Zoya(Zhaoyang) Zhang

Zoya Zhang is a fashion designer and 3D Printing engineer based in London. Before coming to RCA, she specialized in Fashion Design and Engineering at the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology(BIFT), China, where she acquired skills in CLO 3D.

After turning her attention to 3D modelling and printing, she began to combine clothing design with 3D technical capabilities, such as 3D garment modelling and physical printing design and combining different materials to change the colour and hardness of printed works. Her work includes memory analysis and visualization through Processing software and the Unity-based Argument Reality App.

My work "Journey To Find 'My' Memory" (JFMM) is striving for an understanding of one’s identity in the future, when memories could be stored as information via chips.

Through recalling, coding and playing three essential memories of mine in software Processing, Rhino and Kano sensor App, combined with a hand shadow performance, I found the resonance of memories in the digital space. 3D garments were eventually created and Varied in Keyshot software based on this resonance.

I hope anyone who wants to redefine their identities through via memories could get inspired, feeling free to download and play with my open source code numbers and digital models, enjoy an unique process to explore their memories and also create their own fashion pieces.

Working Process/ Time line, media item 1

I used to have a lot of toys and diaries, but my dad threw them away when I was young. This experience made me feel there was something lost in my past, and I always want to find it back in my memories. Thus, I did an “A Man with No Memory in the Digital Future” project during my first year at the RCA.

After thinking for a long time about memory and improving skills, I have created a new project, “In Search of My Memory Journey” (JTFMM), to explore the topic of memory and identity in fashion in greater depth.

A Man with No Memory in the Digital Future

Printed in Nylon, Resin.

My early attempts were to translate memories into brainy codes, the primary computer languages in MATLAB. They were then generating garment structures based on the brainy data in Rhino software and its plugin Grasshopper. I also tested different 3D Printing materials to improve the softness of the 3D models. It was surprising how digital languages change our memories in this process. But the outcomes look more like structures rather than cloth.

Launch Project

Concept Booklet – My imagination and thinkings of memory digitalization and future life

Launch Project

My memory album, my essential memories – This three pieces of memories were not only captured vital moments in my life,also revealed a process how I seeing the world in different perspectives, then feeling the outside world and spirit world, and eventually became an independent thinker. Moreover, the processed show by these three moments represent three major creative periods of human development.

Concept film

Through analysing the image in software Processing, information like colour, pixel, positions of points were acquired. New images and videos were generated based on these data. The most noteworthy is that the memory image itself did not be displayed on the new images, it was just an initial statistics database. While watching videos generated by new images, I took a screenshot when I can vividly recall details and feelings of the initial memory. Struc- tures in the trial 4 have more expressive force than ot

Sound Memory visualization and interaction – Videos were created in Processing software based on the analyzation of PeakAmplitude, Spectrum and AudioWaveform. Also, I took a screen- shot when I can vividly recall details and feelings of the initial memory. a) Mood swings with and without soundvisualized videos respectively via films b) Expression of emotion(sound visualization by body language) and illustrations of emotion were also recorded.

Hand Shadow Performance – With the interaction of Kano Sensor, the hand shadow performance was transferred into videos and sound for further design.

Modeling Process

3D Material Experiment – Surface textures produced by different printing parameters 3D printed material color design. (mainly storey height and fill density)