Unit X: And so it ends!

So today it was mine and Lizzie’s turn to invigilate the exhibition. As a group we had taken it in shifts and the purpose of us being present at the installation site was so that we could explain the piece to the audience and generally guard it in case anyone tried to touch the installation. There was no chance of that happening as myself and Lizzie, as the chief-installation people, would most likely cause grievous harm to anyone that dared lay hands on our precious knit!

I hadn’t seen the installation since this Tuesday so I was a little taken aback when I saw it again. It sounds a bit odd but I honestly liked it much more than I remembered. Of course the film was brilliant; Rachael and Alex have done a great job in editing it! I felt that as a whole, the installation with its various components worked really well together. As one person remarked today, it was an altogether engaging experience for the viewer to be standing within the sinister surroundings portrayed within the film. Some people even went as far as to say that they felt very uncomfortable watching the film in amongst the knit, as though there could be something lurking within it! We set out to evoke a sense of fear and anxiety, and clearly we've been pretty successful! It was just really satisfying to see audiences engaging with the installation as a whole.

The road to our Unit X exhibition has not been an easy one. There have been many disagreements and moments of absolute panic! As creative individuals we have had to learn to let go of creative control, which I must stress is NOT an easy thing to do,  and work collaboratively with students we might never have much interaction with. My only qualm with Unit X in regards to this is that it wasn't as much of a collaboration between courses as I had hoped. I had hoped that Unit X would be a good networking opportunity where we would see the work of students on courses completely opposite to my own, but this was not so. My group was very much Fashion heavy and I think that might have alienated the two Film and Media students at times.

However, There is definitely much to be gained from working with a group. For one thing, I don't think I could have achieved anything quite so ambitious all on my own.  This process has benefited me particularly because, having received positive feedback about my work, I feel more confident when putting my ideas across to a group of people. Also, once we got down to it, there were moments where there was a great creative atmosphere where we could bounce ideas off each other and really push the possibilities of the project. I was working with students who have a really great sense of aesthetic and it was exciting to see how they worked. At times we didn't think we would make it but I think as a group we have really pulled together for a successful outcome. I am thrilled with the final exhibition and am really very proud of our group!

Would I do it again?
....I'll have to get back to you on that one, I think I need some time to recuperate!

Unit X: All set up and ready to go (Almost!)

Yesterday was a trying day! Since we didn't have much of a chance to finish setting up the knit installation on Monday, luckily we had Tuesday morning as our fallback day. Just one problem. We are a group of 9 in total and even when that was reduced to 6 on Monday afternoon, there were still far too many of us in the small exhibition space, all trying to be helpful. I appreciate that they all came with the best of intentions but in some ways I think this may have been a bit of a hindrance. For the majority of the time that we were setting up, half the group had little else to do but to sit around waiting for their turn to be of help! I think this caused a lot of distraction for those of us that were actively engaged in installing the knit and perhaps the whole thing would have been a little less stressful (and me and Lizzie might have been a little less snappy!) if the task had been left just to the installation sub-group.

Nevertheless, it is done! We finished setting up around lunchtime, ready for Robin and Eleanor on their Unit X inspection rounds. I think they were happy with the final outcome but one thing they disagreed on was the use of lighting. A main focus of ours was to direct lighting towards the knit so that it would cast shadows around the space. This was something that Eleanor seemed to like. But because nothing we do can ever go smoothly and without disagreement, Robin felt that the room looked better with only the television screen in the centre of the room. And just when we thought it was all over, nice one Robin!

 I see where he was coming from, because the dark room did make the knit look more menacing as it became a little more difficult to distinguish from the background. But I can’t help but feel that there was something quite beautiful about the intricate shadows that were cast by the knit and it would be such a shame to lose this. Also I fear, though a little selfishly I might add, that if the installation is less visible it becomes secondary to the film when they are both of equal importance. Far too many hours have gone into knitting those pieces and frankly I will not be pleased if it can’t be seen!

Before I get too agitated, I think it just might be possible to reach a compromise. We are looking into sourcing additional lighting. It was suggested that we could just bring in torches and position them around the room so that they still strategically project just enough light onto the knit whilst keeping the room fairly dark as a whole. I guess such are the perils of staging an exhibition, every little detail must be taken into consideration. We’re nearly there though!

Unit X: Promote!

With less than a week until Unit X draws to a close, one of our final tasks was to promote our exhibition. We started looking into this on Thursday last week when Flavia, Hannah, Ryan and Millie created a Facebook group and a poster to advertise the event. I’m quite proud to say that one of my photographs of the installation made it as the background for the poster! As for distribution, we went around the various buildings on campus to put them up so that students who may not be aware of what actually goes on in the art department might take an interest and come along. Meanwhile, Hannah, Alex and Millie also distributed some of the poster around the Norther Quarter so we are really starting to get word out. 

