Dr Mingjing Lin

Currently, I am holding a position as lecturer in Fashion Technologies at the Kingston University, and senior lecturer in MA Digital Fashion at the University for the Creative Arts. 

I have been teaching BA and/or MA fashion/textile students at institutions including the Royal College of Art, University of Leeds, Instituto Marangoni, University of Portsmouth, Beckmans College of Design (Sweden), Ensait Textile Engineering University (France), and Tsinghua University (China). Apart from the basics of fashion and textile design, I also teach students to use cutting-edge technology, such as CLO 3D, parametric modelling, 3D printing, 3D rendering and 3D knitting, in their creation of novel fashion and textile applications. Besides the formal teaching at these institutions, I have made presentations at various locations worldwide, including Oxford University (UK), Imperial College (UK), V&A Museum (UK), HereEast innovation center, London Design Festival, Beijing Design Week, and The University of New South Wales (Australia). 

My PhD research investigates Body-oriented Parametric Design and Parametric Thinking 2.0 for 3D-printed Fashion and Textiles. It examined how human's hands-on, intuitive and tacit knowledge of fashion and textiles as well as the awareness of the physical human body (body shape, body movement, touch and materiality) can promote the use of 3D printing, 3D modelling and algorithm-based programming. 

Publications (in chronological order)Lin, M. (2020). Inter-Fashionality: Body-oriented Parametric Design and Parametric Thinking 2.0 for 3D-Printed Textiles and Fashion. Ph.D thesis. Royal College of Art. Available at: https://researchonline.rca.ac.uk/4527/ 

Lin, M. and Huang, T. (2019). Fold-the-Interfashionality: A Dialogue between Modernity and Tradition in the Era of AI. In: AS-Helix: The Integration of Art and Science in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. Works Collection of the 5th Art and Science International Exhibition. Beijing: Tsinghua University, pp. 108-109. 

Lin, M. and Li, Y. (2019). Inter-fashionality. In: AS-Helix: The Integration of Art and Science in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. Works Collection of the 5th Art and Science International Exhibition. Beijing: Tsinghua University, pp. 118-119.

Lin, M. (2017). 3D Printed Dress towards the Ambivalence in Fashion Design. In: Culture, Costume and Dress. [online] Birmingham: Birmingham City University, pp. 11-12. Available at: https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=RyRLDwAAQBAJ&pg=GBS.PR1 [Accessed 26 Nov. 2018].

Lin, M. (2017). Inter-fashionality. In: Smart Textile Salon. [online] Ghent: Department of Textiles Ghent University, pp.58-59. Available at: https://issuu.com/ugent.textiles/docs/sts2017_booklet_final.

Lin. M. (2017). The New Parameters of 3D-printed Textile for Fashion Design. In: The Association of Fashion and Textile Courses. [online] http://www.ftc-online.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Mingjing-Lin.pdf 

Scholarly affiliations

• Research project Fold-the-Interfashionality: the funding was provided by Sinterit 3D printing company and it covers all the costs of 3D printing and international shipping

• November 2019, Beijing Projects Fold-the-Interfashionality and Inter-fashionality were selected for the 5th Arts and Science International Exhibition and Symposium (AS-Helix: The Integration of Art and Science in the Age of Artificial Intelligence), co-organised by the National Museum of China and Tsinghua University.

• August 2019, Women of Wearable Technology (WOW) Nominated as ‘Top 100 Women in Fashion Tech'

• October 2018, Barcelona Project Fold-the-Interfashionality won the 2nd prize of the competition Reshape18. Reshape is organised by Noumena in partnership with IN(3d)USTRY – From Needs to Solutions, an event coordinated by the Fira de Barcelona (Barcelona exhibition center). 

