Animated Threads: Digital Cloth Applications as a Creative Tool in Choreography and Costume Design

Abstract

This research investigates the creative potential of digital cloth simulation as a generative and collaborative tool at the intersection of choreography and costume design. Drawing from emerging technologies, such as cloth simulation, motion capture, and extended reality (XR), the project explores how virtual garments can shape movement ideas, inform physical costume design, and enable new models of interdisciplinary collaboration. The study proposes an ideation-driven approach in which digital garments inspire choreographic thinking without physical realization. Through theoretical grounding, user studies, and experimental workshops with artists, this work aims to re-frame costume as an active, responsive agent in performance making, expanding both aesthetic possibilities and collaborative practices in contemporary dance.