 In addition to this, I have tweeted about the event which I thought would be helpful as I follow a few artist groups in Manchester. This seems to be working as I have already received a retweet from trusty old Manchester School of Art!

I suppose, for us social media has been most crucial in terms of promotion as it’s a great tool to raise awareness and get through to people at short notice and with a lack of resources. Whilst platforms like Facebook are great for reaching your own contacts, Twitter is probably better for events such as this as it allows anonymous groups like ours to feign a greater online presence as we can take advantage of its little black book!

However, alongside all this we were also interested in creating original promotional material as a final collaborative process. This has taken the form of a Zine that combines all our research and processes that we have undertaken to get to the final outcome. I thought this was a nice idea as it was a chance for us to showcase the ideas that may not necessarily have made that final cut.

In regards to the overall look of the Zine, we came to the group decision that it should be printed black and white, for reasons both aesthetic and economic! The idea was that by keeping to a muted colour scheme, the Zine would work in harmony with the sombre mood of the film and we can very conveniently cut down on printing costs! However, to avoid this looking too drab we will be printed on coloured paper that will be inserted randomly so that no two Zines are the same.

 Hannah took the lead on this one while I tried to pitch in as best I could with any ideas of composition and layout of the Zine. This has been a fun process and thanks to Hannah’s expertise I now have knowledge of the InDesign programme and can use it to showcase portfolio work in the future.

Unit X: Countdown to Exhibition Begins

So from all our tutorials last week, it seems that our group is one of the few that are on track. We had a final tutorial with Eleanor on Friday and miraculously it seemed that we pretty much had everything on her checklist! This is to say, we had seen the location, sourced any props, nearly completed the final outcome and had a handle on promotion. If I’m honest, I've never been the one to be running on schedule so close to the deadline, so for once it feels pretty good to not be hyperventilating into a paper bag at this stage! I suppose such is the advantage of working as a group, where tasks can be spread out so that every member is able to consistently work towards a greater collective outcome.

Anyway, everything seems to be coming together now and we have a clear timetable of what to do this week.

Monday: Exhibition Prep

AM  Finish Zine  

PM  Set up installation

Tuesday: Exhibition Prep

AM Complete installation

PM Visit from Eleanor and Robin

Wednesday: Exhibition open to public

 AM Ryan and Sophie invigilate

***VIP Visit- All group members must be present**

 PM Alex, Racheal and Flavia Invigilate

Thusrday: Exhibition open to public

AM Millie and Hannah Invigilate

PM Rimsha and Lizzie Invigilate

So far, we’re on the right track, though we’re starting to slow in pace a little. Today went by at quite a sluggish pace as there was a lot of waiting around. The plan was that we would all pitch in to print and assemble the Zines in the morning and then move on to set up the installation in the afternoon. We were all feeling rather confident that it would all be done by the end of the day and we would be rewarding ourselves with a lie-in for tomorrow. Alas this was no to be, for we underestimated the MMU printing system’s inherent ability to mess up at the most crucial of moments!

What’s more is that it just felt as though there were too many of us trying to help all at once.  Despite our good intentions, I think it is this that slowed us down. Which is why, by 2pm, as we had only just gotten to the stage of cutting down the printed Zines, the general feeling was that we split up so that the majority of us could head off to Incognito to set up the installation. So that is exactly what we did.

By the time we got there, we only had a couple of hours until the shop closed at 5, so we really did have to get a move on. The first issue we had was that the lighting fixtures dotted around the room that we intended to direct onto the installation were far too bright if used all together. To remedy this, we decided to take out the bulbs of some of the fixtures as we wanted a dimly lit setting to keep in line with the mood of the film. After waiting for the bulbs to cool, and some trial and error, we concluded that just one bulb in the far corner was enough to light the room and cast shadows alongside the light emitting from the video that is to be played in the centre of the room. After this, all that was left to do was to start putting up the mass of arm knitting we had accumulated over the past few weeks. I would say we were getting into the swing of things by the time we had to pack our things to avoid being unceremoniously kicked out at closing time, but there is still quite a bit to do. Hopefully tomorrow, everything will run according to schedule as this is the last and most crucial component of the project.

Unit X: Film and Knit Combine

With our location sorted and installation trials successful, ton Wednesday Lizzie and I took a final trip to the Northern Quarter to source some yarn. Our first stop was a cute little shop on the fringes of the Northern Quarter called Purl City Yarns. I had never heard of this place before, but thankfully I had bumped into a friend who recommended it to me. Unfortunately, when we got there it wasn't quite what we were looking for. As lovely as the shop was, the yarns in stock were much too expensive for us, especially since we were hoping to buy in bulk. For what we wanted to do, we decided that bog standard cheap yarns would do just fine! So it was off to trusty old Abakhan.

From Abakhan, we bought 3 packs of yarn in Black, Navy Blue and Moss Green. We were a little limited to the choice of colour but from what we had to choose from, we decided to keep to a dark colour scheme. The plan is to knit the colours as separate pieces but interlace them when setting up the installation so that the yarns cross over each other and allow the colours to blend in.

