24,July

Setting 3 ideas and 50 words written work.

(Migrate)Negligible: Migration can be included into one of the most important thing to human beings for improving the life stander. When we are facing the whole new environment especially facing with completely different localism and everything is unfamiliar. People would struggle from many unexpected things-job seeking, house renting, interpersonal relationship etc. We will confronted many problems and lots of pressure just pour out.Then I try to think about the emotional thing, imaging myself walking in a crowded street alone makes me feel insignificant,negligible and feeling the existentialism.

Companionship:We all have different stages of our lives perhaps we have different approaches to reach different stages but no one could live completely hermetic through the whole life. Friends, families, lovers all included into companionship. In my point of view companionship is like lubricant to our life. Having someone as accompany is a very lucky thing.

Lithromantic: Means somebody can feel romantic attraction towards others and also enjoy being in romantic relationships but only in theory. Literally falling in love and being attracted to a person but not desiring for reciprocation. So is like sort of in a relationship but outside of it. Somehow creating a bound of relationship which is mono-directional.   

Negligible, companionship, lithromantic are quite personal and identity words, how can I link them or further develop them to make the concept more clear and what artist can I look at who also like creating something in emotional, mental direction?Also what would I want to explore in the starting point doing hand stuff, dirty my hands? Creating something sharp? Discovering meanings of various colours?

29,July

I am trying to defining what I want to do and how did those ideas and research lead to the final project title. Then I make a note to clear my mind better.

Atta Kim's photography research led to existentialism, which emphasises the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determing their own development through acts of their will. Then I think of the companionship which is a bit different with independent. Thus I did some research about child poverty and left-behind children who are lacking of the physical companionship with their family. I am curious of this kind of emotion needed does companionship really matters to everyone? In this case, the companionship gives me a new word of distance. What's the proper length for distance that satisfied us within different relationships?

Why do we feel emotional and physical safety when we are not alone? Is connection and love are basic needed for all human? I will need to do more research in order to find the answers to these questions. I think may be from philosophy and psychology would be helpful. I need to catch one key word to develop it further otherwise the child poverty and left-behind children topic is too big and wide. I have so elements to focusing which is not I want. 

Drawing Practice of expressing emotions 30,July

Draft of Reflection Questions

30,July

In order to push my idea further I was trying to arouse the sympathy for those left-behind children. Expression drawing is one of my study process after drawing this I think the idea of left-behind children and child poverty is not that achievable for me since I do not have the access to do primary research and there are so many elements that I can catch. It confused me and I started to think about disassembly my idea. Yesterday my idea was to focusing on companionship, child poverty, left-behind children and the distance, I think the distance could be a better one the former idea was too big and vast elements.

I think I will still writing companionship in my project brief then have a tutorial to settle down the theme and the project title afterwards.

 

2,August

 

How have you found the experience of developing your own proposal so far?

I feel this is a good experience of ding wide range research. I think this is unforeseen at the beginning exploring three themes then I end up with ‘Distance’ which is totally different to those three.

What have you found most difficult and why?

I think the most difficult part so far is narrow the theme. I spend two weeks to make the theme more specific which was a headache for me. Because I started with Fine Art discipline to brainstorming myself which is a bit irrelevant to my discipline. Then I need to think about the relevance to textile design what specific thing I want to explore by making textile design work.

What aspect of the project are you most concerned about and what will you do to overcome this?

This is my first time trying to make installation with textile design. Thus I need to experiment with making models creating a hollow silhouette with 3D materials also I desire to explore various materials and finding the treatment to those materials. I think the big problem is the time management I will focus on textile design more because this is my discipline and my future BA course. So making a efficient time table for each week and ensure the workload meets the deadline.

Are you confident that your theme is suitable for this long and important project?

I am quite confident to this theme. Because I need to find many research from various specialisms in order to inform the theme with more depth. Also I think this theme got a lot of things for me to explore like the choice of using materials, experimenting with model making and setting myself several tasks to push the primary research further.

When you mapped you project (using the context spider diagram ) what areas were the most full and which were hard to fill—why do you think this is?

Except for historical and political context other parts were full with wide range of research.

I think consequence is fair because I need to find more artists and my own experience to make this idea of my theme achievable and practitioners are important to gain my knowledge of technical skills of treating materials. 

