Join Rob Eagle and Jo Jenkinson to discuss the role of clothing in expressing gender and social identity.
The discussion will take as its starting point the stories of Through the Wardrobe, a work that features the experiences of four genderqueer and nonbinary people and how they view clothing (part of the Alternate Realities exhibition).
As most clothing is labelled ‘male’ and ‘female’ and designed with certain gendered bodies in mind, where does this leave those who don’t fit into society’s binary gender norms?
There will be plenty of time for questions and discussion with the audience.
- Rob Eagle is an XR experience designer and PhD researcher at UWE Bristol. His work combines non-fiction storytelling with elements of immersive theatre in interactive art installations. As a PhD researcher, his work is informed by and contributes to research in gender studies, sensory anthropology and interaction design. His current mixed reality installation, Through the Wardrobe, explores the daily consideration nonbinary people must make in expressing their gender through clothing and incites us to reflect on how our own choice of clothing expresses our gender identity.
- Following 20 years as a designer with international fashion brands and launching her own luxury unisex brand; Jo Jenkinson returned to Manchester Metropolitan University as Principal Lecturer in Fashion Design. She is one of the founders of Portrait Youth, a project that aims to record the personal and collective identities of diverse groups of young people through portrait photography, where the participants take part in creative ‘wear your identity’ workshops to explore the communication of their identity through fashion, styling and dress.