We put this into practice later on that the afternoon as we got knitting immediately in time to film the final scenes of the fashion film. At this stage of filming, the narrative begins to integrate the installation as a collaboration of both elements of our group project. The storyboard runs so that the protagonist (Hannah!) finds herself entangled ‘in a web of her own fears’...  it’s all a bit disturbing but that's always far more fun! To fit the mood, Racheal found a very sinister looking set of stairs somewhere around the back of her old foundation studios. Here we set up some of the arm-knit samples and were able to see for the first time how the colours and varying densities of yarn would work together.

I think we were all pleased with the results as the yarns were pulled taught to create a dense web that looked more intricate that in actually was! It has been a trying couple of days but I think we're getting there!

Unit X: All Under Control

Yesterday I found out that we were expected to make a presentation as part of our routine Tuesday tutorials about our final outcome.  Cue absolute terror! In my brief run-in with Eleanor in the morning, she said that they didn't expect a final outcome but expected us to be pretty far ahead. This is when self doubt kicked in! We all simultaneously had a mini panic attack about everything we had yet to do. The film people freaked out about not having all the footage and a lot to edit. Meanwhile the installation group had yet to source yarns. And to make matters worse we still not sure of where we would eventually exhibit the thing! Over the weekend, Robin had sent out a vague email about ‘provisional locations’ but we were dubious as to whether it was implied that we continue to look for our own.

Miraculously, as it turned out all our fears were in vain as when we finally got to the tutorial, Eleanor and Robin seemed to think we had it all under control! Either we have at last acquired the talent of making things sound less catastrophic than they actually are or at long last this project is actually coming together.

At the tutorial we were also introduced to Adriano, one of the leaders of Unit X, who had kindly organised an exhibition space for us. This came as a missive relief! For the past week, our group has been unsuccessfully trying to organise a location. Most of the credit for this goes to Hannah, who despite our unfortunate timing was still a pretty impressive force to be reckoned with in her pursuit to make a booking. Sadly, her efforts were to no avail as it appears that most spaces are fully booked.  So understandably, the group practically rejoiced when Adriano told us about the basement space we’d be using to set up our installation/ film.

As a follow up to the tutorial, today we visited the location and it’s safe to say we were all very pleased with what we've got. Lizzie and myself came across Incognito earlier that morning on our ‘Yarn Sourcing’ expedition (more about that later) and were immediately taken by the add gadgets and what I can only describe as slightly use-less but highly amusing.....stuff! 

 When we arrived a second time at the quirky little shop on the edge of the Northern Quarter, we were guided behind the counter into the basement gallery space. Currently, this is being used as a store so I assume at some point next week we will all be pitching in to clear things up a bit. The part of the basement we’re actually going to be using resembles a vault with its barred iron door. This is a bit of a happy accident as it only adds to the sombre tones of our exhibition. The space itself is a good size. I didn't think to ask for the exact dimensions of the space so all I can say is that it’s not too big and not too small. So in regards to the installation, we’ll have plenty of room our knitted pieces without having to worry about filling up too big a space. Another added bonus of space was that it had small adjustable light fittings on all four walls that can tilt towards or away from the installation in order to play around with the effects of shadows. Again these fit the mood that we are trying to create as they are not too bright.

 We've decided that we will be setting up the installation on Monday, leaving Tuesday for any adjustments or last minute additions.  The film people have yet to source a T.V and a table/ plinth but have already looked into ‘The Mustard Tree’, a local charity organisation that sells cheap furniture, and will be finalising this soon.  All that is left to do now is to get arm-knitting! 

Unit X: Throup Revisited

Scrolling through my blog, I came across a blog entry that I posted about Aitor Throup a while ago as research for my very first project. The entry consists of a very short paragraph and it’s not difficult to tell that it was hastily written in the run-up to a blog submission deadline! It simply does not do justice to his work or my obsession with this guy! So at long last I will attempt to remedy this.

I probably only came across Throup’s work about a year or so ago whilst flicking through a ‘Fashion Designer’s Now’  book, or some title along those lines, and I was immediately taken by his illustrative style and the futuristic designs that brought those figures to life. The collection that struck me most turned out to be the one for his MA collection at the Royal College of Art entitled ‘When Football Hooligans become Hindu Gods’.  The collection is an experimental take on generic utility garments that have imbedded within them a strong sense of narrative and wit. The narrative was that of a journey of redemption and transformation amongst a group of football hooligans who face remorse after their violent attack of a Hindu boy. The collection; with its transformative hood features and play on utility garments idiosyncratic to the subculture in question documents this journey in a way that is avant-garde in its vision but also retains accessibility as wearable garments. This was perhaps what draws me to his work as with many high profile designers the balance between form and function is often lost.

