Visto e Existo: Visualidades do Corpo no Curso de Design de Moda da Universidade Federal de Goiás

Abstract

This dissertation examines how Fashion Design students (2024–2025) construct and express their identities through bodily visualities, considering the complex relationships between body, clothing, subjectivity, and belonging. The study is grounded in the understanding that the body constitutes a symbolic territory upon which social, political, and cultural discourses are inscribed, being constantly shaped by norms related to gender, race, class, and hegemonic aesthetic standards. Adopting a qualitative approach with an exploratory and interpretative orientation, the research involved semi-structured interviews and a visual panel production activity, understood as visual narratives of the self. The data were analyzed in light of theoretical frameworks addressing identity, representation, and visual culture, with the aim of understanding how students negotiate their visualities and produce meanings about themselves in relation to the world. The findings indicate that bodies do not merely wear clothing, but also embody experiences, affections, memories, and forms of resistance. The visual panels emerged as powerful devices for subjective expression, enabling participants to challenge norms and affirm singularities. The interview narratives revealed shifts in relation to standardized models of beauty and behavior, as well as an ongoing search for belonging within educational spaces. The research highlights the need to expand discussions on fashion as a cultural and political language, capable of conveying plural identities and fostering transformations in ways of seeing, dressing, and existing. Thus, the dissertation proposes a reflection on the potential of visual pedagogies in Fashion Design education, emphasizing the value of embodied knowledge expressed through the body and the images produced by the research participants.