Eighteenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

Creating exhibitions of fashion has often been associated with a physical space but advances in technology, the developing digital skills of curators, and access to affordable and easy to use apps are challenging this mind set. Fashion collections of historic and contemporary dress can be found on the campuses of higher education across the world. The valuable objects contained in them are beginning to be used in unconventional ways by a variety of disciplines outside the norm for research, teaching, and learning. This paper highlights a digital fashion exhibition created to support a physical exhibition focused on the use of public swimming pools by its citizens and how its local history aligned with national trends and challenged myths about integration. It examines the ways in which objects of fashion, which could not be properly exhibited physically due to space limitations and the inability to control its light, humidity, and temperature levels, could still be included using the digital environment. In addition, it provided an opportunity to include interactive aspects such as video, photographs, lectures, downloadable files, and links for continuous learning.

Presenters

Marcy L. Koontz
Curator, The Fashion Archive + Associate Professor, Clothing, Textiles, and Interior Design, The University of Alabama, Alabama, United States