Refusal by Design — Terminal Research Record: Speculative Fashion Futures as Institutional Critique

This record constitutes a Terminal Research Record marking the completion of the doctoral research project Refusal by Design: Speculative Fashion Futures as Institutional Critique. The materials deposited here consolidate the final, resolved state of a practice-led research project that has reached methodological and conceptual completion. They are not preparatory, provisional, or in development. Together, they document a coherent body of research comprising original practice, methodological innovation, and theoretical contribution. The project commenced as an investigation into postdigital fashion practice using AI-, AR-, and VR-based design tools. As the research progressed, institutional governance mechanisms—authorship protocols, access controls, supervisory structures, and procedural compliance—became materially entangled with the practice itself. These conditions were therefore incorporated as objects of inquiry rather than treated as external constraints. The research formally articulates Refusal by Design as a methodological outcome: refusal not as non-compliance, but as an authored and ethically grounded design operation. This method is enacted through a suite of practice-led constructs including Suspended Prompting, Administrative Materialities, Thoughtwear, Browserwear, and F.O.R.M.E. (Fashion Objects Respecting Material Ecologies). Collectively, these demonstrate how speculative fashion can operate as a rigorous research system independent of compulsory material production. Internal submission and certification mechanisms became structurally incompatible with the method the research produced. As a result, completion is established through public, timestamped, citable publication. This approach preserves methodological integrity while ensuring transparency, traceability, and examinability. This deposit fixes the research outcome in a stable archival form and affirms the project’s contribution to practice-led research, design ethics, and institutional critique. Methodological References (Supporting Documents) The methods used in this research are documented across two supporting methodological notes, published independently and referenced here for completeness: Method Stack: Attribution & Provenance Notice — outlining core sensing and interpretive methods (including AI-Assisted Somatic Analysis and Field-over-Context). Methodological Extensions After Release — documenting second-order methods that emerged through post-release institutional interaction (including temporal containment mapping and finishing as method).