Dr Douglas Atkinson
Reader in Fashion Technologies
My background in creative pattern cutting has inspired my interest in the ways digitalisation in industry and education are changing garment development processes. In response to the de-materialisation of garment design, my research has focused on people’s bodily and sensory experience of virtual textiles and digital garment design practices, focussing particularly on touch. Now, as Reader in Fashion Technologies at Manchester Fashion Institute I am developing my interest in haptics to support garment development, exploring the mapping and translation of designers’ touch practices into virtual spaces and collaborative robotic systems.
Alongside my research into garment development processes, I have a longstanding interest in wearable technology and interaction design for the body and worn objects. I have previously led the development and delivery of specialist teaching and pan-European collaborative projects exploring digital fashion and wearable technology.
I welcome enquiries from potential PhD and MRes students.
Academic and professional qualifications
- PhD, IOE - UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society, University College London, United Kingdom
My UCL Doctoral thesis sits at the intersection of social science, sensory studies and Human Computer Interaction (HCI), working with ethnography and prototype textile touch sensors to explore designers’ use of touch during garment development, along with the possibility to digitally support their touch practices.
- PG Cert Academic Practice for Art Design and Communication, University of the Arts London, United Kingdom
- MA Digital Fashion, London College of Fashion (LCF), University of the Arts London, United Kingdom
- BA Hons. Fashion, Middlesex University, United Kingdom
- Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA), Professional Development Award in Supervising Postgraduate Research
Previous Employment
Before joining Manchester Fashion Institute I worked at London College of Fashion (LCF) for over a decade as a Research Fellow, Research Coordinator and specialist lecturer in Fashion Wearable Technology. I have also held research roles at the Royal College of Art, Central Saint Martins and Brunel University, along with teaching roles at the Royal College of Art and Chelsea College of Arts.
Prior to embarking on an academic career, I was a creative pattern cutter, working with a diverse range of companies, from large international luxury brands to SME and micro businesses whose production focused on sustainability and upcycling.
Prizes and awards
I was the recipient of a European Research Council (ERC) bursary for my Doctoral studies and a Harold Tillman Scholarship for my Masters studies, awarded by the former Director of the British Fashion Council.
Membership of professional associations
- Higher Education Academy, Fellowship
Academic service (administration and management)
- Co-Lead of the Fashion Technologies Research Group
- Faculty Ethics Lead for Manchester Fashion Institute and member of the Arts and Humanities Faculty Research Ethics and Governace Committee.
I previously served on the LCF College Research Committee, overseeing research standards and ethics for staff and Doctoral student projects. I was also a member of the University of the Arts London (UAL) Peer Review College, providing internal reviews and quality oversight for UKRI and European research funding applications.
Postgraduate research supervision
I am a SEDA accredited Postgraduate supervisor with considerable experience supervising Masters level research exploring fashion and technology. I currently supervise PhD projects at MMU and LCF investigating garment co-design in VR, and the implementation of zero waste pattern cutting for fashion micro businesses.
To date, I have one completed PhD student:
Rees, K. (2022) Somatosensory wearable technology in the dance making process: investigating digital touch in the formation of creative movement and kinaesthetic awareness. London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London.
If you would like to study an MRes or PhD with me, please get in touch.
Media appearances or involvement
- Panelist on Brazil Immersive Fashion Week 2021’s Immersive Talks, discussing ‘The Internet of Skin: wearable technology and smart fabrics’.
Research
Research Interests
My key research interests include garment design and making processes, as mediated or quantified by digital technology, Sensory Studies, and Human Computer Interaction (HCI), with a particular focus on wearable technology and haptics. I have often worked in interdisciplinary teams of designers, computer scientists, social scientists and psychologists. As a result, I am well versed in a variety of research methods and epistemological stances, as well as their potential synergy in mixed methods research designs. My primary focus is qualitative data from observation and interview, in dialogue with digital sensor data. My specialisms include contemporary ethnographic methods (e.g. Sensory Ethnography, Design Ethnography and Multimodal Ethnography) and design research through prototyping, participatory workshops and gamification of data capture. Theoretically my research aligns with Multimodality and Posthumanism/New Materialism.
