Idea Development

Initial Styling trials

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Project Proposal draft feedback

After showing Tim my initial project proposal draft, we agreed that the idea of basing my whole project proposal on a mental disorder was a bit tricky, especially since I don't have any firsthand experience with the condition. 

Additionally, he posed some important questions that made me realize I'm just scratching the surface of what I'm interested in. Thinking back I was probably a bit too focused on continuing my on set project, rather than thinking of the possible new themes. Tim and I discussed what actually it is about hoarding culture that intrigues me, and we reached a conclusion that I find the significance people place on seemingly insignificant garments the most interesting aspect from my initial project proposal. 

Some other aspects Tim encouraged me to consider were:

-Why would this work be needed? Who would my audience ultimately be?

-What is the main point behind the work?

 

Idea development- Primary Research

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When thinking about fast fashion, Primark was the first place that came to my mind. As soon as I walked in, I was offered a big grey shopping bag, and I saw people dragging along carts filled to the brim with clothes, shoes, bags, accessories, whatever they had in Primark.

I found myself quite interested in seeing what they had in their carts, each of them unique.

February 24th- Site

Time Plan:

Step 1: Site visit and analysis

Step 2: Research and Ideas Generation 

Step 3: Develop a Visual language + Range of design ideas

Step 4: Iteration 1, Mock up and review (Peer review)

Step 5: Iteration 2, Consider format, scale, material, production, add detail and test in sketchbook 

Step 6: Install, Document and Gather user information (User Testing)

Step 7: Presentation + Crit (peer and tutor feedback)

King's Cross Site Testing

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After our initial exercise, we had to find a site within King's Cross to base our project in. Taking foot traffic, scale and medium into consideration along with my project proposal, I found myself gravitating towards Coal Drops Yard, and its natural relation to my theme. 

I wanted to push myself out of my comfort zone in terms of medium and thought of possibly creating a set, sculpture, live performance instead of imagery in the form of a poster. As this project is ultimately temporary, I wanted to use that as part of my piece as well, to include the element of time and exclusivity for the audience who will see my work. 

Possible sites I looked at were the main, open space in Coal Drops Yard, the open space outside CSM, or possibly placing imagery along the stairs by the riverside. As I visited each space, it was evident that even in the busiest hours, not a lot of people paid attention to small signs. There was quite a lot of foot traffic in the main csm fountain area from the students and passerbys especially at lunch hour, but I think in order to catch their eye and to have them actually spend time looking at my work, I'll need to create an interesting display. 

Thinking back, I remember a light display at CSM that many people took photos at. Even though it wasn't show-stompingly amazing, it got people's attention because it looked cool and it was "Instagram worthy", (personally my friend Chanelle and I think it was a bit of a waste of space), but that's what got people's attention. 

Coal Drops Yard site testing

March 2nd- Group Crit

I went through my project with half the class and Tim for our crit, and the advice I got was really helpful.

I was glad my aim was clearly executed to the group, and that I received constructive feedback as well. Tim noticed that I spend too much time thinking about a final outcome, and that I should just start collecting stories through interviews/ audio/ film and create content from that. From that I can finalize my ideas for final outcomes. 

I also received interesting suggestions for further research such as Eugeneboynoble, from my friend Jasmine. I think the amount of interaction and feedback that I received from a larger group as well as Tim has been really beneficial in terms of the development of my project. The crits are now structured similarly to the beginning of part 2, and instead of group crits, I feel we expose ourselves to a larger audience, which is ultimately valuable in terms of user testing and peer feedback.

From this crit, I'll develop a system and questions to collect stories regarding a personal garment from my friends and family members. The stories would ultimately be more interesting if I opened the prompt out to the general public, but I feel like the use of genuine personal anecdotes will only come out of people that I already know and have a trusting connection with. 

March 4th- Idea Development

In order to continue my idea development I decided to visit some more museums along with creating mockup collages experimenting with potential ideas along with interviewing my friends and family in terms of a garment that is significant to them. 

