How can we create egoless spaces? In this workshop we will rethink and redefine discipline-specific methodologies and vocabularies by trying to dissolve the Ego of art and science. We will do so by focusing on fashion, where Egos are continuously shaped, formed and commercialized. For instance, the Egos of consumers are often constructed through the clothing that they wear and buy in ‘supermarkets of identities’ (Bauman 2000: 83).

In addition, Fashion’s Ego is formed by the spectacle of the runway, glamour, money, star designers, seduction and constructed desire. This often denies the subjective dimension and lived experiences of the human beings who actually wear and/or make clothes. Moreover, this denies the actual material dimension of fashion. In this workshop we move beyond human-centered thinking by drawing more attention to the actual materiality of clothing objects. We will give more agency– the capacity to act – to material objects, and will engage with tangible pieces of clothing from our own intuition and our own artistic and/or academic background.

Participants will be encouraged to perceive and feel what clothes do when situated in certain spaces and presented in different narrative universes.They will experiment with the methods of negotiating and electing by actively engaging with clothes as a source of ‘living’ material. Becoming aware of the agency of clothes will in this workshop facilitate moving beyond discipline-specific vocabularies and methodologies, to open up and create egoless spaces that will help to think, act and engage with each other in terms of roles.