Since then, I have followed Throup’s career on and off and was very excited to learn that the designer would be revisiting Manchester School of Art in honour of its 175^th anniversary. The event was a conversation between the designer and Manchester Evening News diary editor Dianne Bourne. There was a lot of hype around the event, and rightly so. The talk was recorded as part of the Young Creative Chevrolet Lecture series and ticketed on Eventbrite and everything! It might even be said that as one of Manchester School of Art’s most successful alumni, Aitor Throup is kind of a big deal!

Luckily, to save me from rattling on about the whole conversation, I have found the full video of the event on Youtube (below). But there were some things that I learned about the designer that were particularly inspiring.

What was particularly interesting was his refusal to be classed as a Fashion Designer. Whilst he does not deny that he is interested in his garments being used in the industry, he seems to be very much against the cyclical nature of Fashion. Here, I think he had a very valid point as the advent of seasonal trends demands new products every few months only to make its predecessors redundant. I find myself feeling really rather guilty around about fashion week because I feel that as a fashion student it is probably my duty to keep on top of all the new trends. This is easier said than done and frankly I don’t even know how much I care! There is very little focus on longevity and that is something Aitor Throup hopes to tackle within his work.  What was most resonant about his design philosophy was what he describes as ‘justified design’.

He believes that nothing should exist without a reason, be it justifiable through narrative or function.  He prefers the label of ‘Product Designer’ or ‘Engineer’ to be associated with his practice, claiming that he has become a Fashion Designer only by default! Particularly, he is interested in new methods of construction that serve to solve the existing and as yet undefined problems in everyday garments.  In this way, Throup is probably one of the most exciting designers today and his work shows that it is possible to create something beautiful that is not entirely frivolous. 

Unit X: Dress and Draw the City with Sarah Easom

Today has been just lovely!

I must admit when received the equipment list for Sarah Easom’s ‘Dress and Draw the City’ workshop, I wasn’t too keen on lugging around a bag full of fabrics and drawing tools all morning. But since the Mancunian weather had decided for once to be....somewhat pleasant, it turned out to be very a nice workshop.

As it was a Friday morning, predictably there weren’t too many of us that turned up. So after waiting around for a bit for any stragglers we set off towards All Saints Park as our first location. Here, Sarah asked us to drape our fabrics and garments over any interesting objects we could find and begin to draw the silhouette that we ended up with. It must have looked rather bizarre from afar but this was actually quite a fun exercise! I chose to drape some silky, printed fabric over a tall stone and tried to create some sort of shape by twisting and knotting the fabric around it. Drawing wasn’t the easiest thing as I’m a little out of practice but I got into the swing of things eventually.

Meanwhile, Sarah came around to talk to us one by one, and when she reached me we talked about how to go about improving the design process through drawing from observation. She made a very good point about how it’s very difficult to design a garment without having a real object in front of you for reference; be it stand development or simply a piece of drape over a stone! Looking at my drawing, she suggested that I concentrate on shape and silhouette rather than just knotted detail of the draped fabric. Particularly, she pointed out how from my angle, the bag I had carelessly placed in front of the rock could form a silhouette detail as a portion of the garment that juts out. From this, I started to draw the bag with the aim to capture the differences in texture and shape between the tough hessian of the bag and the silky drape over the hard stone. I think there might be a general pattern emerging in my work as I am continually drawn to the interplay between fabrics and textures. This is something Sarah encouraged me to explore in the feedback to the previous project so who knows, I might be onto something!

But I digress.  We must have spent an hour or so at the park and only had time for one other location. It was suggested that we go to the town hall. At this point the sun had started to shine so I didn’t object to the walk. Especially since, despite having lived in Manchester for almost a year now, I still hadn’t seen Manchester Town Hall. When we got there, I was immediately taken by the beautiful gothic architecture of the building. There wasn’t a great deal we could drape our fabrics onto here but I decided to loop my fabric around some iron railings instead. Again, I was interested in the contrasting textures as the railings provided a tough structure whilst the fabric gave it softness and shape.

All in all, it has been a really nice day. It was quite a relaxed exercise but talking to Sarah in the informal setting has been the most helpful part of the workshop. My drawing definitely needs some development over the summer but after talking to Sarah I feel comforted knowing that I might be on the right track when it comes to learning how to design.

And now I am off to my home-town of Cardiff for a blissful bank holiday weekend!

Unit X: Colour Workshop with Leigh Cooke

So far on the course I have resisted from using colour in my work. I would love to be able to get away with the (perfectly valid) excuse that a muted colour palette is part of my artistic sensibilities but if truth be told I am simply terrified of colour! In the past, I have enjoyed working with colour and print but this year my focus has shifted towards design in terms of construction and shape-making. When it comes to bringing the two elements of my practice together I find that I am completely lost.

So today was a bit of a challenge for me as we had a colour workshop with Leigh Cooke, a print designer for Hermes scarves. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect but Robin insisted that it would benefit Fashion students. As a general rule, anything with the Robin seal of approval is probably worth giving a chance!