Expert reviewer for journals and publishers
- The Association of Computer Machinery (ACM)
- Bloomsbury Publishing
- Fashion Practice: The Journal of Design, Creative Process & the Fashion Industry
- Sage Journals, including ‘Multimodality and Society’ and ‘Visual Communication’
Grants
Co-Investigator on the ESRC funded National Centre for Research Methods MIDAS (Methodological Innovation in Digital Arts and Social Sciences): Embodiment project, investigating understandings of the body and embodiment in digital fashion practice - 2013-2014 London College of Fashion: UAL.
Exhibitions
- Featured in Energy Revolution: The Adani Green Energy Gallery at The Science Museum, London, discussing energy generating wearable technology.
Books
Jewitt, C., Price, S., Leder Mackley, K., Yiannoutsou, N., Atkinson, D., 2020. 'Interdisciplinary Insights for Digital Touch Communication', Springer International Publishing.
Book Chapters
Jewitt, C., Leder Mackley, K., Atkinson, D., Price, S., 2020. 'Rapid Prototyping for Social Science Research'. In Pauwels, L., Mannay, D. (eds.) The SAGE Handbook of Visual Research Methods, pp. 534-550, SAGE Publications Limited.
Atkinson, D., 2017. 'Post-industrial Fashion and the Digital Body'. In Broadhurst, S., Price, S. (eds.) Digital Bodies: Creativity and Technology in the Arts and Humanities, pp. 147-160, Palgrave MacMillan, London.
Reports
Postlethwaite, S., Thiel, K., Atkinson, D., 2024. 'Reshoring UK Garment Manufacturing with Automation: Recommendations for Government', KTN Made Smarter, London.
Journal Articles
Jewitt, C., Mitchell, V., Wilson, G., Golmohammadi, L., Atkinson, D., Mackley, K.L., Price, S., 2023. 'Supporting novice designers design of digital touch', International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 33 (1), pp. 191-216.
Atkinson, D., 2022. 'Book Review: The Handshake: A Gripping History', Multimodality and Society, 2 (3), pp. 323-326.
Jewitt, C., Price, S., Atkinson, D., Golmohammadi, L., 2022. 'Editorial', Multimodality & Society, 2 (3), pp. 203-212.
Price, S., Bianchi-Berthouze, N., Jewitt, C., Yiannoutsou, N., Fotopoulou, K., Dajic, S., Virdee, J., Zhao, Y., Atkinson, D., Brudy, F., 2022. 'The Making of Meaning through Dyadic Haptic Affective Touch', ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, 29 (3), pp. 1-42.
Mitchell, V., Wilson, G.T., Leder Mackley, K., Jewitt, C., Golmohammadi, L., Atkinson, D., Price, S., 2020. 'Digital Touch: Towards a novel user-experience design pedagogy', Design and Technology Education, 25 (1), pp. 59-79.
Petreca, B., Saito, C., Baurley, S., Atkinson, D., Xuemei, Y., Bianchi-Berthouze, N., 2019. 'Radically relational tools: A design framework to explore materials through embodied processes', International Journal of Design, 13 (2).
Atkinson, D., Baurley, S., Petreca, B.B., Bianchi-Berthouze, N., Watkins, P., 2016. 'The tactile triangle: A design research framework demonstrated through tactile comparisons of textile aterials', Journal of Design Research, 14 (2), pp. 142-170.
Singh, H., Bauer, M., Chowanski, W., Sui, Y., Atkinson, D., Baurley, S., Fry, M., Evans, J., Bianchi-Berthouze, N., 2014. 'The brain’s response to pleasant touch: An EEG investigation of tactile caressing', Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8.
Conference Papers
Olugbade, T., Lin, L., Sansoni, A., Nihara, W., Gan, Y., Wei, X., Petreca, B., Boccignone, G., Atkinson, D., Cho, Y., Baurley, S., Berthouze, N., 2024. 'FabricTouch: a multimodal fabric assessment touch gesture dataset to slow down fast fashion', ACII 2023: Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction, Cambridge, MA, USA, 10/9/2023 - 13/9/2023, in 2023 11th International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction (ACII).
