Talk: Dresses & Data – methods for making archival materials matter

I’m very pleased to be asked to speak at the Goldsmiths Design & Social Science seminar series 2013-14.

The theme this year is Data Practices.

My talk on Wednesday 5th Feb is titled – ‘Dresses & Data: Methods for making archival materials matter’.

In this session Kat Jungnickel will present work-in-progress on the ESRC funded ‘Freedom of Movement: the bike, bloomer and female cyclist in late nineteenth century Britain’. This sociological research project examines the intersection of public space, new technology and gendered forms of mobile citizenship via a focus on middle and upperclass women’s cycle wear. Methodologically it interweaves archival research data with the making of Victorian cycling garments from innovative 1890s British patented designs in collaboration with contemporary craftspeople (a tailor, weaver and artist). Together with Rachel Pimm, she will demonstrate garments that enact forms of ‘transformation’ from the ordinary (everyday Victorian street wear) to the extra-ordinary (clothing that enabled the wearer to move in new ways). Throughout, she will discuss the opportunities and challenges of making archival materials (into) matter – what happens when sewing, cycling and sociology collide and what wearing your research might offer understandings of inventive methods and new modes of knowledge transmission.