The study explores the work of the English choreographer and Director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet, David Bintley. Particular reference is made to Bintley’s ballet Still Life at the Penguin Café (1988) and the extent to which he has drawn from English Cotswold Morris dance in the Humboldt’s Hog-nosed Skunk Flea section of the ballet. The comparison between Bintley’s selection of movements and their traditional Morris dance counterparts is based on findings from extensive fieldwork conducted with Morris dance teams and in particular the Ravensbourne Morris Men of Keston in Kent, as well as a study of Bintley’s creative practice. The research draws from ethnographic modes of study including participant observation, embodiment and notions of reflexivity. Following an analysis of the results from the creation and performance of a more authentically ‘Morris’ version of Bintley’s dance for eight female dancers, entitled Still Life at the Folk Café, the study offers a series of recommendations for the translation of English Morris into a theatrical setting. The thesis is divided into six chapters. The first explores the methods involved in the development of the analytical model for the study, including those of the Hungarian scholars György Martin and Erno Pesovár during their folk dance research in the Upper-Tisza region of Hungry, and the categorisation of the various aspects of Morris dance using Morris dancer Lionel Bacon's motif catalogue, A handbook of Morris dances. It also reviews the work of folk dance theorists such as John Forrest and Chris Bearman. The second chapter discusses the concept of Englishness to define the importance of the English ballet tradition as advocated from 1926 by the founder of the Royal Ballet, Dame Ninette De Valois. It looks at Bintley's influences, ideological inheritance, creative process and place as a protector of the English ballet tradition. Chapter three focuses on the fieldwork conducted with the Ravensbourne Morris Men, and compares Bintley’s movements in Humboldt’s Hog-nosed Skunk Flea dance with their counterparts from the Cotswold Morris tradition. Chapter four details the practice based element of the research and analyses the findings from a series of Morris dance workshops in which the eight female dancers representing the field of professional dance were introduced to the Morris dance form. It also investigates the results from the creation and performance of Still Life at the Folk Café. Chapter five discusses the benefits of conducting a workshop with the Ravensbourne Morris dance team and some of the dancers involved in the performance process. Finally chapter six explores the conclusions drawn from the research and explains how choreographers or dancers wishing to work with Morris dance should immerse themselves in the source language of its practitioners, and draw from aspects of the tradition in rehearsals and performances in order to extend their choreological and physical vocabulary and attain the stylistic and social qualities associated with the dance form. These aspects include working with live musical accompaniment, using the performance space informally to maintain close interaction with the audience and challenging the dancer’s personal response to their own movement style.

The work submitted for the PhD by Publication is evidence of my investigation into the significance of textiles as an aesthetic experience within a socially engaged form of material practice, some of which involves other people. Social engagement has been an active and deliberate agent in the aesthetic transformation of functional material objects in two of my publications called The Sleeping Bag Project and You Are the Journey. A third publication is a co-edited book called Outside: Activating Cloth to Enhance the Way We Live. A range of essays by artists, curators and writers discloses previously unwritten commentaries on community initiatives that probe a range of empathetic modes of investigation that explore meaningful spaces for participation. I have come to recognise that a proactive attitude towards collaboration is evident in all three publications. It is exemplified by my approach to co-orchestrating the Outside book and by an eagerness to work with others to advance the concept of the transformative power of cloth within the live arena for socially engaged textile practices today. The relations between an aesthetic transformation and socially engaged practice was implicit in Rozsika Parker’s seminal text The Subversive Stitch first published in 1984 providing an analysis of textiles within social history. At the beginning of work on this PhD my relationship with the book was complex and full of tensions. My perceptions of Parker’s work changed as I discovered at the very end of my thesis connections between her work and mine that enable a deeper understanding of the need in my socially engaged textile practice today for the kind of aesthetics she describes historically as arising from social constraint. Consequently The Subversive Stitch has now re-appeared with value as a touchstone for my work in a contemporary context. The thesis then discusses examples of the outcomes of practices by other artists and considers the attention given to visual aesthetics within socially engaged practices. Ideas are developed to suggest how the aesthetic dimension of textiles may enhance principles of communal giving as an innovative strategy stretching beyond the coalition government’s Big Society agenda presented in 2010. Examples from investigations of textiles in museum archives including embroideries created by internees within Second World War prisoner-ofwar camps in the Far East are also examined. The aesthetic dimension of the embroideries carries significance through the vulnerable context in which they were created, as a potent series of statements involving cloth in action. In contemporary Britain, I have shown how such everyday objects as sleeping bags and travel tickets can capture the imagination by creating a connection with participants, when they may not have been consciously seeking an insight separate from the functionality of these objects. Nevertheless, an aesthetic gesture is surreptitiously tucked away. This has created a hybrid form of social engagement that can move fluidly between private and public spaces. The social engagement also involves processes of interaction and exchange with the object in the presentation of an active relationship with the object that is both seen and unseen.

