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 paper describes Awaken, 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. Content analysis provided the framework to relate the data collected to the key questions and emergent themes. The resulting fashion and textile artefacts were exhibited alongside extracts from CPJs and original archive material in the Mackintosh Gallery at the GSA. Aspects of the project were assimilated with visual material in a publication, which accompanied the exhibition.
This paper will provide insight into the Awaken project, detailing the archival items practitioners selected, the approaches taken, insights into the creative process, the contemporary artefacts produced and discussions surrounding the research questions and key themes. The findings from the project will be described, adding to the minimal existent literature surrounding fashion and textile design creative process involving the utilisation of archival material. The paper will also briefly describe a research project currently in progress by the authors involving the Stoddard Templeton Design Archive at the GSA.