Reflection 15,June

I have receiving new project, self-portrait. This is irritated to my specialist and I know nothing about this subject. Part of Alix’s presentation I feel more confused of taking photos and using objects efficiency. Because I did not understand why she made those giant paper roll and also the naked woman hiding everywhere in the forbidden house. That makes me think about what I can do and what is my favourite photographer and what is his/her story behind the picture.

In order to work peaceful and smoothly I just walked around the studio and the building.Taking photos and identifying what is my style and what emotions I want to present. Then I decided to have a research in the library, how those photographers work out the position and display of objects in order to express the emotions. ‘A Body’ by John Coplans inspired me to focus on part of my body. I have tried on hands and there was something I should not do. Taking the exactly same picture from Coplans and I started to think what can I use and shows the personality of myself. After following the conduction of the briefing I found out being absent was the best for me to represent myself and I think I can do more different things on playing shadows.

I have taken several pictures playing with different lights such as warning light and natural light. Also being absent can be shown as the shower drain with lots of my hair. I took those photos randomly and I then giving them the hidden message. What I am trying to say through my image is the time flow by and it was like strips form into a cage and I was trapped inside. The lingering light of the setting sun represent melancholic something depressed and pessimistic emotions. The fist could be considered as I am fighting with myself trying to make something meaningful and I am desperate to be a grown-up man. 

Reflection 16,June

Vija Celmins inspired me of vast drawing and I want to depict the texture of natural surface.And I would like to explore the usage of colors. How to make the contrast efficiency and zoom the objects into a image but not to definite something.

Through many different ways of drawing techniques I have tried on this unit, including blind drawing, drawing without looking at the paper, drawing without the real objects and changing the perspectives in order to make different layers. I think using three colours creating three different perspectives layers makes the image more interesting. Also I like the overlap area it shows the emotions and movement alter.

Reflection 21,June

I have made a action plan for this week to insure every process can be more logical. Started from 19,June,observation drawings of the Regent’s Canal that place I am focus on right now, also some primary research need to be done as well. e.g. Taking images, collecting elements from the canal side. I have taken a series of this canal and I think I can do more about this series. I always take pictures of the latter part of the canal so I think taking picture in different part of this canal in King’s Cross would be better, making contrast of different part of the canal to show why I like this part of it but not the others. In 20,June, I printed out images I have taken and I started to draw several sketches of my ideas and impression of the Canal. The next day I will be testing three different materials in order to find a best one for this sample making. In this process recording is also important and vital. In 22, June, testing out final idea and designing the function of this item.

According to the website I have researched, I found this historical place quite nice. And I think is worthy to do some work in this area. I have taken a series of pictures and I do think this place shows the balance between human beings and flora fauna. Assimilate this environment to a big pot of soup, every ingredients inside works perfectly.

Speaking of the whole afternoon spending in the canal I do like the atmosphere, people looks like peaceful and respect to the environment. To be more specific, my idea is to create a piece of textile work represent the dishes. I always keen on experimental works so I would like to create a surface to emphasise this atmosphere. For this experimental works my peer suggested me to make different textiles samples for the scale and texture also the colours as well. Making comparisons and big contrast could be very helpful to me.

To ensure my idea is clear enough for people to understand I have made a page to show my theme and briefly explainations as well. This theme is a review of my nanny's memory when she was in her 20's that she fell in love with a boy and they got married. My idea is to represent the environment that my nanny 'Xiao Xi' who change herself from a girl into a woman both physical and mental way. At this stage, I am trying to get idea by altering two clothes (in my nanny's style) with a vintage hand bag. Flora pattern symbolise the teenage youth and naive. On the other hand, the see-through materials is the symbolic of feminity.  

By altering the handbag and vintage shirts I have given hidden message as well. I ofund this would be very interestin if  I make a comparison from the front and the back. On the back side I designed a 'T-back' shape with see-through material implies that this girl has moved into a grown up woman. Also It shows the relationship between her and her lover was sweet and happy also some sexual message behind.

