Manuel Hallermeier: 31 Days to Graduation 2017

Manuel Hallermeier: "'From White to Bright' is a research based graduate project dealing with the “current accelerations in globalization, climate change and technology” (Friedman 2016). This book lead to an extended research in the field of philosophy to discover the immediate challenges/questions and the field of cognitive science to gain insight into what explanations are currently available regarding our audiovisual surroundings, language and communication. To understand the UN sustainability goals better, I tried to experiment with structured digital learning, which is solely made possible by the recent technological advances and therefore seemed interesting to investigate.

The process of making the collection can be divided into two segments.

One deals with the question whether aesthetics or ethics should play a major role in fashion design. In the project, this part will be answered in an exploration of different techniques and perspectives on clothing. For example, knotting techniques and wooden elements.

The second segment is focused on producing garments in a sewing workshop and thereby investigating time and scalability during the process of the making. In this process, the structure of the assembly methods and the emphasis on purpose-based characteristics are the key factors regarding the decision making.

The production of the garments and showpieces is a very direct way of experiencing the effort involved in the making of clothing in its various forms. This led to choosing UN Goal 3 (Good Health & Wellbeing) combined with Goal 8 (Decent Work & Economic Growth), because this is where the gained understanding could be applied immediately."

Friedman, Thomas (2016), Thank You for Being Late – An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Acceleration. London: Penguin.