I was running a little late this morning as I had chosen 10 minutes before the workshop to start gathering my equipment (God help me next year when I no longer have the luxury of living just 2 minutes away from campus!). I’m too much of a ‘goody-two-shoes’ to have a blasé attitude to turning up to lectures late so was a little afraid that I would upset the designer of such a high profile fashion brand. I suppose it’s a sign of my naivety that every time we have a guest lecturer I immediately assume that they will have the demeanor of Miranda Priestly from ‘The Devil Wears Prada’. But I was pleasantly surprised to meet Leigh as he was very engaging and friendly from the start.

The task on hand was to use a postcard size image of our choosing and to pick out individual colours from its overall composition. Once we were confident with the colours we had extracted, we could start to play around with ratios of each colour to see how they would look together. As we worked, Leigh Cook spoke to us about how he would use this process as part of his degree and even now in his current profession in order to come up with original colour schemes.

Initially, I found the workshop rather therapeutic and could certainly see myself trying out the technique again in my spare time. But after a while, despite Leigh’s encouragement, I started to get a bit frustrated with myself as the colour scheme I had picked out just didn’t look ‘right’! To be fair, he did explain that as a textile student he would have to repeat this process many times. So really, it’s no wonder that my work showed no resemblance to the examples he showed us at the beginning of the session.

Overall, Leigh Cooke was a joy to work with and was clearly very passionate about what he does.  I think the workshop was a great introduction to a new way of working and I intend to keep developing this in my future work. Who knows, I might actually take the leap and add a splash of colour to my next project!

Unit X: Arm Knitting- Now with Fabric!

During our tutorial yesterday, Robin suggested that we try using alternative materials to yarn as we should be trying to set up the exhibition practically for free. That’s perfectly fine by me! Lizzie mentioned that she had tried knitting with torn strips of fabric. He suggested that we try looking into a charity warehouse called Grumpy’s that sold very cheap crafts items. Unfortunately, it later turned out that the Manchester branch had been closed down due to lack of funding in March. The consolation was that if we got desperate we could always make a trek to Stockport for its alternative branch if we needed to. That's if we get really desperate!

But for the time being we could always make use of scraps of fabric from past projects that we no doubt had laying about (I have a tendency to buy too much fabric...though I’m sure you can never have too much fabric!).  For once I had a little extra time on my hands today so I thought I would give it a go.

I did this by very simply tearing a sheet of cotton into strips and as this was a quick experiment I simply tied the ends together to make a continuous trail. The strips of fabric then were quite easy to knit but the only problem was that unlike the yarns we used in our trail installation over the weekend, the finished piece did not stretch as much as I would like. At the moment, I can’t really see us using this version of the technique in our installation but it was worth a try!

Unit X: Location, Location, Location!

To give an idea of the sort of scale we want to work towards, here are some installation artists that I have found as inspiration. Over the weekend, we found that once we pulled our knit samples we could stretch them out and manipulate them so that they could span a larger space and form cool geometric shapes. But to progress any further we need to settle on a location so that we have a better idea of how much we need to knit. Surprisingly, it doesn't take too long to arm knit a large piece and isn't particularly laborious so can be easily done whilst watching the telly!

 I'm currently waiting for the film-people to see if they've got a film location in mind to give us an indicator of space we will have to cover. For this, Rachael has suggested filming in Antwerp Mansion and is in the process of emailing them for permission. As for finding a location for the actually exhibition, we have discussed what kind of space we are after and have agreed on looking for a blank white space that we could cover entirely in the knit. 

For our experiment in my flat, we used very conspicuous masking tape to anchor the knit to the walls. As tape will not do for the final exhibition, what I am concerned about is how many spaces will be happy to let us hammer nails into the wall! As a solution to this, I proposed building a wooden scaffold-type structure that we could construct on-site. This will give us a frame to work within and tie on bits of yarn that will hold the installation, with the film displayed in the centre of it. But in our tutorial, Robin rightly pointed out that this might just be unnecessary bother and that we wont actually know what we're working with until we find a location. 

But since we don’t have very long left, we should probably get a move on!

Unit X: Arm Knitting Part 2

Following on from our experiment with arm knitting, I took the opportunity to photograph the samples in the evening using dim directional lighting to try and capture the shadows that it cast on the wall. I think there is something quite beautiful about the intricate patterns created by the knit that is quite sinister and eerie at the same time. 

Unit X: Arm Knitting

The object of this weekend was Scale! Lizzie came over to my flat to get to work on trailing a knit installation. I was very impressed with her knit samples from last week as they were very tactile and even Robin pointed out that throughout the tutorial she simply couldn't stop handling them! What I was interested in was pushing them further in terms of scale and trying to see how we could create 3D shapes out of them.