To make the design process more creative I put anther 'T-shape' on the handy part but I don't like the effect because my point is to make people focusing on the bag but not the handy part. I found the bag looks messy and non-focus at all so I decide not to decorate the handy. Counterrotating of my 'T-back' shape design. I think just one piece of ' T-back' shape in the middle would be boring so I put another same pattern on the top and put it in opposite way. Turns out people is hard to recognise the shape therefore they can not read my hidden message. What's more, I picked up the second shirt I have got which is in flora pattern and is in bright yellow. The 'almost-wrap' style I did it on purpose because it shows Xiao Xi's personality. She, Xiao Xi is a shy,'stick-in-the-mud' girl. What's more, the tie on the left side handle shows she is quite fashion and a 'nifty' for her carefully decorate the handbag.

There are several suggestions to me after the tutorial. And I am going to make a action plan and also somehow I can improve to my previous work. Firstly, I need to do more high quality research and keep them wide and varied which I can do more exhibitions and galleries visits. Secondly, I should not only focus on the developing process but also the final piece presentation, which means the presentation visualisation with illustration or collage. In this case, I need to do more drawing and using mixed media as much as I can. I think I am lacking of new and exciting designers research and also making action plan daily.

• More exhibitions and galleries visits.
• Visualisation of the final piece.
• Drawing with mixed media as much as possible.
• Finding more designers in the research process.

The contextual practice is about drawing practise. I have drawn 12 drawings based on the circle shape. I found it very hard drawing these circle shapes images within limited time which require people has to be innovative and observant. I think this drawing practise is very challenging not only the confined time but also require the imagination being capable to finish all these circles. Also I found it very challenging for audience to understand my drawing so I asked my friends for feedback. My friends suggested me to draw details between the difference because they are all in the same shape and It is hard to differentiate by the contour. I think is interesting so I would like to draw things based on different shapes like triangles and square to push myself harder and be more observant.

I had experimented two different drawing techniques. In the morning I had life drawing lesson and also it was sort of performance art. This time I was asked to highlight the focusing part by colouring the main part with mixed media and also using define lines to do the life drawing. I feel more confident doing life drawing during the lesson because I found it interesting to chose the highlight part. Also this is my fist time did posing for a long time with my members and also make the audience understand the scene. The second technique is using cling film to wrap part of the body. Then using masking tape making a second skin to the body. I wrapped my foot around, drawing the pattern before I cut it out. I think this is very practical and is reversed process to the normal design process by making the shape at first then cutting the pattern out. It is helpful if I do not have the imaging visual idea I can do the shape as first then make the pattern.

This is a ancient herbal science book with mould smelling inside the book, with intricate illustrations authored by botanist and herbalist John Gerard. It was established in 1636 according to the book it declare that it was the first herbal book in English. I assume the book is for academic and science area with detail descriptions of various plants seems like encyclopaedia based on subjective experience. But again this book somehow gives a guideline for people in nowadays people authorising encyclopaedia and the catalog stuff as well. From the image you can see this is a chronic, ragged pages you can feel the scraps of paper while you turning the page, fabrics and leather mixed cover also shows long decades as well. Personally, I think this object based learning section is very interesting and it gives me more first-hand impression not by just reading someone's description.

We discussed our 10 ideas evokes by the museum collection object, herbal book established in 1636. I came up with exhibits with textile and a bit product design. So I discussed with Xiao who has totally different ideas in graphics design and I think is not enough for us because we have not set up the concept yet. I think communication is the core of partnership doing co-create work figure out ours thoughts and what is our habit of thinking way and development as well. I think I still need to work out this part since we have not come up with final two ideas I feel a bit worried. Experimentation is more important for me while doing the development process I might change ideas and alter my initial idea into another idea. Personally, I do not agree with my partner doing that much brainstorm which has continuing for two days so I would discuss with Xiao again about this which is time-consuming and this is not using the time into maximum. I do think we need to do the action plan together which helps us keep in speed I do not want to slow down and keep doing the brain storm gathering idea for a whole day again.

These are two ideas that we come up with the discussion and I wrote down the difference between Xiao and me and our concept is a bit different so we still need to cooperate and compromise each other making a balance. 

