Publication

  • Unravelled
    AA Publications, 2018
  • GRANTEE
    Architectural Association School of Architecture-Unknown Fields Division
    GRANT YEAR
    2017

Unknown Fields, Cotton Thread Factory, 2016, Ahmedabad, India.

Before we wear them, our clothes make journeys of tens of thousands of miles in their process of production, making textiles the most globalized industry on the planet. Fast fashion's rolling tide dumps mountains of cheap clothing on the high street shores, worn for one wild night and destined to be discarded. The whims of the style minded have set in motion a global industry that is reshaping developing economies half a world away.  The publication Unravelled reveals the landscapes and human stories behind the scenes of the textile industry as we travel through the cotton fields, factory floors, and fabric mills in India and Bangladesh. We look deep beyond what is reflected in Fashion's glittering gilded mirror in search of the landscapes and lives behind the runway dreams and street blue jeans. This industry acts as a microcosm for the push and pull of the desires of the global city.

Unknown Fields Division is a nomadic design research studio directed by Kate Davies and Liam Young. In such a landscape of interwoven narratives, the studio uses film and animation to chronicle this network of hidden stories and re-imagine the complex and contradictory realities of the present as a site of strange and extraordinary futures. The work of the studio has been celebrated widely in both mainstream press such as the BBC, Guardian, Wired, and has now also been collected by institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

The Unknown Fields Division is a nomadic design research studio founded in 2009, that ventures out on expeditions to the ends of the earth to bear witness to alternative worlds, alien landscapes, industrial ecologies, and precarious wilderness. These distant landscapes: the iconic and the ignored, the excavated, irradiated and the pristine, are embedded in global systems that connect them in surprising and complicated ways to our everyday lives. In such a landscape of interwoven narratives, the studio uses film and animation to chronicle this network of hidden stories and re-imagine the complex and contradictory realities of the present as a site of strange and extraordinary futures.

Established in 1847, the Architectural Association is the oldest independent school of architecture in the United Kingdom. Its wide-ranging program of exhibitions, lectures, symposia, and publications have given it a central position in global discussions and developments within contemporary architectural culture. The school has a broad commitment to bringing issues of contemporary architecture, cities, and the environment to a large public audience, and remains focused on the highest standards possible for the education of young architects. The Architectural Association publishes titles that explore developments in architecture, engineering, landscape and urbanism, as well as the fields that touch on them—philosophy, history, art, and photography.