 

Physical Distance

3,August

  • Installation idea 

At the very beginning of this project my initial idea was to focus on installation. The idea of making installation to represent comfortable distance was to make the audience understand my concept easier. By making a interaction installation that people can decrease the distance between two objects( better be hanging because is easy to alter distance) themselves. Ideally the inner textile design part of the object would be sharp and unpleasant feeling emphasise individuals need their own personal space otherwise people would hurt each other because we all have different thought and different life style.

Admittedly installation is not my strengthen way to present my work because I did not experiment with model making before. With time limited I think I also need to think about making just textile samples and arranging textile pieces together into something wearable.

 

Playing with Textile

11,August

  • One day project outcome
  • Placing textile on the body

This is my one day project outcome. Ideally I supposed to finish textile making on both side. I was underestimated the time I made for one side. Basically the making process is easy but time consuming.

By placing it around the body I think wear it as tee dress could be interesting also I can attach other textile samples underneath doing draping or weaving textile could be more innovative then I designed before.I am considering how to make the textile attached on the other side at the same time it need to be capable to opened otherwise is not wearable.

I am pleased with the textile sample because I create a pattern and this is a new technique that I have never used before. Also the textile piece is flexible because the construction theory I made it into rhombus so is easy to expand the wide.

Now I need to keep experiment with the prickly textile making.More illustration to demonstrate my idea would be needed. I think using the prickly textile into tassels-like dress would be interested which I need to further developed with.

Photoshop Workshop Practice

14,August

  • How did you feel at first about making a poster to present your project ?

Admittedly, I think is hard for me to make a interesting poster because I am not good at photoshop work. Also I haven’t think about the advertising aspect for this project. I do feel confused and lost when I was asked to do a poster today.

  • What was the hardest aspect of summarising your project on one A3 poster?

Collecting all the necessary elements into the poster but not making the page too full. I think I am over thinking about the final outcome which is my weakness of creating a work. What’s more, some basic skills would be needed as a layout supported.

  • What do you think has been the value of this small project?

Speaking of the value to this small project I think is to try out different media to present the work. Personally,using photoshop to make a poster is also a experience of doing graphic design work. Thinking of layout and arrangement for different elements and highlight the vital one. Also it reminds me the layout in the sketchbook somehow.

  • What have you learnt through thinking about how an external audience might perceive your project?

As far as I am concerned, I think the idea should be very clear and less abstract words or images would be better. Not to be mentioned, thinking about my work from different perspective also helps me to make the description well-explained. I think looking at one project from different point of view is interesting. On the other hand, my propose is to present my work in a public area so I need to think about the appreciating level of the public.

  • What do you feel are the values of these technical and presentation skills in your future creative practice?

So far I have learnt some basic skills of using Photoshop. For me these technical skills can present my work more professional and it could be easier for everyone to understand my concept and my initial ideas as well. Thus learning these skills can help me be capable of presenting work to various discipline for all people. What's more, I think is a good media as designing part because is easier to edit than drawing on the paper. I am quite pleased with this workshop and being more confidence making poster on photoshop.

 

Hook Experiment

Hook Experiment2

Hook Experiment3

15,August

Experiment on stable textile piece on the other side

  1. Using green rope to tie on the shoulder part  the ties looks primary
  2. Trying banding rings attach on the other side the rings are not stabled
  3. Using rubber bands to make nods looks too much and is not stabled
  4. Making a hook by wires inspired by Bra hook also can adjust the hooked textile length

I think I can still trying out different materials. Also I need to developed with the fourth idea making a hook with a better outlook and looks more mature than this sample.

Clasp Inspiration

Idea of Combination

Stabled Solution

Place on the body

18,August

  • Hook making process and inspiration

In order to develop the hook idea further more, gathering pinches of wires then adding hot glue on the surface thus the appearance would be more smoothy. I found this textile inspiration by the bra clasp. Ideally I want to create a thing that can alter the length of textile piece.

Also the hanger relates to this clasp design as well. I am also looking for other solutions while I attached the hook sample on to the shoulder part the scale of the sample was too big and looks primary. What’s more, it was a uncomfortable dressing experience when the hook attached on the shoulder.