I have a new partner for my Pecha Kucha, Natalie is a product design student. I find out my difference between me and Natalie, she is good at making power point and everything is well layout and also titled up but me is more focusing on speech because I am not good at digital stuff. From this contextual practice I am starting to learn how to be critical and how to find out my partner’s shortage which is still difficult for me. After the crit with Natalie I need to work on my future plan part I am over describing my previous works and my inspiration part I sort of missing my turning point. And I have settled down the final idea with my partner Xiao and we decided to make cup sleeve. Again I think co-create project really teach me how importance are cooperate and compromise while working with someone who thinks completely different with me.

After we discussed with the cup sleeve yesterday,we have done several samples together but it did not fits the functional and textile part because the choice of materials and also the feeling of materials made into cup clutch.Then we started to think about why we made this and it seems lacking of concept behind this design. So we are thinking about the direction of our final piece is there anything that we can put the idea further or should we change the direction thinking of other design. What’s more, we had tutorial and tutor pointed out that is no meaning of the design and we are over compromising each other. Then we started to do a new brain storm to come up with more ideas and giving those concept behind those ideas. I started to find the history of the book turns out John Gerard’s herbal book was a plagiarized translation of a book by Dutch author Rembert Dodoens. What’s more, started from the usage of herbal, herbal could be use as meditation then i found that there was London Plague for a long intermittent period so Gerard’s book could be useful in this way. Afterwards we assumed making a book may fits us and both of us can use our strengthen in this book design. A book that combine old times and modern times also design a new way to present knowledge to the audience showing the continuity of knowledge.

By the latest discussion with Xiao we decided to make a booklet-like because the limited time left and It seems to be the best for us to make a few page to show the concept.

During the whole weekend I have learnt how to do a book also the binding technique as well. I found it very tricky because I am not a good measure-man and I am not capable to cut things in a straight line. Thus I have practiced a lot then I produced two different version of the book one in brown colour and another one is in white. By looking at the difference between these two we think the best one for our final outcome is the brown.The reason why is it looks very simple and somehow the textile pieces background is in white colour so we assume that making a big contract would be great as a effect. So now we need to think about the depth and the reason of why we created those pages and what is the linked with the very former that we have got the found object in the CSM Museum.

Speaking of the crit we had this afternoon, I think it was quite helpful by given a lot suggestion in many perspectives. For example, the binding part seems less flexible and suggesting we should think about using the chain to make every page could be easy to move and less harmful to these pages while flipping them. In this case, I would like to try it next time because the binding was a point that we joint the traditional element into our project so it did show the shortage of binding book but next time I would think about how to make the flipping more flexible. Another very interesting question from the audience was the concept behind this book and also they were looking for the highlight part of this book. Ideally the book should be very simple and neat because the concept is about the sensual pleasure of touching these textile samples and it is quite playful at the latter pages because we put a sewing textile sample which is double based colour in acetate by flipping the pages you can see the flora design in different colours.

Personally I think the concept was quite nice because we both focusing in different details then we sort of adding it together which make the concept expanded by mixing two different thoughts together. I think the final out come looks quite primary and roughly because we have only testing the binding part and the page design only so it was lacking of experiment with limited time.

Ideally, I totally over compromising Xiao of her discipline and so did she that is why we ended up with a very bad idea of cup sleeve then we changed into this book design. I am glad that at least we found out this problem and solved it by changing into different idea. Collaboration with someone really need to communicate and cooperate and compromise properly. Xiao and I have a lot common in someway, literarily we have made a visual graph about the similarity and different in both discipline. 3D making process accounts the most of our similarity and this time we decided to make a 2D flat design was a challenging for both of us. Xiao is a very observant partner and she always thinks about functional and material choosing which are quite nice because I am more focusing on conceptual textile making. I really like the one that Garment you could wear but without wearing it. A sculpture thing that is quite playful has two sides represent to the wealthy and poor life .They did make a good collaborate work by mixing up the materials from both of their discipline I think they making the sides equally because the poor side seems to be weak than the wealthy side, assuming it could be a student not doing fashion in the future.