Q: Is there a memorable story behind a garment you hold dear to you? 

March 8th- Test shoot image development

From the images I took of Juliet, I decided to experiment with digital editing, and how the narrative of the image would change based on how the image is presented. I ultimately want the image to reflect the sense of it being a memory, I therefore decided to edit it by changing its sharpness, saturation for it to reflect a dream like state, and with the crop of the images as well. 

Additionally, I asked my friends for peer feedback as I thought it was important that the anecdotal nature of the shoot is clearly communicated to a wider audience, as I think it's easily for me to be almost immune to it with the underlying story being so personal to myself.

The feedback I got was mainly to experimenting with accompanying the image along with a written element as well. 

Test shoot image development- blur

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Test shoot image development- crop

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March 10th Idea development

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Developing the idea of creating an additional headpiece, I wanted it to also be knitted to add a sense of coherency and as the material has connotations to comfort and cosiness in comparison to acrylic.

My initial designs consist of muted colors and abstract shapes inspired by knitted coral reefs and the works of Wang and Soderström. And its silhouettes taken by collaging objects that reminded me of my childhood.

Material Development

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Material wise I was inspired by these small crochet pinned brooches my friend makes. They carry specific significance to me as she made these brooches during the peak of the Hong Kong Protest movement last year, and we had a rally specifically exposing the sexual harassment that was reported by people detained by the police. From this we all wore purple ribbons as a symbol of support, and my friend made these crochet versions of the ribbons. 

I admire the meticulous time and detail required to crochet these shapes, and I could imagine a headpiece of a similar material.

Interviews- Jeremy

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Interviews- Dal

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Interviews- Shadiyah

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Interview- Jane

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Interviews- Maya

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March 16th

I decided to experiment with taking photos through facetime and webcam as organizing shoots is quite tricky right now. 

I'm inspired by 

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April 24th (Text excerpt Ideas)

In continuation with the garment presentation ideas, I found some old dress up cards to reference as to how I can photograph the garments.

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April 24 (Text excerpt idea)

Thinking back on potential ways to present the text messages, I thought about creating a piece of tapestry, or presenting all the garments along with the excerpts as an installation piece (drawings shown in the sketchbook tab), but I decided to further develop this idea of mimicking old, polished fine arts portraits seen in museums. 

After visiting Museums such as Leeds art gallery that had maps created in relation to the wide arrangement of pictures, and on the maps were descriptions and information about the paintings. I think it would be interesting to experiment with displaying the garments in a similar way to a traditional portrait, but remove the "human" element of it (Like old dress up cards), and present the deep connection the garment has through the map, and adding the text inserts through that. 

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March 24th

Aside from a photoshoot I've started thinking about creating a film, at least make a storyboard of a potential film I could make. 

In the film I wanted to narrate the backstory and significance behind a football scarf, by showing what makes football fans as attached to them as they are. As Tim suggested me to observe behaviors, I think it's appropriate to originate back to football games, and what makes football merch so symbolic. 

March 28th

After doing research on potential film ideas, I've decided to focus on the idea of half and half scarves, and to think about how I can document and show the significance behind them. As for the medium, working and printing my own scarf has always been an option I'm interested in, and I think making the film alongside the scarf and show its background would be an interesting way of presentation. I'm starting to brainstorm potential storyboard ideas. As I'm brainstorming, I've been inspired by ___'s "Meat" video, which featured a model the churning a meat grinder throughout the video. Maybe I could feature the use of a weaving loom creating a scarf throughout the video, and juxtapose its time-consuming nature to the short

I've decided to focus on the idea of football scarves instead, and hopefully when I revisit my other shoot I'll have more ideas about ways to shoot and present the significance as I find myself quite stuck right now. 

April 22nd

I've disappeared for a bit as I've mainly just been creating sketchbook work along with experimenting with potential ways to develop my ideas and working from the feedback I've received from Tim. In terms of scarf ideas, ways to display the text interviews, and working with different ways to communicate initial ideas, I'm documenting that in my sketchbook along with annotations as I find that the most effective way to create work right now as I'm not as confident in creating many digital mockups as I'm not as confident in using digital software compared to collages and drawings.

