NEW MATERIALITY: FASHION, TECHNOLOGY, AND THE SEMIOTICS OF SURVIVAL

Abstract

The article conducts a comprehensive semiotic analysis of the phenomenon of “Independent New Fashion” (INF) – a new layer of material and digital culture, including the newest clothes, footwear, accessories, and jewelry, created using advanced technologies for creating clothing (the World Wide Web (WWW), the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), smart clothes: the wearable computing and e-textile, NNI, 3D/4D printing, biotechnologies, smart materials, etc.). Emphasis is placed on one of many aspects − increasing the autonomous provision of vital physiological and communication functions of a human consumer. The study is based on the thesis that INF is not another trend in the traditional spiral of fashion cycles, but acts as a powerful semiotic marker, a material and digital agent of a qualitative socio-cultural transition − from the paradigm of mass consumption to the paradigm of situational survival and energy sovereignty in the face of global crises. The purpose of the article is to rethink the classical theories of cyclicality and fashion development (P. Nystroma, S. Kaiser, J. Lipovetsky) through the prism of technologically determined new materiality as a culturological category. Methodologically, the study employs a semiotic analysis of specific artifacts and discourses that constitute the field of Independent New Fashion (INF). The analytical material comprises real-world projects and cases: energy-generating “smart” garments, such as Wearable Solar and Vollebak jackets; open-design and local manufacturing platforms like Open Source Fashion and PrusaPrinters; as well as biotechnological experiments, for instance, The Algae Dress. This approach enables a shift from the level of abstract generalizations to the analysis of concrete practices. An original theoretical model for the analysis of INF is proposed, based on three interrelated principles: 1. Energy independence (transformation of a new object (clothes, footwear, accessories, and jewelry) into an active life support system). 2. Network decentralization (extra-institutional production and consumption). 3. Semiotics of the direct function (the formation of signification based on the demonstration of efficiency, and not only aesthetic citation). The term “semiotics of direct function” is separately elucidated and conceptualized. It differs from classical functionalism or utilitarianism in that the pragmatic efficacy of an object itself becomes the primary communicative message, its signified. As a result of the study, it is proved that the technological synthesis of advanced technologies for creating clothes (the World Wide Web (WWW), the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), smart clothes: the wearable computing and e-textile, NNI, 3D/4D printing, biotechnologies, smart materials, etc.) forms a fundamentally new material basis for the spiral of development of a new type. This spiral is characterized not by the repetition of aesthetic forms of the past, but by the return and technological reboot of the archetypal functions of clothing as a tool of protection and survival. In this way, the INF marks a shift in the axis of fashion evolution from the demonstration of status to the demonstration of sustainability and personal, independent control over resources, constituting a new paradigm. In it, material and digital culture becomes a tool for proactive adaptation to global risks. The article’s interdisciplinary findings posit that Independent New Fashion (INF) functions as a prototype for a future hybrid material reality. In this reality, artifacts converge physicality, interface properties, and a novel identity rooted in autonomy, thus unveiling a new domain for inquiry within cultural studies