Because we probably wouldn't be able to source big enough knitting needles for the sort of scale we had in mind, I suggested we try arm knitting after seeing a small sample of it from a friend on the course.  Below is  the Youtube tutorial that we used.

We popped into Abakhans on Saturday morning and since we were just interested in sampling the technique we weren’t particularly fussed about what kind of yarn we used. In the end, we settled for deep purple medium weight yarn and a mossy green yarn that was much finer to give us an idea of the difference in textures. After a bit of fiddling about, we found that the arm knitting process was pretty easy to grasp and were able to make a sample using a whole ball of yarn surprisingly quickly.

Once we had our samples, all we could do next was find some space and start putting it up. We didn't have much of a plan for this as we haphazardly started to stick up random corners of the knit. We found that we liked that shape of the knit when it was pulled taut and twisted to different angles.

Also, as we were knitting I found that my sample was much tighter than Lizzie’s; most likely due to my inability to let go and knit loose ‘messy’ structures! But in the process of hanging up the two pieces we were interested in the contrasting densities between them. In a previous meeting we had talked about the installation being concentrated at a central point and expanding outwards. So the two knit samples worked well in the sense that we could vary the tightness of the stitches in order to portray different densities.

We thought about using different thicknesses of yarns side by side, again as a means of portraying a concentration of energy and outward movement. So the idea is that the yarns used in the centre of the installation could be thick and become progressively finer as we reach the peripheries of the piece.  This is dependent on what we can source as there wasn't a great range available at Abakhan.

Finally, we thought about colour and the possibility of using a gradient colour scheme that uses darker yarns in the centre and lighter yarns as it moves outwards.

Overall, I think this was a successful experiment and we are definitely edging closer to defining our final outcome.

Unit X: Harmony from Discord

This week has been a stressful one! There has been much biting of tongues and Facebook based venting!

 It all began with our lecture with Anne Douglas. Anne's work is based primarily takes on a curatorial role is excited by the process of bringing together completely different fields such as fine-art and science bring the audience an exciting artistic experience. One question she got us to think about in the lecture was that can a collaboration be successful even if the outcome is not? Her argument was Yes, it can. This is because collaborations are all about the sharing of skills and knowledge and therefore much can be gained from the actual experience of collaboration. If the end product is successful then clearly the collaboration worked well, but all in all it is a process of trial and error.

With this in mind, Anne Douglas was the perfect person to sit in on our Tuesday tutorials Robin and Eleanor. But all did not go to plan. For starters, the only people that turned up were myself and Lizzie from the installation sub-group and Millie from the film sub-group. Not a great turn out! We were asked to pitch our idea so far and the tutors took a positive interest in what we had to say about the installation.They were particularly interested in Lizzie’s knit samples because of how tactile they were.  However, as Millie was the only one present from the film group, I don’t think she was quite able to do justice to their ideas on her own and since we had not been involved in that process, neither could we. This led Anne to question our decision to work separately and she stressed that we were completely missing the point of the collaborative unit. At this point I must admit, the whole sub-group scenario was a bit of an easy way out of having to manage such a large group!

For the remainder of the meeting, Anne talked to us about the ways in which we could combine the film and installation as a sort of performance piece where we could invite the audience to experience the installation as a sort of guided tour and film the reaction. Whilst her ideas were all very exciting, we left the tutorial feeling a little dazed and confused.

Things only got worse when the news hit Facebook. I would post a screenshot of the conversation but it’s a little messy! The problem was that Millie posted a panicked message about how we were being asked to change our ideas. Somewhere along the line this got heavily misconstrued and things got pretty heated as people were not happy about though of dropping ideas.

Needless to say, I was pretty nervous when we called for an emergency group meeting. Thankfully, we had all cooled down a bit and were able to talk about how we could intergrate the film and installation. At first we talked about the knit being part of the set design to go with the film.  But as we went on to brainstorm scene ideas I was a little concerned that the story line had nothing to do with our plans for the installation at all. I think it was a little difficult for the group to visualise how it would fit in as we haven’t yet gotten around to sampling anything on a larger scale and as a consequence couldn't really show them what we had in mind.

As the narrative the film-people had in mind was based around irrational fears, I suggested that the knit could be a figurative representation of this that is present throughout the footage. The fact that it would be more in the background for some of the scenes might add to the sinister connotations as fear can be portrayed as something that is ever present. 

I think after all that fuss, we might actually be in agreement. All we need to do now is to get cracking on some large scale knit samples!

Unit X: Sampling

Following on from our meeting, this weekend I have been busy sampling with various material. My initial research looked at objects that were used in Voodoo rituals so I thought it would be a nice idea to make casts of objects, maybe those that had sentimental value, to display as part of our installation. For this I decided to keep it simple and use watered- down PVA glue to fuse various materials together in a moulded shape. Inspiration for this came from Lizzie’s research into the work of artist Anna Mortimer who uses heat fusion to mould fabric into delicate cocoon-like objects which she embroiders and puts together as beautiful globular clusters.