  • Coil Knot 

The final stabled solution I adapted was coil knot. Comparing to the bra clasp idea I think the coil knot works better than that. At the beginning I was over focusing on the adjustment part to the textile piece. When I fit it on my model I think the alter part to the textile attachment part is unnecessary because the maximum length I clasp fits the body well. The following step would be textile attaching on the bottom to the tube dress.

  • Hitch knot with decorations

This is a second textile making process. Experimenting with the incisive textile design. Ideally I want to make a good range of hitch knot stripes then attaching them together in order to make a fabric. On the contrary, I am curious of the effect that using flexible materials. Flexible material means I can still easily attach other textile or materials on the surface. So I used key rings and also plant ties to make a comparison and also the texture related to the concept as well. 

Possible to the final 1/2

Possible to the final 2/2

23,August

  • Photoshop practice

After creating several bracelets textile stripes I scanned then and using photoshop to make the stripes into one piece dress. My purpose is to make the textile exaggerated and push the textile design idea further to see the possible of making textiles.

Through the images I have put on the above I tried two different methods to push my idea further. One is to multiple the same textile and creating one piece. Another is to combine two different textiles and they account half of the side. I think the one piece idea look good and completed. In this case, I would need to consider whether I want to make the whole piece by combining the bracelet textile or not. If I want to make the bracelet I have to change the bracelet into bigger scale because the regular size would be very time-consuming. 

Engage Materials

Interlinked Rings

26,August

Last time I was looking up to Loewe’s Fall 2016 Collection I used rubber bands and threads making knots in order to make them attached to each other sort of making a fabric with rubber band. But the rubber band looks quite soft and not stabled enough so I was looking for new material and I decided to tired key rings which is quite similar to Loewe’s.

I don’t think the wire is safe enough for the model to dress on and I want to try a new way to interlinked the rings together by cutting fabric into stripes and then tie on each.

I quite like the effect and the volumes I made. So I then think about the combination of the previous bracelet design and this interlinked piece.

Placing on body 1/2

Placing on body 2/2

Makeup for Final

30,August

Today is the photo shoot section for my final piece. I think the final shoot is not well prepared because I missed a bit details photographed and also the background was too blank I think I will need to make another photo shoot outside.

I now need to think about the tone for the photograph to make the first draft of public look book. By looking up several references of public magazine I have sorted out what kind of style suits my theme and the style I like. I need to wait till the images send to me and now I can only work for the layout only.

I also had a tutorial with tutor of my 250 contextual work to sum up my project and make it professional and well-explained. What’s more, I have done the 100 words for poster caption.

Tutorial Feedback 31,July

25,July

Considering the direction of final idea how to link with the power point today—many big words quite  general and universal. Making connection of those words to my idea and coming up with more initial ideas and further develop expand the wideness of my theme and also looking for more depth. 

Plan: Exhibition visiting and more impression abstract drawing of my keywords. More artist research and references and needed.

31,July

The tutorial went well the tutor pointed out the same thing that I am concerned about—the project for companionship was too wide.Thus I re-define what I want to do for the project and editing my project brief doing the second draft afterwards.

Instead of the former project title ’Companionship’,I assume that ‘Distance’ suits the project theme better. My project theme is identifying the comfortable distance between individuals. I need to set up several task about defining distance so far I think drawing negative spaces between people, testing the comfortable distances in different relationships, making survey to gather information of individuals thoughts about the comforted distances to others.

As now I set up the key word for my concept,I need to focus on contextual practice mainly about anthropology,psychology and philosophy, explaining interpersonal distance area and also artist research of different specialism to inform the concept with more depth. Also I need to find textile design for this project while now I am over focusing on other disciplines.

 

Context Spider 2,August

Speed Dating for Research 2,August

8,August

  • Toilet brush
  • Textile sample combing with the brush banding skill
  • Timetable for this week and weekend

I think the timetable suits my workload pretty much and I do think this timetable is reasonable.

I found inspiration from the toilet brush. I was looking for materials have sharp, prickly texture then I found the stick up material from these toilet brush. Gathering a clump of plastic stripes then arrange them into different dense to create a prickly sense of touching. I think this skill looks a bit like weaving in some way then I started to make some samples. The first one was made by plastic PVC washing line i cut them into the same length and stabled them with rubber band I think it looks well but is not sharp enough and also to heavy to make the sample stick up. Then I tried gardening wires using the same technique. I found this much better than the former one because I want to achieve thorny effect represent the over-closed interpersonal distance.

