue.me/

‘Torches of Freedom’ (2020) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torches_of_Freedom

Whitfield, Z. (2019)’What Does It Mean To Be Political With Fashion In 2019?’, Refinery29, 18 October. Available at:  https://www.refinery29.com/en-gb/politics-in-fashion

Yinka Shonibare