Items where Year is 2026

Sketching is a vital form of communication across creative industries. As an essential part of the filmmaking process, costume illustration functions as a mediating design practice where sketching translates concept art into wearable garments. Historically rooted in hand-drawn fashion illustration, contemporary costume sketching has evolved into a globalised digital practice that bridges artistic vision and physical construction. Through this lens of design mediation and embodied expertise, the study draws on industry interviews and reflective practice to examine the costume illustrator’s changing role as translator between the digital concept and physical costume. Costume sketching solves practical challenges based on knowledge of tangible garment construction, however, the hierarchical dominance of visual development departments within film production presents increasing challenges to translating fantastical concept art into wearable clothes. While visual development artists often prioritise aesthetic and narrative spectacle, costume illustrators reinterpret these designs through tacit, material knowledge of fabrics, fit, and movement.

Architectural models are an important part of architectural practice and culture, recording and communicating design process. Evidence of historic architectural models such as that held by the Thorp Modelmaking Archive and the internal archives of architectural practices such as Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA), Foster + Partners, Make, and others provide valuable insights into the practices and processes that enable the development and communication of design concepts1. These models provide a tangible record of the social, political and technological concepts that have shaped the built environment, and the craftsmanship and creativity of the architectural modelmakers who make them2.
With the adoption of digital technology from the 1990s onwards, the tools and processes involved in creating architectural models rapidly developed3, with models made during the design process today heavily using 3D printing (3DP)4. As architectural models are increasingly archived these soon-to-be historic 3DP artefacts create new challenges for conservators.
This paper investigates the growing challenge of caring for culturally significant 3DP architectural models made by Zaha Hadid Architects, now in the collection of the Zaha Hadid Foundation (ZHF).

This article examines the preservation challenges posed by 3D printed architectural models as emerging heritage artefacts. Focusing on models from the Zaha Hadid Foundation collection, it compares the condition of earlier traditionally made architectural models with later 3D printed examples. The study used a site visit and sample condition survey, combining field notes, photographs, and non-invasive visual inspection of six models to assess materials, condition, and signs of deterioration. Findings indicate that traditionally made models from the 1980s and 1990s remain relatively stable, while more recent 3D printed nylon models show greater discolouration, fragility, and breakage. The article concludes that 3D printed architectural models present distinct conservation risks, particularly due to the limited understanding of the long-term behaviour of early 3D printing materials, and argues for improved analytical methods, storage strategies, and monitoring to support their preservation as part of architectural heritage.

As the fashion industry increasingly integrates 3D garment design software such as CLO3D, highly accurate digital avatars that replicate in house fit models has become essential. Standardised avatars are widely available but often fail to accurately align with a brand’s legacy sizing systems, which are typically based on specific fit models and bespoke measurements. British performance wear brand ThruDark’s dedicated consumer base is accustomed to a consistent garment fit, therefore, transitioning to digital sampling with software stock avatars would risk significant inconsistency in sizing and customer experience. Maintaining continuity with the existing fit model is critical, prompting the need for an accurate, efficient avatar creation process that supports ongoing production without disruption. For brands to fully leverage digital workflows and reduce reliance on physical sampling, accurate brand specific avatars are crucial.
This research - conducted in partnership with ThruDark - explores the creation and implementation of bespoke digital avatars. A comparison study includes manual anthropometric and 3D body scanning technologies which are evaluated for the creation of bespoke fit model avatars. A new avatar creation process pilot study allows critical insights into functionality and scalability. Based on this research a commercially viable workflow for generating digital avatars from brand-specific fit model data has been implemented at ThruDark.