 

Analysing Material 1/2

Analysing Material 2/2

9,August

What have I done today:

  1. Contextual practice 
  2. Testing new material

 

  • Contextual Practice:

Understanding the materials in different areas:

  1. Physical properties
  2. Cultural interpretation
  3. Sustainability/lifecycle
  4. Effect to my project

Materials that I choose to analyse:

  1. Plastic PVC washing line
  2. Plastic tube

I have more basic understanding of my chosen materials and also considering the sustainability of them. I am interested in up-cycled materials so this section somehow gives me a formate of how to record a material. I think the most difficult part of this practice is to identify how is the material made.

  • Experiment with plastic tube

I am curious about using the same banding skill on plastic tube. Therefore I cut the plastic tube into several fragments. I then used rubber band to tie the tube but I was not satisfied with the fold part because it was too thick and the tube was too thick as well. Considering the cost of plastic tube I prefer the gardening wire which I purchased from pound land. What's more, I am looking for a material that is sharp and the tube just not the material I am looking for.

 

Experiment with Silhouette

10,August

  • Silhouette inspired by individuals distance 
  • Solution to stable the silhouette 

The idea of this silhouette was from interpersonal distance the length of the shoulder represent the comfortable distance between individuals. I found this inspiration by doodling on photos and abstracted drawings. I have tried three materials to create this silhouette internet cable,washing line and plastic tube. After trying on the body I feel the plastic tube is the best and stabled. I want to combine the textile sample I have made yesterday and the silhouette together.

Problem that I am confronted with:

  • How to make the tube into circled and stabled?

I made this silhouette by one single tube and I do not want to cut it into fragments. I have tried using super glue but I forgot to polish the surface before I glued. Then I came up with using masking tape to stable then apply the textile on the top. I have tried on one side and I did not like the effect because the masking tape still can be seen. The final solution I adopted was to wrapped the whole tube with ropes. By using the ropes I can tied the tube where I want to stabled most and is hard to recognise the stared point.

Contextual Practice

16,August

I think I am quite pleased with this chosen context and the group discussion I had. I do shared the context with my group members and they renewed their thought of textile design in some way. Speaking of the effect that the text gave me, I would like to say it formed my design process more. To be more specific, designing a textile is not about fashionable but also the designer should look up to the functional aspect as well. I think right now I am just doing the innovative and creative making something look fashionable or interesting.

What’s more, I like the layout of the text. It gives people a good explanation with simple words except for those professional institute. In my opinion, this book is all objective making explanation for different concept and definitions. Those images around the text also giving a good visual impact to the reader making us easy to understand the concept.

Interim Presentation Poster

20,August

  • Research Reference:
  1. Photographer Atta Kim's 
  2. Fashion Designer Yuima Nakazato
  3. Fine Art Artist Karel Malich
  • My own work:
  1. Drawings looked up to Karel Malich
  2. Toilet Brush photo
  3. Scan Copy of Textile Sample  

22,August

Basically the schedule making is to ensure the workload right and finish my final piece before deadline.

Ideally the final design would be finished on this Friday and the following days in this week would be arranging textile pieces and textile making. 

After Friday, I would focusing on public portfolio and fashion photo shooting research based.

Self Assessment

Garden Plastic Cover

Placing on body

24,August

  • New Material :Plastic Garden Cover 
  • Adjustment of the previous design 

I find it less interesting and innovative just using ropes and weaving with braids so I want to experiment with a new material I found.

This time I decide to use garden plastic cover which is doubled sided and it has different colour on both side. I then think about the corresponding method to this material the final solution I adapted was cut this 4 meters long plastic piece into thin stripes and then using 20mm knitting needle to knit it in order to make a big separation distance of each loop and make it stretchable.

I then think about adding more textile or material on the surface of this knitted plastic piece. One of my aim is to make sharp pointed textile which giving the idea of importance of individual’s space. The sharp pointed textile force people to have proper distance with each other otherwise they would get hurt by the stubble texture. In this case, I find the plant’ tie could create a good effect of making pointed texture so I engaged the tie on to plastic knitted piece.

