10/4/14

I feel that today has been a good day in terms of developing the project. Although this morning was slow in terms of progression. I wasn't able to start knitting today because I needed to buy some needles and unfortunately hadn't had a chance to do that yet. So at uni today I started with creating samples from an old top, where I plaited the sleeves I really liked the way this looked once finished however it didn't really relate to my work that much so isn't that helpful as it's a bit random. 

Progressing from this, the afternoon was a lot better as over the last few days I've felt a bit lost and unsure of my project as I feel that it has taken quite a drastic turn from my initial concept. However today after speaking to a tutor they gave me a few ideas of how I could push the distorting the body idea taken from the voyeurism vs fetishism part of the project. They suggested looking at the Comme des garçons lumps and bumps collection. S/S 97. I hadn't  seen this collection before but after looking at it I found it similar to the ideas I had been having and it helped me greatly in terms of developing the concept into a final outcome as well as allowing me to visualise what my idea could look like.

This lead me into working on the stand. For this workshop I needed to have shapes that I could pin together to make it a structural shape. Carrying on with the deformed body concept I took inspiration from one the images I drew over from Manabu Yamanaka. I liked the shape of the girls hunchback, therefore I cut out a semi circle shape. I cut out 8 small ones and 4 larger ones. I did different things with them such as I pinned two of the same size together just so I could get a rounded shape. For others I pinned one large and one small together giving me an uneven structure. The third I pinned two large and two small together along their curved edges this gave me a shape that had many dents due to the uneven surface. Then I pinned them to the manikin in a variety of ways and positions on the manikin. I enjoyed this workshop thoroughly because I was able to create these odd shapes on the body which distorted it and showed it in a completely different way. It also slowed me to work off of the body because usually in my work it is quite on the body so today I feel like I have pushed myself in terms of designing. 

Although whilst I was doing this workshop I was thinking about how I could translate these shapes from paper to fabric. I think if I wanted to reproduce these shapes with fabric it would have to be quite a thick fabric such as a heavy denim or linen. But then if I wanted to use thinner fabrics like a polyester or a silk I could interface it heavily to allow it to have more of a resistance so it would produce the structural shape. I think in the future I will explore which fabrics would work best for this type of structure. Although thinking about the other Yamanaka photograph of the elderly lady and how her skin sagged, if I were to produce the same shapes but in a thin fabric then it would make the fabric sag in a similar way to her skin which I think would make an interesting aesthetic. However unfortunately I did not have any fabric with me at university so I will complete this idea another day, possibly when I'm closer to designing. 

I really enjoyed today I believe it went very well, I always enjoy working on the stand and I think it's one of my stronger skills, so defiantly after today I will be sure to work on the stand again when I am close to designing. However I will not develop todays work any further until I have finished with the distortion of the mind idea. I think this will be best as I don't want to confuse my ideas or even work on both ideas simultaneously and therefore produce unsatisfactory work for both areas. Therefore tomorrow I hope to start with knitting and when I am ready to design I will make sure to include todays work.