No description available.

Ink jet printing for textiles has brought many benefits to the textile print industry. It has an ability to print on demand, using thousands of colours, and at reduced costs compared with rotary screenprinting for small scale production, ink jet technology has already established itself as a reliable method of printing for the textile industry. This research investigates a new approach to ink jet technology. Numerous new surfaces are fed through a textile ink jet printer in the generation of bespoke printed textiles. This is an experimental approach to textile ink jet printing, recording practical solutions, and uncovering innovative processes for a new direction for digital technology for textiles. Various surfaces have been enhanced using screen print techniques and embroidery, or manipulated by hand and digitally printed in the production of an array of unique digital resist techniques. This research combines the use of textile hand craftsmanship with digital technology, crossing the boundaries and discovering ways of combining these disciplines. This research will highlights some of the possibilities with applying a hand crafted approach to ink jet technology for textiles, it demonstrate the control of colour, resist effects and the sensitivity of design which can be achieve using these new processes. In addition to this, the research will demonstrate the added value of this crafted approach to digital design, as well discussing the potential for reproducing these complex textile craft techniques and digital resist effects using CAD and ink jet technology.

Historically, research into the role of the brand in fashion has been influenced by general marketing management interpretations, focused mainly on the brand’s commercial function as related to market performance and as a promotional tool. Some established research, informed by design and fashion-specific interpretations of the brand, has explored the relationship between fashion branding and fashion design. However, a review of the fashion branding literature demonstrates that the entire scope of the brand in fashion and its diversity of roles for a fashion company has not been fully explored or applied within an industry-specific context. This commentary explores the scope and roles of the fashion brand within the parameters of a selection of the author’s past publications and provides a new critical and holistic account of the brand, incorporating the corporate and creative functions it plays within fashion businesses. In turn, the commentary informs the emergence of branding as a dedicated sub-set of fashion studies research. Various qualitative methods are employed within this investigation, including the use of focus groups, interviews and observational and action-based research. A consideration of alternative means of branding research in context of the wider study of fashion provides an additional critical perspective to the work. The findings confirm the significance of the brand within fashion practice and theory and could arguably serve to inform the corporate and creative aspects of fashion branding practice. In terms of contributing to academic understanding, the commentary proposes a new and more holistic account of the fashion brand incorporating its creative and corporate functions, and identifies opportunities for the further study of the fashion brand.

CAD systems are important design tools that enable the designer to conceptualize, visualize, analyze, and manufacture a design (Shahin 2008). Although high-end CAD systems provide several built-in design applications, the users of CAD often select various custom or proprietary non-CAD analyses that constrain, optimize, or evaluate their designs. An efficient method is needed to perform trade studies from within the CAD environment. Methods have been developed to meet the challenges associated with this need. The methods have been implemented in a program, called the Process Integrator, which resides in a CAD system and allows the user to perform trade studies on an assembly model from within the CAD environment. The Process Integrator allows the user to create a generic process configuration to link analyses with CAD assemblies for optimization. The generic configuration can then be run at any time, on any assembly that meets the configuration requirements. Test cases are presented in which the efficiency of the automated process is demonstrated. Results indicate that significant time savings can be achieved through the application of these methods.

Unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) are vehicles of various levels of autonomy which can be made for a large variety of purposes, for instance ferriage and surveying. USV shave technically been around for about 80 years, however, it is only within fairly recent years developments in miniaturization of components and computers have allowed for the construction of USVs of a small size. The primary benefit of USVs is that they can perform otherwise costly and tedious tasks originally done by manned vehicles. They can also run on electric batteries; thus limiting the effect on the environment compared to the fossil fuels used in traditional vehicles. In this project, performed at the Swedish Maritime Robotics Center at KTH Stockholm, a small USV meant to perform depth measurements of waterways was developed. It can be steered via remote control and has the hardware required to navigate autonomously. This report goes through the multiple steps the project group undertook to develop the USV. The project included studying of previous works, selection and ordering of components, creating a schematic, developing the programming, and testing. 11 components were installed while several planned ones were not included due to time constraints. Testing of the remote control and GNSS logging was successful. / Obemannade ytfarkoster (engelska USV) är fordon med olika nivåer av autonomi som kan tillverkas för en mängd olika ändamål, till exempel för färjor och hydrografi. USV har tekniskt sett funnits i cirka 80 år, men det är först inom de relativt senaste åren utvecklingen inom miniatyrisering av komponenter och datorer har möjliggjort konstruktion av USV:s av en liten storlek. Den främsta fördelen med USV är att de kan utföra annars kostsamma och mödosamma uppgifter som ursprungligen utfördes av bemannade fordon. De kan också köras på elektriska batterier; vilket begränsar effekten på miljön jämfört med de fossila bränslen som används i traditionella fordon. I detta projekt, utfört på Swedish Maritime Robotics Center vid KTH Stockholm, utvecklades en liten USV för att utföra djupmätningar av vattendrag. Den kan styras via fjärrkontroll och har den hårdvara som krävs för att navigera självständigt. Denna rapport går igenom de steg som projektgruppen tog för att utveckla USV:n. I projektet ingick att studera tidigare arbeten, välja och beställa komponenter, skapa tekniska diagram, utveckla programmeringen och testning. 11 komponenter installerades medan flera planerade inte ingick på grund av tidsbrist. Testning av fjärrkontrollen och GNSS-loggningen var lyckade.

I och med en ökande konkurrens och tekniska framsteg har flygbranschen tvingats ta till nya metoder för att utveckla komponenter. I flygbranschen är viktoptimering en viktig faktor och på senare tid har man sett stora möjligheter med att genomföra detta med hjälp av topologioptimering och additiv tillverkning. På Saab finns det ett intresse av att undersöka hur topologioptimering kan användas för att om möjligt förenkla och förbättra den utvecklingsprocess man har i dag och göra de produkterna man tillverkar ännu bättre. Speciellt vill man titta på hur topologioptimeringsmodulen i det befintliga CAD systemet Siemens NX fungerar för att se hur konstruktörer skulle kunna använda sig av verktyget för att minska vikten på komponenterna. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur topologioptimering kan genomföras i Siemens NX för att se hur det kan användas i utvecklingsarbetet på Saab samt för att se vilka möjligheter/utmaningar verktyget för med sig. Arbetet är baserat på en litteraturstudie, en intervjustudie, en workshop och undersökningar av Siemens NX topologioptimeringsmodul. Resultatet från intervjuerna visade att man på Saab ser en vinst i att använda sig av topologioptimering på flera ställen i utvecklingsprocessen. Undersökningen av Siemens topologioptimeringsmodul visar att verktyget kan användas, framförallt under en av de tidpunkterna i processen som föreslagits under intervjuerna, för att ta fram en kvalificerad första gissning på en konstruktion. Vinsten med att använda topologioptimering har visat sig vara att antalet iterationer mellan konstruktör och strukturanalytiker kan minska, vilket kan leda till en tidseffektiviserad utvecklingsprocess. Det har framkommit under intervju med en strukturanalytiker att färdiga komponenter, där topologioptimering använts, tenderar att vara bättre uppbyggda och ha lättare att klara av de ställda kraven. Arbetet har också visat att det finns utmaningar med att använda Siemens topologioptimeringsmodul på Saab. Ett av de stora problemen som framkommit under arbetet är att det är svårt att ta fram exakta lastfall på Saabs komponenter vilket krävs för att topologioptimera i Siemens NX. Ytterligare en försvårande faktor är att Saabs produkter i många fall har en låst förformskonstruktion med förutbestämda designparametrar, som dimensioner och funktioner. Detta medför att det i vissa fall varit svårt att få fram relevanta resultat. Resultaten från undersökning av Siemens topologioptimering har visat sig ge bäst resultat då den förformskonstruktion som optimeras har en stor designfrihet. / As a consequence of great technical progress in today's society and the increasing competition industries in between, the aviation industry has been forced to implement new methods in their product development to stay competitive. Topology optimization together with additive manufacturing is one of them and is used to optimize the weight of a component. Optimization in weight is a crucial factor in the aviation industry and topology optimization is recently shown to be a useful method. At Saab there is an interest in evaluating topology optimization and its capability to both improve and simplify today's development process to make even better products in the end. In particular, they want to look at how the topology optimization module in the existing CAD system Siemens NX works to explore the opportunities for the designersto reduce the weights of the components. This study aims to examine the use of topology optimization in Siemens NX to explore if it is a useful method to implement in the development process at Saab. The purpose is also to see what advantages and what challenges it brings. The work is based on a literature review, an interview study, a workshop and an investigation of the topology optimization module in Siemens NX.  Results from the interviews showed that Saab can benefit from the usage of topology optimization in several parts of the development process. Siemens NX topology optimization module, specifically, was found to fit in one of the suggested places, where it can be used to create a first qualified iteration. One of the advantages topology optimization can bring is fewer design iterations between designers and analysts which can help reduce the development time and improve the process. Furthermore one of the interviewed structural analysts claims that parts, where topology optimization tools has been used, has been found to be better constructed and has easier to pass through the validation process. The study has also revealed some difficulties with the usage of Siemens NX topology optimization module at Saab where the biggest question is whether relevant load cases exists or not. Topology optimization in Siemens NX requires definitive load cases which has been hard or even impossible to find in many of Saab´s products. Another difficulty with the usage of Siemens Topology optimization on Saab´s product is the limited freedom in the design space. The respondents mean that most of the constructed parts has a lot of predetermined parameters and in the topology optimization module this fact has sometimes made it difficult to produce relevant results.