What’s more, I took the weaving piece off because I think I can work out a better textile piece for the front and I would use the weaving braids as accessories in the photoshoot. I attached the weaving textile on to the plastic tube and I am quite pleased with effect, the plastic knitted part making the unpleasant sound and also the texture is quite rough for me I think it fits the concept quite well. I then dress it on adverse position dress the back to the front but literarily I have not decided the front and the back yet. After placing on the body, I think use it as the back side looks good and reminds me of hedgehog.

Inspiration from Loewe 1/2

Inspiration from Loewe 2/2

25,August

  • Rubber bands experiments

Today I am mainly focusing on rubber bands exploring different methods to this material.

By looking up to Loewe Fall 2016 Collection I found two garment design very inspiring.

The first one I would like to bring up is the rubber band knitted one piece dress and I tried to knit with rubber bands. Before knitting them together I made knot on each. Ideally it should be a knitted piece made by a range of rubber bands with adequate separation distance just like Loewe’s. But turns out this is not what I expected.The sample looks like instant noodle and squeeze. I think is not good enough for the final and also I am lack of enough rubber bands for me to make more experimentation.

Another inspiring design is interlinked rings design creating a loosing style sleeves. By looking at the image the interlinked rings are attaching each other by wires. So I decide to tie these rubber bands together by using threads. I think this could be made by different material while the rubber band s are not stable enough and too soft which is not I want for the theme.

Textile on Manikin1/3

Textile on Manikin 2/3

Textile on Manikin 3/3

Dress on the body

28,August

  • Combination of the bracelet and interlinked piece
  • Placing on the manikin 
  • Makeup to the final outcome's photoshoot

I took off the weaving braids textile which was on the front. There are several reasons why I took it off:

  1. It was too fragile and ductile which can not bear the interlinked rings piece.
  2. The weaving braids textile part was not done well I can do it better.
  3. Comparing to the weaving textile I prefer the interlinked piece and looks more completed.
  4. The coil knots are not stabled when it was glued on.
  5. Not easy to adjust the length of the bust line while the weaving piece length is restricted.

I did placing the textile design on the manikin and hang on the front as a top looks good and easy to dress on. According to my model Jamie she said this interlinked rings textile feels more comfortable than the weaving piece.

The makeup is good and I want to change it into green when is on my model's face. I think green suits for my textile more and this makeup suits for Asian because mine is Asian.

29,August

  • Analysing the concept and the textile I have made

Before I re-edit my editorial text I need to clear up all the textile design I have made for my final and the my concept behind these textile and I can figure out what have I missed in this contextual work. Also is easy for other people to understand my idea and make the tutor gets basic understanding of my project as well.

Public Context

This project is based on the need for interpersonal space, and the increasing anxiety created when the distance between people becomes too little. There is an exploration into the word’  distance’ in physical and psychological ways turned into textile design, presenting different feelings by altering various textures. The focus is on people’s inner thoughts and making these tangible through the medium of textiles.

‘People surround themselves with a “bubble” of personal space that they claim as their own, and they tend to become stressed when other people invade their “bubble”. Our personal space protects us from too much arousal and helps us feel comfortable when we communicate with other people.’ Hall(1966) called the study of interpersonal distance proxemics.

In this case, having looked at Loewe’s Fall 2016 collections and Santiago Calatrava’s WTC station hub, the ’bubble’ is turned into two designs, one a pointed textile design to emphasise the importance of individuals’ spaces, and the other created with interlinked rings that represent complexed interpersonal relationships and the ability to interfere into each other’s lives.

The design process has been based on Hall’s theory of humans having four different spatial needs within different relationships,including public,social, personal and intimate distance. He assumed that culture influences people’s understanding of time and space which leads to misunderstandings on a multi-cultural landscape.

Caption for Poster

This project is based on the need for interpersonal space, and the increasing anxiety created when the distance between people becomes too little.

‘People surround themselves with a “bubble” of personal space that they claim as their own, and they tend to become stressed when other people invade their “bubble”.’Hall(1966) called the study of interpersonal distance proxemics.

The design process has been based on Hall’s theory, and having looked at Loewe’s Fall 2016 collections and Santiago Calatrava’s WTC station hub, the ’bubble’ is turned into two designs representing complexed interpersonal relationships and importance of individuals’ spaces.