The Shirt

‘The Shirt’ app is designed to be used in conjunction with the World Factory shirt to reveal the people and processes behind the making of the shirt: you can buy the shirt here. http://metisarts.co.uk/the-shirt/

World Factory investigates global consumer capitalism through the lens of the textile industry, from the heart of the industrial revolution in nineteenth-century Manchester to the world behind the ‘Made-in-China’ labels on our clothes today. To research the World Factory project, we have participated in the global textile industry, by designing and having a shirt made in a Chinese factory.

How does it work?

There are nine barcodes printed on the fabric of the World Factory shirt that can be scanned using The World Factory shirt app to reveal unique digital content that shares the stories and processes behind the shirt’s manufacture. The shirt thereby reveals the faces behind the seams, connecting wearers of the shirt to the actual makers of that individual garment. As a result the shirt becomes not just a product but an expression of the way our shirt-wearing society is organized.

METIS has also been working with Shanghai-based Chinese theatre director Zhao Chuan and his company Grass Stage to undertake the research and development for the World Factory project as a whole. From the pooled research, Grass Stage and METIS are each producing a theatre production germane to their own social and political contexts. The UK theatre production is created by METIS in co-production with the New Wolsey Theatre, Young Vic and Company of Angels.

The app is created in collaboration with Cambridge-based web developers, TheFusionWorks.

Metis http://metisarts.co.uk/ is a Cambridge-based performing arts company/network creating interdisciplinary performance projects through rigorous research. A fascination with maps, space, technology, travel and history drives our work in a range of media. Our work is characterised by its pursuit of expressive forms that connect with the contemporary world.