The traditional notion of material authenticity as being the physical and aesthetic evidence of the artist’s hand in the ‘original’ materials is outmoded. With the changed nature of art must come a rethinking of the concept of authenticity. Authenticity was and is often discussed in relation to attribution, and is traditionally linked with the artwork’s material presence. This thesis questions that assumption, drawing on the literature of philosophy that describes authenticity as someone’s ‘true essence’ in order to propose the significance of the interrelation of the artwork’s multiple attributes to the work’s identity. The artist’s voice has been a crucial source in this re-evaluation, with the voices of Scottish artists, or artists represented by a Scottish gallery or collection, building a picture of the way practitioners think about the significance of materials to their work. These contemporary primary sources have been contextualised with artists’ voices from published compendiums and international case studies. They have revealed the general pragmatism of artists’ approaches, particularly in relation to their creative processes. Therefore, this thesis has based its discussion around seemingly incongruous approaches: a conceptual framework and artists’ practices. However, these poles are reconciled by rooting the investigation at the point of the artwork’s creation. This has meant placing weight on the artist’s intentions for the work and his or her decision-making process, rather than the subsequent interpretations of curators and conservators that inevitably inform the artwork’s institutional afterlife. Doing so has led to a greater understanding of artists’ conceptions of material significance and their thoughts on the identity of their works. This inevitably bears implications for the preservation and display of contemporary art.

Fine art, in the form of oil paintings, prints and drawings, accounts for a considerable proportion of the collection formed by the Scottish anatomist, Dr William Hunter. This thesis examines the contexts for the various works of art that were either bought or commissioned by him or were the result of donations and gifts. It covers the period from the 1740s, when Hunter arrived in London until his death in 1783 and follows his collecting activities from their origins in the specialist, anatomical-antiquarian interests of his predecessors in the 1750s to the more elaborate works that were increasingly available to him through his contacts with artists and dealers by the 1770s. This involves placing Hunter within a chronology of collecting during the eighteenth century, a period characterised by an expansion of cultural activity within all the arts. Such a commodification of culture brought with it various implications for the production and reception of the arts that had been predominantly the reserve of the aristocracy. William Hunter was a professional, a new type of Gentleman Connoisseur, whose motivations to collect were inspired by an innate empirical curiosity that dominated the era. Therefore, curiosity as a type of investigative phenomenon is considered in the thesis as the driving force behind the accumulation and calculation of of collectible objects. Hunter's incorporation of a fine art collection within a museum dominated by anatomy and natural history calls for a re-considertation of the place of art derived from the close study of nature during the period. His influence as a teacher and patron of the arts is also re-considered here by a closer examination of the part he played in the community of artists that emerged in London during the 1760s. The thesis employs a methodology that combines the techniques of micro-history, a close cultural-anthropological analysis viewed through a framework of more general, theoretical themes, classicism, antiquarianism and consumerism that seek to impose an understanding on the sheer diversity and range of interrelated ideas that constitute the practice of collecting during the eighteenth century. It reveals that, rather than standing on the periphery, William Hunter played a crucial, if not central, role in the promotion and dissemination of the fine arts in Britain.