April 24th Scarf development

During my process of print development, I thought about different ways I could experiment with mark making along with what elements I want to incorporate into my scarf. 

I made my own Gelli plate to test out monoprinting effects, and i also tried carving  my own lino prints out of styrofoam. 

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I started off my print making process by carving lino prints, however I found it quite time consuming and the image I wanted to trace wasn't as clearly communicated through the print as I would have liked. I did the first lino print with white paint agains 

Project Proposal

When thinking about potential concepts for my part 3 project proposal, I was struggling to think of a topic that I found myself interested in and one that I could create work off of for two months. 

I then took a step back from my desk and looked around, my whole room was a mess from all the work I did for both the interviews and the part 2 assessments. I'm not necessarily an extremely tidy person, but this I found myself completely unaware and unaffected by the mess I've created. From this I began thinking of how my mental state, tired and a bit all over the place has affected my sense of organization. When looking for artists references, I find myself intrigued by Geoff Johnson's photo series as he depicts his childhood home and his other's journey with compulsive hoarding. As annotated in my research work, there's a surreal aspect to the overwhelming space created as a result of the clever composition and environment depicted. 

Continuing along this tangent, I began thinking of the extremity of each spectrum, and I began conducting research on the natures of OCD, along with hoarding culture. I find myself interested in finding out why we find ourselves putting significance in specific, uncanny routines and objects. The projects I had in mind of continuing from part two was the element of set design and creative direction from the on set project, the documentary/ narrative nature of the saul nash project, and the medium/ execution of the denim publication project. I think I was mainly inspired by my on set project in terms of the concept as I based the foundation of that off my Grandma, and her dementia. 

From this, I'd want to further explore how the nature of OCD influences ones tendency for compulsiveness and the effects of compulsive hoarding on one extremity, and a constant sense of perfection and routine on the other. As for research, I found most of my information off podcasts, forums, and self-published content. When considering the execution of my project, I think it would be appropriate to create a mini publication, and create a sense of narrative through studying case studies.  

Final Project Proposal

From this idea of placing significance on seemingly cheap, disposable clothing, I found myself the exploring the world of modern fast-fashion, and how there's often a sense of detachment between the garment and our treatment towards it. I notice majority of consumers in today's society develop a habit of throwaway culture, and it's almost a question of why wouldn't we, as clothes are now more readily available than ever. 

Instead of focusing on the environmental aspect and around the ideas of sustainability towards fast fashion, I'm interested in injecting a personal anecdote to superficial, disengaged connection between garment and consumer. From this I'll briefly reference hoarding culture, and the extremities that lie between a modern detached consumer and a compulsive shopper and hoarders and collectors, who find extreme significance in sometimes the most banal garments. Regarding potential work, I can create shoots based off distinct characters and narratives. Inspired by the works of Nadia Lee Cohen, I can reference how a plain t-shirt's value can sky rocket once it's given to you by your boyfriend, and how the story of a garment can add significance and value. 

Archway Site testing

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Through our initial exercise of site testing and scouting within Archway, I noticed how through this I find myself thinking beyond the usual poster and publication route, and observed and paid closer attention to the importance of audience interaction, and how we can grasp that attention. From this I began thinking of placing work on the floor as it's a commonly seen surface, on moving buses, larger billboards etc.

Site- Idea development

I developed my initial ideas based off the trolleys and shopping bags I saw when I was at Primark. These trolleys were often filled to the brim with clothes, accessories, shoes, whatever was in the store, and even though they were easily recognizable, I felt they were also interesting in terms of shape and as a vessel for a sculpture. From this I thought of magnifying the trolley in scale and in multiples. As I researched the work of José Luis Torres and Christian Boltanski and their use of material and scale, I wanted to incorporate a sense of shock and overwhelmingness to the audience in order to catch their attention, and from there have them further investigate the piece's concept. 

