So, I’m now researching wood, wood stains, and bindings. I’ve got a good idea, sort of, for the wood stains – just mix until I get a color that sort of looks like a skin tone. Repeat. The difficulty will be in getting quality dyes, doing the mixing, and preparing and finishing the wood.
The bindings, or how to connect everything together, is a challenge. It’s easy with foam core and hot glue, but now I’m thinking of the wood. Hot glue is not going to cut it. I sort of worked out this thing with twine…. I don’t know. Looks ugly to me. The difficulty is the fact that the pieces need to attach both vertically and horizontally. It’s the side-by-side stuff that screws everything up.
My next activity is to brainstorm more on the binding aspect. I’m going to try researching samurai costumes, since that’s what everyone says my prototype reminds them of, and also Hussein Chalayan’s work. I’ll also just try sketching out a few ideas and working more with twine and the pieces of wood.
In Frame by Frame, my assignment was to create a new piece using video. Originally, I wanted to use this footage I’d picked up on a train ride to Beacon, NY. Here’s a short video of stills from the train ride. Short, fast film
BUT, as it turns out, I ended up sticking with my whole body image theme. As I explained it originally, I had the idea to tackle plastic surgery. I wanted to take a picture of a face and then turn it into a face that had seriously been “augmented” with plastic surgery.
Then, right around the week before the project was due, I got this book about my grandmother. It’s actually her biography and oral history, which is one of the Legacy Projects coming out of Washington State.
As soon as I saw her picture on the cover, I changed my project idea. I decided to focus on identity – the personal identity we use to describe ourselves, the identity of who we are in our families, and the basic identity we have as humans and organisms on Earth. With a few images of my grandmother, I was able to morph a picture of her in her 80’s to a picture of her as a young woman, and then finally to me. Then, to add video, I overlaid some clips from a Prelinger Archive video on conception.
As I did the work, and thinking about the final product, I feel that I was able to capture our simultaneous inner and external identities, while still representing the fears we hold about our aging appearance and ever approaching deaths. And, yet, even with the objective knowledge of who we are and who we originate from, which experience only subjectively and idiosyncratically, in the end we cannot escape science and biology. All of us, every living thing on this planet, starts life the same way – just a bunch of DNA dividing. Lucky or not to be human, despite all the time and effort we put on forward on this earth, no matter how much we may achieve or may not achieve, we can never escape our genetic fate. It was decided at conception.
So, here’s what I made. But, I need to upload a new version without the sound. At this point, I think adding the sound is too early. Particularly because it extends the timeline too far after the video stuff has ended.
Finally, after many tears, I have an idea for my Wearables final! (And, for Materials, too.)
In one of my Wearables classes, we had a workshop where our instructors, Despina Papadopoulos and Zach Eveland, went around to give each of us some one-on-one feedback about our projects. Up until this point, I’d been working along the route of making a pair of pants that turned on a switch or something when you walked. The idea came from thinking about the inner thighs or legs, which seem to come as a “target” area for exercise. But, honestly, my design really didn’t work for a few reasons. I wanted riding pants which someone self-conscious about their inner thighs probably wouldn’t wear. Then, it didn’t really seem to thoroughly reflect a lot of the research I’d previously done.
When Despina came over to see how I was doing, she had difficulty understanding my idea, and we went into the classroom to talk using the whiteboard. Well, she ended up asking a lot of really good questions…that sort of caught me off-guard…on a day or week when my confidence level was WAY low. I sort of ended up breaking down…. Despina gave me some really great encouragement and basically told me that I can’t fail in trying to do something, so I shouldn’t feel like my ideas are crappy. Eventually, I rejoined everyone else, and went back to brainstorming. By the end of that night, I’d already sketched out a new idea. And really, I just figured, “You know, just try it. If it’s crappy, fine.”
While I was thinking of my new idea, I thought of just one part of the body. The skin. And, in relation to my research, I obviously thought of skin color. And then I thought of what could represent skin color. In my Materials class, Peter Menderson showed us some really nice wood veneer samples, for different types of wood and in different colors. Different brown colors…like skin.
Wood. Skin. A wooden dress.
So, right after that night, I immediately started prototyping. First in paper, then in foam core. I used twine to connect the pieces, which I eventually secured with hot glue. So now I have a full dress. I actually can wear it – luckily for me, one of ITP’s dress forms pretty much has my measurements.
Now, I’ll need to look into different types of lumber, wood stains, connections – metal, twine, leather…? – and also just adjusting the height/width of each piece. Fully, my idea is to make a series of wooden dresses, from dark to light, representing a range of skin tones. Unfortunately, given the amount of time left, I don’t think that’s possible.
I made this metal box for Materials. There are 2 sections because it seemed more useful than just one – and it has been. I’ve been using the box for other projects ever since I made it. I need to file down the sides because they’re kind of jagged and sharp, but it’s pretty nice. And it’s magnetic.
Conductive Fabric:
An article on laser-cutting conductive fabric backed with fusible interfacing to make fabric circuit boards: http://www.kobakant.at/DIY/?p=244
This is based on the technique developed by Leah Buechley.
This week, I went through my notes and decided to do a little word association thing. I wrote down on some note cards keywords about body image (i.e., plastic surgery, criticism, death, and power), emotions (i.e., shame, double, fear), wearables (i.e., timepieces, hat, shoes), and parts of the body (i.e., back, head, foot). Then, I grouped them into piles that seemed to make sense. When something seemed missing, I just wrote a new card and added it. My groups are below. Following this, a group from our Wearables class went to Material Connexion and we saw a lot of really nice textiles, rubbers, metals, and other stuff that I’m not really sure how to categorize. I took some pictures of stuff I liked, also below.
The Material Connexion visit was really helpful. I liked the knobby fabrics and materials, and came away with some thoughts about emphasizing our flaws vs hiding them. Maybe I’ll make some pants that make music when your thighs rub together. Or a hump that talks to you. In any case, it’s about time I face my P-comp fears and start to prototype! (Oh, my!)
Group 1:
Criticism
Power
Back (body)
Shame
Control
Perspective
Spectator
Group 2: Image
Memory
Reflection
Hope
Death
Happiness
God
Inward
Self
Head (body)
Group 3: Doubt
Fear
Fat
Diet
Exercise
Anorexia
Silhouette (body)
Passive/passiveness
Mirrors
Thin
Group 4: Desire
Nudity
Envy
Ballet
Perfection
Media
“Ideal Body”
Hips (body)
Breasts (body)
Butt (body)
Waist (body)
Group 5: Legs (body)
Neck (body)
Sexy
Beauty
Attitude
Confidence/confident
Group 6: Adornment
Jewelry
Pride
Skin (body)
Face (body)
Costume
Cosmetics
Bleach
Gaze
Plastic Surgery
Bust (body)
