from a climbing gym set up). When put to Use/used the designed
artifact confounds. Its users have to deal with unusual questions,
queries from others. They have to deal with the uncertainty of the
form and their ability to maintain usual relations with space, time,
and the social encounters that shape them. They have to impro-
vise, tell stories, create new structures, new body movements (to
go through doorways, up stairs, round corners). They navigate the
social—answer what ifs, contend with family expectations, profes-
sional obligations, personal desires of selfprojection. And as they
document and move forward they identify new sets and patterns
that might be accessible. They consider new approachable behav-
iors, criteria, and aspects of use that make things meaningful and
allow the user (themselves and others) to engage with a wide range
of qualities of the environment (social, political, ecological) in dif-
ferent ways.

In the case of cloTHING(s) as Conversation we, the designers,
have taken on Use. We have created an artifact and a scenario.
The plus (+) is a designed artifact. It is made. But most importantly
it is used and through its use (over an extended period of time)

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concentration is shifted away from assumed stances. We now con-
sider our experience with clothing as more than the constructed
sites of articulation that we usually afford ourselves—you, me, that
beautiful object. The pedestal, the role of provocateur, the per-
former setting out a statement for confirmation or debate (black/
white, yes/no)... is resituated. Our assumptions have been thrown
back at us, reconstituted by applied use. Moving forward, the mak-
ing and the use will be shared with others—to individuals in New
Zealand, Holland, Spain, England, urban and rural North America
who have approached the initial users of the plus(+) and asked... if
they too could use it.

END: BEYOND COMMENTARY AND REFLECTION At Emily Carr interven-
tions intended to dislodge individual and collective assumptions
are abound; cloTHING(s) as Conversation is but one among many.
These interventions are used to trigger new discussions, outcomes,
means of getting at the tacit, implicit, implied. I think we (and our
colleagues, peers and students) are doing something particular
that is tied to the critical (and the strategic). We are reconstituting
Use asa creative entity for questioning: Critical Use.

film-footage-sabrina-mahfouz-and-kate-fletcher-opening-the-craft-of-use-event

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