Some of my initial ideas consisted of:

-An array of shopping trolleys organized across the fountain area outside CSM, each filled with different garments to signify different identities compacted into clothes.

-A huge pile of clothes mixed with objects from our everyday lives to symbolize ones memory

-Integration of the weather, utilize the participant's shadow into the piece. Place garments on the floor along with a short piece of instruction to guide the participant into place.

When discussing potential ideas with my friend, he mentioned a showing of Andy Warhol's "Screen test Reel #10" at the Barbican that he attended recently which featured live portraits, essentially a portrait video of subjects paired with a soundtrack by Leif. I found this quite interesting, the idea of a temporary, real-life model as a live portrait eerily staring at passerbys. 

From this idea of portrait, I thought of how I would integrate an otherwise awkward interaction between the model with the public as I wanted the interaction to ultimately have a playful and welcoming nature to it, instead of mysterious and intimidating. 

March 2nd Site- Idea development

As I developed my ideas inspired by Andy Warhol's living portraits, i thought of what situations we encounter portraits in our everyday lives. From this I thought of school photos, family portraits, and ID photos. 

I found it quite amusing playing around with baby portraits, and how interesting it would be to create a set around a couple with a new born baby, but instead of a baby, have them cradling a garment. I liked this sense of humor entangled with surrealism whilst it still shows the significance and value we find within garments, treating it with the care and love as we do a child.

As I developed this idea even further, I was inspired by a CSI episode I watched ages ago featuring a serial killer that would send these miniature toy houses to the investigators and barbie dream houses I played with as a child, and thought about presenting a live performance consisting of different microcosms, similar to the separate rooms in a dollhouse. 

I thought of 4 different stylized scenarios in which an otherwise banal garment has sentimental value:

1. A sweater hand knitted by Grandma 

2. A t shirt gifted by ones' lover

3. A leaver's hoodie

4. A tie taught between father and son

I also think it'd be an interesting idea to present a shopping trolley (pulling a full 360 back to my first idea) showing all these garments carelessly tossed in as a juxtaposition to the significance and sentimental scenarios shown. 

March 5th- First test shoot development

As I continued asking around for interesting stories, I thought of my own personal stories. 

There are few interesting stories I have, when I was younger, my parents would often come home late and I had a habit of staying up and waiting until they came back. As a solution to this, my parents would give me a garment of theirs that smell like them that I would cuddle to sleep and I would finally go to sleep and not stay up for them. My dad gave me a t shirt of his, and my mom gave me a warm sweater. From this story, I've chosen a dark red turtleneck jumper that's a similar style and portray a sense of home and safety inspired by "My Bed", an installation by Tracy Emin.

 From this I experimented with different poses and angles to display the sweater as a garment.

First Shoot Idea Development

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March 8th- Test Shoot

Test shoot image development- warp

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March 9th-Image development

After taking my test shoot, I had a better idea of how I would improve along with what elements I would add to further emphasize the significance of the garment. 

As I found the idea of the otherwise cheap garment offering a sense of security and significance to childhood me becoming lost through the editing and overall image.

From this I've decided to venture into the more imaginative side of my childhood, and I've started by thinking back at what else gave me security. These objects weren't luxurious, but were sentimental through the memories it offered. Additionally I also studied the photos from the test shoot, and thought of adding a headpiece to the styling aspect. This idea came from my childhood habit of always wearing headbands and constantly trying to balance stuff on my head. In another way, I also wanted to add a sense of abstract shapes and color to evoke a sense of the dream-like, safe, imaginary world my mother's garments would transport me to.

Another aspect of what I wanted to enhance was the background of the shoot. As it was just a test shoot, I didn't pay as much consideration to the use of backdrop, lighting and props. In order to fully convey the context of it being nighttime, I would want a dark backdrop and contrast that with a colorful strobe light focusing on the subject. 