So I started by covering a small vase with patches of loose wool fibres (kindly donated to me by Flavia) and soaking it in watered-down PVA glue. I was quite happy to keep my layers quite uneven and haphazard as I was interested in the way light would pass through the varied densities.

Whilst that was left to dry, I repeated technique by wrapping thick string around an ink bottle and some thin yarn around another vase. Again, my aim was not to be too precise and leave random gaps in between the layers to allow for light to pass through. 

As I had really soaked the pieces I found that it took ages to dry! But as it was a nice day I was able to take some pictures of my experiments in good light. In some ways this worked better with the coloured glass as a base for the wool and string outer shells as it accentuated the light and shadows. 

Once dry, the samples weren’t quite as successful as I had hoped. I found that the samples simply didn’t hold their shape once they had been peeled off their bases. Particularly, the wool fibres began to come off in clumps once it started to peel it and would probably start to shed every time I handled it! But this might simply be down to my PVA to Water ratio. What might have been a half-success however might be the string and yarn structures. Again, these did not hold their shape properly but once removed from the base structure, it was almost as though the yarn took on a skeletal resemblance of the object that formed it. 

Unit X: Brass Art

The week before we broke up for Easter, me and my friend Sonia gate-crashed an art lecture. I say gate-crashed because after about 5 minutes we realised that we were the only fashion students in the entire lecture theatre and the content wasn't really directed at us at all. Nevertheless, it’s probably the most bad-ass thing I shall ever do!

But this being a collaborative unit and possibly the only chance we will have to deviate from everything fashion, this incident turned out to be a bit of a ‘happy accident’. For you see, the lecture was headed by Chara Lewis, a member of the Manchester based artist collective, Brass Art.

We came across a piece of their work in September last year at the Tatton Biennial entitled Flights of Fancy. For this, the collective exhibited a site specific inflatable sculpture called Trine Messenger (2012). Taking inspiration from classical images of Hypnos, the collective’s surreal piece was an amalgamation of each member’s face using 3D and 4D bio-medical facial scanning.  Sadly, when we visited Tatton Park, the sculpture had started to deflate so we did not get to see it all its glory. But from its documentation on the collective’s website I can see that this was clearly an impressive piece. The fact that it was stark white alludes to marble sculptures, almost as an echo of the inter-mingling of modern technology and classic art forms.

Trine Messenger at Tatton Park, 2012

A lot of their work revolves around the interplay between light and shadows. For example the series of watercolour silhouette drawings produced as part of ‘The Non-existence of the Unnamed’ (2010) series were exhibited in a dark room in which the artists installed just one light bulb. This brought the notion of shadows playing tricks on the mind to the audience whose own shadows would mingle with the figures on the wall. In this way, the drawings almost become an installation as it is as though the eerie silhouettes were emerging out of the canvas like some portal to another realm.

The Non-Existence of the Unnamed at The International 3 Gallery, 2010

I am interested in how the collective utilises space to play an active role in their installation. For example, the installation ‘Still Life No.1’ (2011) was a result of their ongoing fascination with 3D laser printing, with which they created miniature figurines of themselves. These figurines were displayed alongside other small scale sculptures made out of cheaper materials such as cellophane. They worked alongside a theatre technician to create a rotating table with its own light source on which to display the collection of objects. This gave the mini-sculptures a new dimension as the shadows created by the rotating table created ever-changing shadows on the walls of the gallery space, almost like a live shadow play. I think this is a lovely idea as the installation in itself was not particularly big but still the artists managed to fully utilise the space in an interactive manner. In this way, the difference between the expensive 3D printed figurines and the cellophane is lost entirely as the shadows cast on the walls reveal nothing of their origins.

Still Life No.1 at The Whitworth Art Gallery, 2011

*images taken from the artist's website

Unit X: Zero-Waste Pattern Cutting with Fiona Mills

Our lecture with Fiona Mills was an introduction into the concept of Zero Waste pattern cutting. The objective of this process is quite simply to reduce the amount of waste produced in the creative and commercial pattern cutting process. Shockingly, 15-20% of fabric waste is produced at this stage in current commercial practice with even greater waste produced by high-end designers as a result of their elaborate and complicated designs. This is worrying as, despite the protestations of many big brands, much of that waste does not get reused or recycled. This is even more of a problem now as fashion is fast moving and the seasonal trends mean that more garments are produced at a quicker pace; therefore greater wastage.

It is then interesting that though this is a contemporary issue, the practice of Zero Waste Pattern Cutting has been around for centuries and takes inspiration from the first garments ever produced. This harks back to a time when fabric was a valuable commodity as Roman and Grecian garments would be constructed using entire lengths of fabric and shaped simply by tucking and draping.

