The Affordances of Affordance Theory for Sustainable Design Pedagogy

'Affordances' are understood to be the subjective and embodied perception of what an object or material might enable one to do, or, in the words of ecological psychologist James Jerome Gibson, ‘the affordances of the environment are what it offers the animal, what it provides or furnishes, either for good or ill’ (Gibson, 1979: 127). In a consumer culture context, the natural environment has afforded the production and use of vast amounts of materials and goods resulting in devastating amounts of waste. As a key contributor to this waste, the fashion industry - including fashion educators - are responsible for addressing and reducing this waste which constitutes an undeniably large proportion of the ‘environment’ in which the contemporary fashion designer now finds themself. This paper presents data collected during an introductory activity within the course Fashion Design Body Artefacts and Accessories in the Bachelor of Fashion (Design) program at RMIT, Melbourne (2021). Extending upon Glăveanu’s research which utilises Gibson’s seminal theory of affordances to re-evaluate the agentic role of material objects in the conceptualisation of creativity (2012), the activity This is Not a Shoe uses the material deconstruction and consequent ‘defamiliarisation’ of used shoes to explore how unconventional affordances can be perceived and utilised to inspire innovative fashion design outcomes. The research contributes to emerging sustainable fashion design pedagogies by developing and critically reflecting upon activities that assist a methodological shift from a design-led approach to materials, to a more sustainable material- driven approach to design. More than simply upcycling waste materials the research explores the embodied and transferable capabilities and knowledges that can be enhanced through material reuse in an educational setting.