Final shoot moodboard

Interviews- Lizzy

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Interviews- Juliet

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Interview- Vicky

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Interview- Franziska

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Interview- Jake

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March 12th

After my tutorial session with Mark, I've realized the importance of time management along with choosing which of my ideas I want to further pursue.

As I don't have a lot of time to create all my ideas, Mark suggested for me to continue planning my main shoot around the idea of awkward posed family portraits/ school portraits, confirm the details, such as styling, set design, and the style of photography I want. Inspired by the "Future Beach" series by Nadia Lee Cohen, I wanted to create a photo series featuring people from specific subcultures that share a similar significance in a specific garments based around stories sourced by my friends and family that I interviewed.

- Football fans and the significance of jerseys and scarves (My cousin Nathan)

- Anime fans and the significance found through memorabilia (My friend Malakoi)

- The story My friend vicky had towards her red leggings when she was a child. 

I was thinking of having models stand and pose all against the same backdrop to create a sense of coherency, but it would also be interesting to see them in different backgrounds, and then a photo of them separately? I quite like the idea of having a realistic, detailed printed backdrop, but I will have to think about what I will choose so that the focal point is still on the garments and the model.

 

 

March 15th Idea dvelopment

As I began to narrow down the narratives/ characters I've created, I felt like it was difficult to present them all in the same setting. I've decided to focus on shooting one character first, narrowing down the styling choices, makeup & hair along with what set would best suit it, and then work from there. 

From this I focused on Vicky's story first. She described her kid obsession for pink along with her hatred for red, and with it being a childhood story, it would be an interesting concept to develop through her Polish culture. 

As I created a mindmap thinking about the main ideas I wanted to convey, I chose to take photos of the garments 

Idea development

Idea development

Idea development

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April 25th (text excerpt idea)

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March 17th

As a result of a series of unexpected bumps as a result of the current spread of coronavirus, I've had to adjust my initial plans since the photographer I was initially planning on collaborating with had to go back to China. From this I had to adapt my ideas around a shoot and think about how to present my theme without models as we might be entering a stage of lockdown soon here in London.

I thought about the potentially doing shoots on set design and creating sculptures through household items inspired by the style of Lorenzo Vitturi, and other ways to drape and photograph the garments.

Another idea I had was to create a short documentary film on the football culture and to do research on the significance behind football scarves along with the intense rivalry linked to it, but all games got cancelled. However, I still think creating a scarf as an additional developmental outcome is an interesting concept. 

March 20th-

After having my first "Online" tutorial session with Tim today, he gave me a lot of valuable and constructive feedback on how I can further develop my project;

-"My feeling is you need to focus on your observations of peoples' behavior, what you feel motivates it and what effect it has. The work can then be a visual way of communicating these ideas back to society."

-"A simple way to begin would be to find images of throwaway culture and to explore ways to using it to tell a story by adding text or narrating your ideas in the form of a visual essay"

-"You could make a film from footage or imagery found on the internet."

-"You could write a script to narrate and then plan out the imagery you would like to capture as a drawn storyboard."

-"At the moment the world is panic buying so your topic seems very interesting seen through the current narrative of consumer panic and fear."

 I found all of the points made as strong, interesting tangents I could go off on. Additionally it's given me a sense of reassurance that I should still create at least a storyboard for a potential film, and I can think about creating visual essays as well as that's a medium I've never worked with before. From this I'll conduct some research on the references Tim's suggested to me, and develop my ideas from there. 

April 23rd

I've been experimenting with different scarf designs, I started my creative process by thinking about what elements I was to incorporate into the scarf and what message I want it to convey.

-Reflecting back to my Saul Nash campaign, it would be interesting to focus the scarf around the theme of fraternity and family the game of football creates.

-Working from Tim's feedback I'd also want to experiment with incorporating elements from my text conversations onto the scarf. I think this would be a nice contrast against the broader theme of football as it precisely shows someone's personal experience and connection to the scarf. 

-I'd develop my print designs digitally on a template