This week we were looking at Art/Design and Science relations. There was a talk by Dr Jill Townsley which I found really interesting, about taking art into unexpected places. Dr Townsley gave her account of working with a group of scientists, and described how both parties got something different out of the experience. Below is an example of a piece of work created from that time. I liked that neither party had an idea of the outcome when they started, yet each could relate to the end product.
Dr Jill Townsley (2019). The FOREVER-DO Infestation http://jilltownsley.com/the-forever-do-infestation/4594769854
It's something interesting about working with others - you can never be completely sure how the other person is visualising an idea, you sometimes just have to (both) relinquish control and see what happens. It's something that I may well need to remember in the coming months, when I start to work with people outside of the university bubble.
The study task for week 4 starts with an exercise in "thinking through doing". We were asked to undertake several 3 minute associative writing tasks. Mine are as follows:
I found I didn't enjoy associative writing. I thought I might find the approach quite freeing, but instead the timed element made it feel rushed and stressful. The rest of the study task questions (and answers) can be found below.
For me, what works well is seeing a shape I like and working out how to remake that shape to fit a human body. I'm confident in my making / crafting abilities and my time spent on this course has increased my pattern cutting confidence. I'm good at visualising a thing in my head and making it a reality. What I'm not so great at is describing the end vision, or even the process involved in getting to the end vision. This requires a great deal of confidence on the part of the observer and is ideally something I'd like to improve upon.
Following some of the previous week's lectures, and my own research so far, I'm keen to look more into how to collaborate with my FMP. Probably not with fellow students but with performers. I think my work desperately needs to be informed by the people that potentially would wear it.
I want to make a strong body of work. I want to explore new ways of making, using equipment that's new to me. I want to experiment with different fabrics and get structure and volume and shape. I want to meet people that influence my future creations and take my work in new directions.
Covid has hampered opportunities to see drag performers in person, but I'm hoping to overcome this by potentially establishing relationships online - at least initially, with a view to meeting in person in the near future (hopefully). Limited studio time could also be tricky, but I want to be clever with my time and, when I get a day in the University, use it fully. I need to be organised and plan ahead.
I broke my sources of inspiration down into 5 categories:
1. The performers of drag and those that wear the clothes
2. The makers of the clothes (this often includes the performers themselves
3. Gender neutral / Unisex clothing (current manufacturers, wearers)
4. Makers of wearable art
5. Makers of 3D fashion
At this stage I am still concerned these categories are too broad, but I can edit when needed.
The theme of the research is using creative pattern cutting as a vehicle for gender expression. More specifically: How can pattern cutting be utilised to help a person to more accurately express their gender identity / reject gender altogether.
This was something I touched on in week 3. I need to do more research on fashion designers that have made gender neutral clothing, or clothing that can be adapted for men and women.
I think my research could have both commercial and artistic uses. Originally my plan was to make and design solely for drag, but I like the idea of normalising unisex clothing to the point that it is commercially available and offered as standard.
Reading will help me establish what has been researched already up to this point, and to see what is missing. I think a big factor in my research will be talking to people, especially performers (drag kings and queens) about how they go about sourcing clothes and what changes and alterations they make to clothing bought off the rail.
5. Relating this topic to my specialism is quite exciting for me. Initially it was done on a very basic level - I was draping dresses on male mannequins instead of female ones. As my work has progressed I have been using the male form to overlay the silhouette of a female form. I quite enjoy the shapes of the pattern pieces that you get from doing this as they are neither male nor female. I'm hoping that, in talking to drag performers, I can get a clearer idea of what works. Since reading so much about performers who make their own clothes, I'm also interested in the idea of producing sewing patterns specifically tailored to home-sewing drag queens.
6. I have 2 main aims in this project. The first is to create a body of work that showcases my experiments with using creative pattern cutting as a tool for gender expression. I expect this to take the form of clothing pieces that could be worn by drag performers. I also hope that, from the audio research undertaken, I can make a podcast that features interviews with makers and performers.
My second aim is to create a range of sewing patterns specifically aimed at drag queens and their unique needs. I hope to achieve this by researching the mathematical differences in male and female body measurements, and how to combine these to create a block that I can then create patterns from. I would like to then be able to send these patterns out as PDFs to get others to test them and give me feedback.
7. I have rough ideas on timescales and the order I would like to do things. After a tutorial with Sonja in which she spoke of Gantt charts, I looked these up and they look absolutely perfect for helping the tutors to visualise how I intend to manage the project. I'm currently making one. Again, it's something that keeps getting added to.
8 & 9. Referencing is something I need to give some serious headspace to - I am trying to do as much as I can as I go along but I've timetabled the last week of this module to devote solely to making sure each reference is correct and in the right place. For my portfolio of development work, I am going to include this blog, but also my Pinterest board and Instagram page. I've used both of these as visual diaries in the past few weeks, and will continue to do so.
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