Eyes, sight and the senses on film and in fashion: crossmodal correspondences and sensorial empathy between Lars von Trier's Dancer in the dark (2000) and Johan Ku's "Selma" collection s/s (2014)
- Submitting institution
-
Nottingham Trent University
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 27 - 698321
- Type
- D - Journal article
- DOI
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10.1080/1362704X.2017.1313571
- Title of journal
- Fashion Theory
- Article number
- -
- First page
- 31
- Volume
- 22
- Issue
- 1
- ISSN
- 1362-704X
- Open access status
- Compliant
- Month of publication
- April
- Year of publication
- 2017
- URL
-
-
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
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C - Fashion and Textiles Research Centre
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This research analyses how Johan Ku developed his ‘Selma’ fashion collection based upon the experiences of the film character Selma (Björk) within Lars von Trier’s Dancer in the Dark. Selma is going blind and the film uses formal and conceptual innovations to communicate Selma’s sensory experiences. Ku’s fashion collection represents a material-based response to issues of perception and blindness. The article argues that Ku draws upon crossmodal correspondences (cross-sensory transfer) and sensorial empathy to create his collection.
Intellectual rigour is provided from a range of relevant sources, including film studies, neurological and psychological research, and anthropology of the senses, citing key theorists including Vivian Sobchack, Charles Spence, Ophelia Deroy, Oliver Sacks, David Howes and Kathryn Guerts.
The significance and originality of the article was expressed through the peer review process, which included commentary stating that this research produced ‘a very exciting, groundbreaking article’ making ‘an important contribution to sensory studies and to fashion studies’. The article ‘lays the groundwork for the emergence of a new inter-interdisciplinary field of inquiry’. Peer review also indicated that ‘[s]uch cross-media sensitivity (or the ability to sense across platforms) is rare, too rare, which is why this essay is so exemplary, and groundbreaking, a landmark in fashion studies’ and that ‘[t]he author of this article clearly is at the forefront of a whole new field of investigation into sensory transfers across diverse media’.
A selective overview of this research was presented in a paper at the Wellcome Collection in May 2017, part of the Textile Research Society’s Biennial Research Symposium. Research and ideas relating to this article were also presented at the NTU CAADH conference 2017, leading to ongoing collaborative research with Humanities scholars.
This article has also led to ongoing sensory studies-based research relating to the films Notes on Blindness and Black Sun.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
