We were asked to speak at the London College of Fashion, as part of a panel formed to address the question: ‘how can we integrate global perspectives and nuance within the fashion industry, and beyond?' After which we had been invited to lecture the 2nd and 3rd year students on the same subject. We used this opportunity as a participatory experiment, introducing the idea of 'incorporating global perspectives' as a personal 'practice of plurality'.

​

Throughout the discussion, we suggested that the issue was perhaps not solely a lack of nuance, but our cultural inability to recognise the nuance that exists. That instead we might seek to interrogate the systems of knowledge that present themselves as universal truth, giving rise to the fallible logic that 'incorporating nuance' is the only solution rather than addressing the exclusionary paradigms of the system itself.

 

It is from these paradigms, this way of knowing the world, that our modern day crises stem, which makes the idea of inclusion seem, at this point, like an invitation to a seat on the deck of the Titanic. Continuing with the notion that we need to include, incorporate, or integrate nuance into anything, will ultimately be the death of nuance. 

​

We designed and held a container to reflect, explore, play, and listen; to get the concept of ‘global perspectives’ and plurality on an embodied level, in order to apply it intuitively.  This included exploring our own edges, identifying these reductive narratives within ourselves ~ where they start to feel unintelligent within our own bodies, observing and leaning into where they begin to grate against our own existence; and exploring different ways of knowing and the perspectives of non-human & temporal actors. 

 

We were delighted to be invited back and have since held more of these important spaces and conversations with different courses and year groups.