Fiona then spoke to us about the Yield exhibition held in New Zealand in 2011 that celebrated the use of Zero Waste in modern practice. The exhibition brought together a diverse cross-section of designers and researchers that are the forerunners of this field. This ranged from young designers such as Julia Hamsden, a recent design student, who works primarily with menswear and uses the waste pattern to create quirky grown-on details on generic garments for the commercial sector. On the other end of the spectrum, there are designers such as Yeohlee Tang who create garments for high fashion who have experimented with the technique for a high-fashion market.

The lecture followed an afternoon workshop with Fiona herself who has just completed a masters with her research based around transforming commercial and designer patterns into Zero-Waste garments. As part of the workshop, we were given a set of pattern designs from the Yield exhibition and were asked to recreate the design without any instructions. This struck me as a bit of an odd request as I regard pattern-cutting as being about precision and accuracy. But Fiona assured us that it was just about having fun with the construction process and being creative.

I decided to take her word for it and chose to work with a skirt pattern by Yeolee Tang. It seemed simple enough but when I got down to cutting and reassembling the pieces I just couldn't figure out how to put it all together so that it looked like a designer skirt. I really didn't help that I didn't have any clear images to see what the end product should look like so essentially I was trying to re-create something that I had never seen before! Since I have major control issues, this was quite a frustrating process. But Fiona was pretty encouraging and eventually I managed to fit all the pieces fit together so that they actually resembled a garment.

Aggravatingly, when I got home I Googled an image of the garment I had tried to recreate and it turned out that my skirt looked nothing like the original! *deep breaths* 

But I won’t lose my mind completely as at the end of it all Fiona reminded me that the process was just about experimentation and creating original designs through the process of problem solving. This is something I'm very interested and might even take another crack at it when I start designing for my next project. All in all, a really great lecture with an equally engaging and friendly lecturer.

Unit X: Installation Sub-Group

This year has been very much about trial and error. At first, I felt compelled to abandon the ways of working I had adopted in my previous foundation year, which was geared more towards textiles, and approached the course with a preconceived notion of how a fashion designer must design.  Unfortunately, what I imagined to be the ‘correct’ way of working did not translate into the correct way of working for me and I have found myself struggling to design in a way that reflects my artistic sensibilities. This is why, I was so excited to use this unit as a chance to step outside the confines of the course and begin to explore different ways of working.  I am still interested in the practical making of things which is why; when it came to thinking about the final outcome I was more inclined to work towards some form of large-scale installation. Thankfully, as a result of last week’s tutorial with Louise who gave us the option of creating more than one outcome, I was joined by Flavia and Lizzie as we formed a subgroup. Like me, the girls are interested in working with textiles and prefer a tactile and hands-on approach to making.

We came together as a sub-group today where we went through our research and talked about what sort of medium we’d be interested in working with.Whilst I enjoy working consistently on my own to develop a narrative for my work, when it comes to realising those ideas into an actual outcome I find myself a bit lost for direction. In this way, I think working with a team (though now smaller than originally intended) will benefit me as already we were bouncing off each other’s ideas.

It emerged that whilst Lizzie and Flavia had ideas of what they would want to work with in terms of the final outcome, due to having to change the direction of their research according to our turbulent group discussions, they had not defined a research concept. The general feeling was that each time we had a meeting, ideas were changed and in turn research had to be altered accommodate those changes. 

My research had the advantage here as I had stubbornly refused to change my research as I wanted to continue to develop a strong narrative on which to base our groups ideas. I guess that’s not quite being a team player but it has worked out for the best as the other two were happy to continue with my conceptual research.

The concept we have settled on is that of ‘Evil Reflected’ as illustrated in the images below taken from my sketchbook.

Collage using image of a 'Gris-Gris' talisman. Pencil, Tracing Paper.

Collage based on photograph of Horse skull.  Pen, Watercolour.

Despite the fact that this research came from looking at Voodoo, our aim is to make the final outcome more of a figurative representation of the original concept. Both illustrations show sharp forms protruding from objects, so we talked about potentially making structures that raise up from a fixed point in a space, i.e. either upwards from the ground our as a hanging installation from the ceiling. As inspiration for this, we thought about the work of artist Cornelia Parker, whose piece ‘Cold Dark Matter’ is an exploded view of a garden shed that appears to be suspended in motion. 

Cornelia Parker, Cold Dark Matter- An Exploded View. Exhibited at Tate Modern(1991)

What we particularly liked about this was the fact that all of the individual components were concentrated at a central point and then expanded outwards into the larger gallery space. Lighting is an important component here as again its central positioning almost suggests a source of energy.

Finally, we are interested in fully utilising space by playing around with lighting to cast shadows. To achieve this we have a number of ideas that we aim to sample during this week.

• I want to continue to play around with fabric manipulation to create 3D structures
• Flavia is interested in machine embroidery onto dissolvable fabric
• Lizzie is interested in free-machine embroidery but wants to look into incorporating text within the piece. 

So the plan for the rest of the week is to Sample, Sample, Sample!