RAD2025

Priska Falin

The Research Through Art & Design (RAD) course for doctoral researchers at Aalto Arts introduces a variety of approaches, methodologies, issues, and concerns in research through practice. In this course, research through practice refers to a broad continuum of artistic research approaches, arts-based, practice-led, and practice-based research approaches, including constructive design research approaches relevant across practices in Aalto University; School of Arts, Design and Architecture. This exposition was created within a Research Catalogue Workshop offered as an additional part of the main course. During this part of the course, the participants are familiarised with the Research Catalogue as a platform and learn how to use it for creating expositions. During the workshop, participants work on their page within this group exposition, based on their current doctoral research or a topic that inspired them during the lectures. The main content is the workshop participants' individual pages within this exposition.

How can I "wear" a digital costume?

Investigating embodied responses can lead to unexpected design choices.

Technological limitations can lead to surprising embodied reactions.

The functionality of the technology determines what types of costumes can be embodied.

This is a digital costume.

Try to put it on.

2025_10_17

The test costume is following my head. Is this wearing?
I can only see the shadow of myself wearing the costume.
Added a material with two-sided turned on so I could see it from the inside.
Playing with scale/position. Putting it below the camera is useless because I can't look down. It needs to be mounted over the eyes in some way.

2025_10_23

2025_10_30

Added test costume in scene with collision.

Added test costume to hands with collision.
Added test costume to face with collision.
I perceive myself in the shadow. I feel like pacman. Is this costume?
I don’t feel the collision on my head, but I feel it in my hands.
Hid default hand models because they are intersecting with the test costume.
Added test costume to third person avatar with idle animation.
I now have a friend who looks like me. :) I don't feel as alone or strange anymore.

2025_11_20

I delete the floor. I CAN SEE MY ARMS WITH DIGITAL HANDS!!!!!
Time to add gloves. I parent default cones as static mesh to my hands.
I AM WEARING CONES! It feels tingly. Going to make a few adjustments. Scale, rotation, and placement.
It works with and without controllers. The feeling is more like wearing without, but the tracking is stronger with.
More scale/placement adjustments to make it feel like it's on my hand, instead of covering/replacing my hand.

Can I wear a costume on my head like a mask?
Created a simple geometric shape (test costume) in Blender to test this.
Added subdivisions so it can move like fabric.
Imported to Unreal: made a chaos cloth component with the test costume as the static mesh.

PHASE 1: STUDIO PRACTICE

This digital costume is an insubordinate costume.

I created it through a digitally amplified reflective practice.

I am experimenting at the intersection of

costume design and new media

to investigate how digital costume can instigate new performance formats

and serve as a tool for costume thinking.

Driven by three inquiries,

this costume emerged from playing with the digital tools

and developed in response to embodied reactions

(as opposed too pre-determined visual ideas).

Parented it to the VR Pawn Camera to see if it feels like "wearing."

Moved the hem to eye level. It feels like I have hair!

What does a digital costume want to be?

2025_11_21

Can we play with rhythm? If the costume moves to a certain tempo, do we move too?

Make little bracelets that pulse? Maybe they are also furry/tentacley. Particle systems in Blender?

Starting with a cone because that's what I played with in Unreal. Positioning the pointy end towards the user since that's what they see.
Added hair particle system for movement. Playing with options.
Deleted front face of cone to focus particles in the back. Worried about making too many polys.
Applied subdivision to cone in case I wanted to apply cloth dynamics in Unreal.

I want to get a render to help explain digital costume. Can I bring this into CLO as a garment?

It imported into CLO without the cone bases. I don’t know why :) But I fixed it.
But now it's exploding.

Let's give it some texture [in Substance Painter].
Added a "UV Random Texture Generator." It is glorious.

Simulate! It falls and looks like real fabric. Like I could totally make this in real life. I want it to be something that COULDN'T be made in real life.

Playing with the wind to check movement. Watching all the tubies wilt is sad. :( they begin to look like flowers.

How can I make this a costume that is "wearable" in Sketchfab?
Make avatar a ghost so we know how to wear it!

Accidentally imported the avatar eyes/eyelashes/teeth into Sketchfab. Making everything slightly transparent so they go away.
The eyelashes are a really interesting indicator of where to look that I hadn't considered before… leaving them in.
Adjusted opacity to fix colors (too dark, because my normals flipped when importing to CLO).
Adjusting animation to slow, it makes the tubes feel like they are breathing.
Published!