Task 9: Annotated Reading List
: Re-visit your reading list and write a summary of the sources you have been looking at and why they link to your research/creative interests.
- This article appeared when I was researching corsetry and as I am interested in the mind/body connection, this was possibly relevant to my area of study and also may be of interest to the topic for week 5 Art/Design and Science relations. [1]
‘ Brain signal changes of sensory cortex according to surface roughness of boneless corsets’[2]
This article was an in-depth scientific article which analysed the way the brain was stimulated by varying textures and warmth of specific fabric constitutions using fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance imaging) technology.
The objectivity of it’s scientific nature is not actually that relevant to my area of study but the article did highlight ‘the fact that tactile perception would be influenced by memory, personality, expectation and other psychological factors’[3].
With many technical control measures applied to the fabric related to thickness, stretch, temperature and humidity, I found it starting that the type of fabric used was not mentioned at all, i.e was the fabricsynthetic or man-made.
In conclusion, the smoother and cooler the fabric, the less the brain was stimulated.[4] Which was interesting as I would have expected that the pleasure related to a smoother surface would have generated more stimulation.
This article in it’s objective analysis raised more subjective questions for me. Would silk as opposed to wool have created a different result? Would the aspects of personality and expectation change how our brain is stimulated? Would an analysis of the pleasure centres of the brain be of more interest to me? So for future reference, psycho analysis and social and cultural context would be more relevant than a scientific approach.
On reflection, having slept on this, the finding of this report that smooth and cool fabrics have no stimulation in the somato sensory cortex of the brain perhaps a lack of stimulation is a pleasurable non-feeling, giving an elevated reference to the term a ‘second skin’. In terms of my own practice I would like to consider the feeling of my piecesas worn by the experiencer, a garment that is almost as considered on the interior as the exterior. As a lover of luxury linings in garments togive that added pleasure, this concept would fit well with the garments I would like to produce.
Key concept taken from this text;
Consider the tactile stimulation of the interior and feel of the garment against the skin in the experience of the wearer.
[1] Image from..
[2] Brain signal changes article
[3] Page 2
[4] Conclusion paragraph