• 21-23 September 2018, London Design FestivalSamples of the project Fold-the-Interfashionality was presented at the exhibition formed by Burberry MaterialFutures Research Group and the Intelligent Mobility Design Centre

• September 2018, BirminghamShortlist-TCT 3D Printing Creative Application Award Finalist 2018

• 17 May 2018, London Project Fold-the-Interfashionality was nominated as ‘Best Design and Art Creation of the Year' by3D Printing Award

• 9 March 2018, London Project Fold-the-Interfashionality was presented at e-stitches at the V&A (Victoria and Albert Museum) 

• February 2018, BarcelonaProject Textile the Skin was presented at ‘What's Next-Material that will shape the future' exhibition at Disseny de Barcelona

• 28 November 2017 – 3 December 2018, Royal College of ArtSolo performance and exhibition Fold-the-Interfashionality: 3D-printed Costume for Beijing Opera• 14-17 November 2017, FrankfurtProject Fold-the-Interfashionality exhibited at the Formnext 17: International Exhibition and Conference on the Next Generation of Manufacturing Technologies

• 27 September 2017, Beijing Fashion Week, Beijing3D-printed Qipao was selected for the T100 catwalk 

• June 2017, Prince Gong Mansion, Beijing Jinxiu China: Intangible Cultural Heritage Catwalk of Chinese Fashion

• March 2015, Royal College of ArtIFF International Perfume competition shortlist

• 14-23 November 2014, Tsinghua University, BeijingThe Tao of Sustainability-An International Conference and Exhibition on Sustainable Design

There are two major research projects, during which I organised and directed two solo performances and exhibitions at the Royal College of Art. I secured fundings for both projects in terms of the 3D printing production and other costs.

In the project 'Inter-fashionality', I collaborated with Professor Yingjun Li Tsinghua University and designed the 3D-printed fashion performance as well as exhibition, which were fully sponsored by Beijing Fashion Institution and BMW (Bayerische Motoren Werke) Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Innovation Center. I led a team of 11 experts, including stage designers, dancers, choreographer, lighting designers and technicians. We delivered a 20-min performance and a week-long exhibition.

Following the concept, in the project 'Fold-the-Interfashionality', I collaborated with Assistant Professor Tsai-chun Huang (Hong Kong Polytechnic Unversity) to design 3D-printed and pleated costumes for Beijing Opera. I  applied 3D printing in performance featuring the Easter design element - Beijing Opera this time. Since I have kept good connections with 3D printing industry, the project was fully sponsored by advanced SLS 3D printing company Sinterit. As the director of this performance, I worked with assistant professor Tsaichun Huang (Hongkong Polytechnic University) and managed a team of 12 people. We delivered a 15 mins performance and a week-long exhibition at the RCA. There was an audience of 102 attending the performance from the RCA, the V&A museum, Imperial College, UAL, Oxford University, Cambridge University, Zaha Hadid architectural firm, H&M and Vivienne Westwood design studio. 

I self-curated and organised a conference Digital Fashion - 3D Printing for Designers at the RCA(https://www.rca.ac.uk/news-and-events/events/digital-fashion-3d-printing-designers/), during which designers from Zaha Hadid, researchers from ArclnTex and Nottingham Trent University and business representatives from the 3D printing industry, iMakr and Stratasys, came to the event. 

I organised 1) the Far-Eastern Study Group at the Royal College of Art and 2) the Aboundary design community to explore the potentials of cultural exchange of Eastern-Western design and research practice. The outcome including the self-curated exhibition ELSEWHERE at the Royal College of Art (2015).

I also had the experience of organising a practice-based research community for researchers who are investigating practice-based fashion and textile projects. I collaborated with research colleagues Eve Lin, Tsai- chun Huang and Victoria Geaney at the Royal College of Art to build a fashion and textile research community, and at the same time invited and exchanged research knowledge with other design research communities, such the Fashion Research Network (https://www.fashionresearchnetwork.com/) and the Association of Fashion and Textile Courses (http://www.ftc-online.org.uk/). We organised a fashion and textile research Work-in-Process show in 2014 and 2015, as well as a conference titled ‘Progress in Research: Play, Pause, Forward and Reward', on 13 January 2017.

Beyond the institutional educations, I have disseminated these works (with ethical permission of the stakeholders) to a broader and creative community, included designers (fashion, textiles, architecture, product design and interactive designer, etc.), artists (performance artist, photographer, etc.), craftsman/makers, 3D printing technologists, material scientists, engineers and investors. These activities can develop collaboration opportunities; at the same time, I share the event information as much as I could with my students, so that they will have the access to the connections or job opportunities.