The coverings we use to envelop our body enhance or disguise, comfort or protect our physical body, but they also establish or confirm our identity, communicate our socio-cultural position, or extend our abilities beyond our personal limitations. This course investigates this notion of a 'second skin' in terms of the relationship of textiles and the (human) body, and explores the potential for new ideas and concepts that arise from this juxtaposition.

Continuing on students' previous learning this course examines the properties and possibilities of textiles and alternative materials as well as the history and cultural significance of traditional techniques and their contemporary counterparts to synthesise new creative responses in wearable artefacts. To do so this course extends students knowledge in wearables by particularly emphasising the notion of ‘craft’ (fabrics and textural finishes; techniques of embellishment and detailing) and countering this with transdisciplinary concepts like hybridity, multi-functionalism, or serious games.

The friction that becomes apparent from these juxtapositions—old vs. new; craft vs. technology; practice vs. concepts; individual vs. society—A deeper understanding of the nature and effects of such tools and techniques will allow students to conceptually transcend traditional disciplinary distinctions by experimenting with nontraditional media and applications to produce body coverings of a new kind.