As photogrammetry software like Polycam, 3D scanning techniques continue to develop
and become increasingly democratized, they facilitate public engagement in collective
archive-making. The content and character of these public archives, however, reveal a
peculiar amalgamation of drastically different kinds of archive-making strategies: on one
hand, individual oriented practices akin to those typical for family photo albums; on the other
hand, and scientific research-oriented documentation.
The article will examine the specifics of these amalgamations through analysing the issues
of digital mistakes in heritage-making, the narratives of the digital 3D objects and their
(dis)embodiments, and the interplay of absences and presence in digital archives. It will also
attempt to take an initial approach in examining the 3D vision ideologies underpinning the
depictions of digital bodies as captured by accessible photogrammetry software like
Polycam.
Focusing on a public online archive of a public online archive of 3D documented objects and
locations made using Polycam, the paper suggests that this archive is an ongoing,
collective, distributed, participatory process — what Annet Dekker calls a ‘living archive’
(2017), which is underpinned by a consumerist logic of cultural production with militaristic and
pornographic undertones, thus presenting a blend of institutional and individual gaze as
mediated by 3D scanning technology.

This Letter to the Editor argues that plastics should be understood not only as an environmental challenge to be mitigated, but also as a form of heritage requiring ethical care, scientific understanding, and long-term stewardship. It also recognises that plastics are increasingly understood as matters of human health and justice, not only of environmental concern (Landrigan et al., 2023). Established in 2025, the PlastIC Innovation + Curation Research Centre (PlastIC) works in close collaboration with the Museum of Design in Plastics (MoDiP). Museum collections containing plastic artefacts can provide critical insights into polymer degradation and material longevity that are directly relevant to contemporary debates on sustainability and future plastics innovation. The PlastIC Innovation + Curation Research Centre investigates the nature of plastics degradation over time and seeks to bring this insight forward to inform material choices for more sustainable and safer futures.

Body modification undergarments - that alter, accentuate and create desirable silhouettes by applying force to the body or through structured wearable enhancements - have been used to throughout history.
In costume, historical body modification garments are important symbols for portraying wealth, position and historical context.
Garments that modify the body present a challenge for digital historical pattern creation as digital avatars are commonly solid 3D objects which are unable to ‘realistically respond to external forces’ e.g. 3D constructed/simulated garments. This study investigates harnessing body scanning and digital processes to create silhouetted avatars, to permit the digital production of historically accurate patterns that are accurate of an actor’s biometric data.
The research takes an empirical approach to test four experimental digital workflow methods and develops a specific process for body modification avatars. The processes are then applied and assessed through production of a digital 16th century historical costume garment. The results offer metric and observational insights into workflow consistency, dimension accuracy, and mesh usability.
The generation of ‘silhouetted period avatars’ using 3D body scans and historical body modification garments supports the digital creation of costumes with increased efficiency and historical accuracy.

This essay outlines the challenges that EAL students face in an English actor training environment, especially in classical/Shakespeare actor training, exposing the effect of monolinguistic dominance of the English language (and persona) imposed on the EAL student. It highlights the narrow Anglocentric models in conventional English training and performance, reducing the potential of those from differing cultural/linguistic backgrounds. To address barriers faced in individualised expression and linguistic autonomy, translanguaging pedagogy is introduced (adapted from the EFL classroom) as a strategy of emancipation. Focusing on a Japanese student as a case study, and his performances of a Shakespeare sonnet in the Shakespeare Acting unit, a translanguaging research project was conducted. The student devised two performances of a Shakespeare sonnet: one spoken in English using a psychologically real style of acting, and the other spoken in Japanese, employing a Japanese representational gestural, movement style, for comparison (towards future amalgamation into a hybrid style). The performances were filmed, observed by peers, author/trainer and analysed. Two aspects were examined: identifying Japanese influence in the student’s interpretation, related to Japanese classical style and culture, and analysing how translanguaging had developed the student as a person and actor. Findings included: 1) Enhanced self-expression, progression of abilities and attainment; 2) Transformation in self-confidence; 3) Enhanced global and intercultural communication; 4) Development of teaching strategies to enable EAL students. This research evidences the value of translanguaging pedagogy and intercultural exchange, leading to further research and conversations between Japanese and English actor-training methodologies