Introduction
Methodology
Analysis
Bibliography
About me
Get in touch
The project values below provide the framework for the research approach:
Drawing on the project title, the research hopes to allow space for the complexities of our experiences and emotions, making a move away from binarised ways of thinking that ask us to choose and hold a singular position.
“We don’t have to conform to limiting conceptions of either/or, we can be both.”
Academic language can often feel like a barrier to research reaching the people it is about. By using everyday language, We Can Be Both hopes to invite people to join a conversation rather than excluding them from it. Everyday language is centred not as an exercise of dumbing down, but as a method for opening up.
With the exploitation of workers in the fashion sector a key research theme, the project recognises the importance of paying all contributors fairly for their labour. Thanks to DYCP funding from Arts Council England participants are paid per hour for their contributions.
Academic ways of knowing are often considered to be superior to other knowledges - in our empirical world, evidence trumps experience and thought takes priority over feeling. We Can Be Both rejects this. The knowledges of participants, the researcher, academic scholars and figures from pop culture are all valued as equal within the project, each bringing their own insights and lessons.
#5: IDEAS ARE CREDITED
Wanting to move away from the pervading idea in both fashion and academia of one autonomous creator/thinker, We Can Be Both hopes to celebrate, rather than shy away from, the work of those who have influenced the idea and approach.
Some of these influences include : Jemma Desai, The White Pube, Helen Cammock, Marjon Carlos, Kardashian Kolloquium, adrienne marie brown, The Polyester Podcast.
#6: FORMAT IS ACCESSIBLE
Film is chosen as the primary medium for the research for its accessibility and ability to engage. Instagram is chosen as the primary platform to disseminate the work for its visual-focus and because it is a platform where fashion workers are already very active, therefore increasing the likelihood of the research reaching a relevant and interested audience.
#7: CARE + SENSITIVITY ARE CENTRED
The project understands the potential risk participants are taking by speaking publicly and on the record about experiences within a typically ‘closed doors’ industry. With this in mind, the project works with participants to find a way to discuss difficult experiences in a way that they feel comfortable with. Participant approval is requested throughout the research and research dissemination process and each participant is treated as an individual with differing needs, which the project hopes to adapt to accordingly.
#8: WORK IS COLLABORATIVE
The seperation of ‘researcher’ and ‘researched’ is called into question in We Can Be Both. Interactions for the project hope to take the form of conversations rather than interviews, with participants encouraged to ask questions as well, in the hope that conversations become reciprocal and collaborative and the separation of researcher / researched can start to be broken down.