Mitchell, V., Wilson, G.T., Leder Mackley, K., Jewitt, C., Golmohammadi, L., Atkinson, D., Price, S., 2019. 'Digital Touch Experiences: Educating the Designers', EduCHI 2019: Global Perspectives on HCI Education, Glasgow, UK, 4/5/2019 - 4/5/2019, in https://educhi2019.hcilivingcurriculum.org/program/.
Petreca, B., Atkinson, D., Bianchi-Berthouze, N., Furniss, D., Baurley, S., 2014. 'The future of textiles sourcing: exploring the potential for digital tools', Design and Emotion 2014: The Colors of Care, Bogota, Colombia, 6/10/2014 - 10/10/2014, in Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Design and Emotion 2014: The Colors of Care. Bogota: Ediciones Uniandes, pp. 366-377.
Atkinson, D., 2014. 'Making, Emotion and the drive to re-shore UK garment manufacturing', Design and Emotion 2014: The Colors of Care, Bogota, Colombia, 6/10/2014 - 10/10/2014, in Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Design and Emotion 2014: The Colors of Care. Bogota: Ediciones Uniandes.
Petreca, B., Bianchi-Berthouze, N., Baurley, S., Watkins, P., Atkinson, D., 2013. 'An embodiment perspective of affective touch behaviour in experiencing digital textiles', in Proceedings - 2013 Humaine Association Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction, ACII 2013, pp. 770-775.
Atkinson, D., Orzechowski, P., Petreca, B., Bianchi-Berthouze, N., Watkins, P., Baurley, S., Padilla, S., Chantler, M., 2013. 'Tactile perceptions of digital textiles: A design research approach', in Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings, pp. 1669-1678.
Atkinson, D., 2013. 'Applying Technology Adoption Models to UK High-End SMEs', Digital Fashion 2013, London, UK, 16/5/2013 - 17/5/2013, in Proceedings of Digital Fashion 2013. London: University of the Arts London, pp. 1-11.
Pawel M, O., Padilla, S., Atkinson, D., Chantler, M., Baurley, S., Berthouze, N., Watkins, P., Petreca, B., 2012. 'Archiving and simulation of fabrics with multi-gesture interfaces', British Computer Society HCI 2012: People and Computers, Birmingham, UK, 12/9/2012 - 14/9/2012, in Proceedings of the 26th Annual BCS Interaction Specialist Group Conference on People and Computers, BCS-HCI 2012.
Hughes, L., Atkinson, D., Berthouze, N., Baurley, S., 2012. 'Crowdsourcing an emotional wardrobe', in Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings, pp. 231-240.
Atkinson, D., Watkins, P., Padilla, S., Chantler, M., Baurley, S., 2011. 'Synthesising design methodologies for the transmission of tactile qualities in digital media', Digital Engagement 2011, Newcastle, UK, 15/11/2011 - 17/11/2011.
Orzechowski, P.M., Atkinson, D., Padilla, S., Methven, T.S., Baurley, S., Chantler, M., 2011. 'Interactivity to enhance perception: Does increased interactivity in mobile visual presentation tools facilitate more accurate rating of textile properties?', in Mobile HCI 2011 - 13th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services, pp. 629-634.
Wu, D., Wu, T.I., Singh, H., Padilla, S., Atkinson, D., Bianchi-Berthouze, N., Chantler, M., Baurley, S., 2011. 'The Affective Experience of Handling Digital Fabrics: Tactile and Visual Cross-Modal Effects', 2011 Humaine Association Conference on Affective Comuting and Intelligent Interaction (ACII), Memphis, TN, USA, 9/10/2011 - 12/10/2011, in S. D'Mello et al. (Eds.): ACII 2011: Part 1, LNCS 6974, pp. 427-436.
Theses and Dissertations
Atkinson, D., 2022. 'Tailoring Digital Touch: An ethnography of designers’ touch practices during garment prototyping and the potential for their digitisation'.
Office Location
Cavendish South
Manchester Fashion Institute
Manchester Metropolitan University
Cavendish Street
Manchester M15 6BG