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Aberdeen academics receive more than £1 million funding for design project

By David Walker
04/05/2020, 9:39 am
The group visited Shanghai for research
The group visited Shanghai for research

A team of academics from a university have received more than £1 million in funding for a new design project.

The research group from Robert Gordon University will work with Shanghai academics and industry partners in Scotland to educate consumers about the sustainability, craftmanship, heritage and value of traditional fashion and textile products.

They are from RGU’s Computing, Art and Creative and Cultural Business schools and were awarded £1.3 million for this project which is called “Augmented Fashion: Immersive Interactions for Sustainable Heritage in Fashion and Textiles”.

It will be led by Dr Yang Jiang and the team will also work with partners in the Highlands and Islands and Glasgow.

Academics from RGU have received funding

Dr Jiang said: “Our aim is to use modern, immersive technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR) to preserve the history and heritage of traditional fashion and textile products.

“Fashion has embraced computer technology, with online sales continuing to grow and fashion film increasingly being used to market creative designs. This presents an opportunity to use immersive technology to educate and shape an alternative and sustainable future for the design, production and use of traditional textiles.”

They will be exploring textiles

Also in the team will be Karen Cross, course leader for fashion management at the School of Creative and Cultural Business, Josie Steed, design researcher in sustainability and knowledge exchange at Gray’s School of Art and Professor Rong Zheng from Donghua University and Shanghai Promotion Centre for City of Fashion,

Karen added: “This project is an exciting opportunity to support the traditional Scottish quality textile economy, by highlighting the heritage, craftsmanship and sustainable ethos of small-scale, artisan production.

“Immersive technologies can help to capture and share the rich detail and value of these products in an engaging and exciting way, bringing them to new audiences and markets across the globe.”

To find out more about the project, please visit: https://augmentedfashion.co.uk/