Contextualising practice: Challenging preconceptions:The uses of time.

This lecture was focussed on different ways that time can be used in creative ways, along with  the use of history, autobiography and biography (personal histories) as well as speed and slowness as a way of reconsidering "making".

Maxine Bristow.

Bristow opposes the industrial speeds of making and focuses on the slow speed of craft, making all of her work by hand, including thousands of button holes which she stitched herself. This to me shows so much skill and creativity, compared to the industrial process of making something which looks so simple like a button hole. These pieces would not contain so much meaning and emotion if they where done by machine as they do knowing Bristow has spend so many hours making them by hand.

Bristow is also fascinated by textiles being part of this anomalous world- this idea of the slowness of craft compared to industrial processes' speed- what if furnishings like the seats we sit on every day where hand woven? Would this slow down the type of lives we lead?

Heritage and tradition in fashion.

Tradition in relation to fashion - timeless pieces? Continuity versus change. Is tradition a living thing? Could it be a way of thinking rather than an actual object? Basis of tradition within fashion - does it go anchor this idea of fashion being constantly changing? 

Although the idea of heritage and tradition does make us think that it is going against modern fashion and being much more about continuity- but is it? Although garments being made by companies such as Pringle which is all about this heritage and traditional pieces, if we where to compare the garments being made right now to ones back when the company first opened- they would probably be very different, so is it really going against this basis of fashion being future forward? 

Contextualising Practice: recording, exploring and communicating.

This lecture was based on the status that drawing, photography and other forms of recording have in relation to the finished work of the designer. How does this recording affect their final outcomes? We also focussed on the way that designers communicate their ideas. 

The design process can be seen to have 2 sectors:
 Public and Private.

Private sector: Recording and Exploring.

Public Sector: Communicating. 

Drawing was the main focus of this lecture as a type of recording:

There are many different types of drawing/mapping/recording.

Christy Brown.

Brown uses drawing to create environment which has his sense of claustrophobia, which produces these strange sculptures as an outcome. This is an example of how drawing can shape the output of the designer.  

Observational Drawing: trying to explore and engage with the world around us, a slow and considered process.

Michael Taussig "I swear i saw this."
Taussig the anthropologist wanted to make a note of something which he help witness too, so decided to start creating observational drawings whenever he came across something of interest to him or something to do with his work. This shows this relationship between memory and drawing.

Photography: different from observational drawing. It is much quicker, almost instant. But does it lack the exploring and engaging with the world around us?

Could we reconfigure the design process?
Instead of the early stages of design- the recording and exploring- being private could these be public?
For example private sketchbooks being exhibited with the final outcome or these being the final outcome in themselves. 
The relationship between drawing and writing could be investigated through these sketchbooks being presented. Could a drawing extend from the sketchbook off the page and onto the wall in an installation type exhibit?

Contextualising Practice: Challenging preconceptions: the uses of materials.

If we can challenge the preconceptions of making, how can the use of materials be explored? This lecture focussed on examining the work of different artists and designers in relation to the materials they selected to use within their work. We focussed on how this choice challenged the nature of the actual object, and how materials have associations that come with them along with how materials can have histories. 

The way in which we measure human development is always based on materials for example the different ages of humanity e.g bronze age. We have a certain way of thinking about materials as we are in a certain episteme. 

Can we challenge this? Are we now turning a corner in the way in which we do think about materials- back to a more magical way? 

Coco Chanel.

Coco Chanel's use of materials was focussed on the idea of the materials being true to the body and simply enhancing the ideal form of body which at this time was a sporty build, meaning fabrics such as Jersey where ideal for this job. The body was the core to the material- sleek lines and no decoration.

This suggests the importance of materials within the work of fashion designers like Coco Chanel in the way that different materials do different things to represent the body in different ways- some fabric can flatter and enhance the body, others not so much. 

Postmodern Materials? 

Mary Kantrantzou's- digitally printed materials.

Is technology beginning to defy materials completely? In pieces like this does the material have as much importance as the digital print on the material itself?

Materials and the environment.

Droog: Material Matters

"While we are hit with glooming predictions of ever increasing material scarcity, our material culture—from the way we consume and dispose, to the way we produce and collect, to the way we design and develop business models— largely remains unchanged."

Taxing on raw materials rather than the finished product? Would companies then by offcuts and bankrupt stocks etc? We need to start realising the concerns over getting the materials which we source- the precious and composite materials. Recycle/Remake? Using things that are already made to make something new?

Contextualising practice: Challenging thinking and theories of creativity.

This lecture considered how people have understood the nature of creativity and explored the way in which we can challenge the set methods which we have for ourselves in terms of thinking. Can you train yourself into thinking differently and therefor be more creative?

Are we creative?

 Do we have to be completely original to be creative?

Could creativity be seeing things in a different way?

Is it enough for somebody to make something and for them to make it no matter how skilled or unskilled they are?

Example:

Local Wisdom By Dr. Kate Fletcher.

  "The project explores satisfying and resourceful practices associated with using clothes. This ‘craft of use’ aims to challenge the dependency of the fashion industry on increasing material throughput and propose solutions through sustained attention to tending and using garments and not just creating them."

 When looking at this work by Kate Fletcher, we could challenge it and question wether Fletcher is a creative because she see's the creativity in other people, listed on this website. Do we have to be creating something, our own work, to be creative? Or could the idea of capturing other people's creativeness and ideas be creative in itself? What are the boundaries of being creative? 

Contextualising Practice: What is making?

This lecture was an exploration of what skill actually is by considering traditional forms of construction by both hand and machine alongside challenges to these. We considered whether making could be walking, breathing or even tidying a draw, but does this require skill? This lecture also challenged the nature of skill. 

These are some ideas/references which I found interesting during the lecture:

Anne Wilson

Engages a lot with the the history of textiles and explores the idea that when industry is lost is craft also lost? Are industry and craft as far apart as we think? Wilson suggests that there is much more craft within industry as we think.  

In an exhibition at the Whitworth Gallery, Wilson conducted a performance piece based on the warping actions needed to produce a woven piece of material. Seen as a comment on the lack of textile industry in north west England, this performance "walking the warp" involves a repetition of movements where, metaphorically, the action itself becomes both a textiles and a soft machine.

This idea of a craft process such as weaving being so skilful yet repetitive and machine like responds to this idea we focused on throughout the lecture of what skill actually is, and wether industrial processes which some people may not see as being as skilful as a craft could indeed be, in a way, very similar.

The everyday action of making:

The idea of everyday things which people do in their lifetimes being "making" really interested me and challenged my preconceptions of what making actually is. Does it actually have to be skilful? To me "making" something is a way of showing creativity and a skill which you have as a person, but does this have to be necessary to "make" something?

For example:

The book (un) fashion by Tibor Kalman and Maira Kalman explores the way that ordinary people wear unusual things, and how people in different cultures wear different things for different occasions. To us these things look very creative and unusual in comparison to our everyday clothing or occasion wear. Could these unusual and interesting fashions be a form of making and creativity? Is it an everyday action which is making something?
Where is the skill and creativeness in the making or is that even necessary to "make" something?



"Making" can be interpreted in so many different ways by different people, and what exactly making is and what it requires depends on the way in which you view it.