JOURNAL
3
THIRD WEEKS CLASSES, INTERRUPTED BY LABOUR DAY WEEKEND, LEFT US WITH A LOT OF IDEAS AND EXPERIMENTS REGARDING ICE, FRANTICALLY TRYING TO SOLIDIFY DESIGNS AND CONCEPTS BEFORE NEXT THURSDAYS BIG DOCUMENTATION DAY. LEARNING HOW TO MAKE ICE BOWLS AND PRACTICING NET MAKING TECHNIQUES TO HOLD THEM, STUFFING STRING INTO BALLOONS AND THEN TRYING TO FILL THEM, CREATING LACE LIKE CRISS CROSSES OF THREADS THROUGH ICE CUBE TRAYS, THIS WEEK WAS ALL ABOUT ICE, AND HOW TO DRAPE IT AROUND THE GARMENT WE DECIDED ON.
TRANSFORM ICE WORKSHOP ONCE ALL THE PREPARATION FOR THE FINAL ICE WORKSHOP WAS COMPLETE, IT WAS TIME TO CARRY OUT THE ORDEAL. ASSEMBLY, DOCUMENTATION AND LOCATION POSED QUITE A LOT OF CONSIDERATION AND WE DID OUR BEST TO DO IT JUSTICE. THE DRESS HAD BEEN HANDSTITCHED BY THREE OTHER STUDENTS AND MYSELF AND THEN WE DRESSED THE MANNEQUIN ON THE BALCONY OF OUR BUILDING AND BEGAN ATTACHING ICE TO THE GARMENT. HERE ARE SOME PHOTOS.
ICE WORKSHOP FILM STILLS
DESIGN RESPONSE AFTER EXPERIMENTING WITH ICE, AS MUCH AS
BUT THEY’LL ALSO HAVE CLUMPS OF THREAD KNOT-
THERE ARE MANY ASPECTS THAT I REALLY ENJOYED
TED AND BUNCHED UP, SUSPENDED IN ICE. I ALSO
ABOUT IT, WHICH IS EVIDENT IN THE NUMBER OF
REALLY LIKED THE ICE BOWLS, THEY WERE TRULY
PRIOR EXPERIMENTS I CARRIED OUT, I’M NOT
BEAUTIFUL. I CONDUCTED LARGER VERSIONS OF
FEELING VERY INSPIRED BY IT. THE ICE HAD A
THESE EXPERIMENTS USING TWO LARGE BOWLS. FILL-
BEAUTIFUL TRANSIENCE ABOUT IT, AND THERE
ING THE LARGEST WITH WATER AND THEN FILLING
WERE DEFINITELY STYLES OF IT THAT I RESPONDED
THE SECOND WITH LENTILS AND SITTING IT INTO THE
TO MUCH MORE POSITIVELY THAN OTHERS.
WATER OF THE OTHER BOWL. I LEARNED THAT IT WAS
THE CLEAR ICE WAS DEFINITELY A STAND OUT FOR
REALLY NECESSARY TO GREASE THE BOWLS, OR US-
ME, IT WAS BEAUTIFUL AND GLASS-LIKE AND I
ING WARM WATER AFTER FROZEN TO GET THEM OUT
LOVED BEING ABLE TO SEE THE SHARDS AND AIR
OF THE ‘MOULDS’. I THINK ITS REALLY IMPORTANT TO
POCKET EXPLOSIONS THAT HAD BEEN FROZEN
POINT OUT THAT I REALLY LOVED THE IDEA OF HANG-
WITHIN THE SHAPE. I’M GLAD WE USED MOSTLY
ING AND THAT I THINK IT COULD EASILY BE TAKEN
SPHERICAL SHAPES, AS I THINK THESE WERE
FROM ONE TRANSFORMATIVE PROCESS TO ANOTHER
DEFINIYELY OPTIMUM IN TERMS OF SEEING INSIDE
(IE, GROWTH, ICE, SPACIAL ETC). FOR SOME REASON
THE ICE SHELL AND THE NATURAL SHAPES AND
THE TRANSPARENCY OF THE ICE HAS REALLY MADE
PATTERNS THAT FORM WITHIN.
ME WANT TO PLAY AROUND WITH CLEAR PLASTICS.
HAVING SAID THIS, I LIKED THE IDEA OF COLOUR
I THINK I’LL CONDUCT SOME EXPERIMENTS WITH
LEAKING FROM THE TEMPORARILY SOLID ICE
CLEAR PLASTIC GARMENTS AND AT THE MOMENT
STRUCTURES AND ONTO WHITE GARMENTS, AND I
MY IDEAS INCLUDE: ACID, BLEACH, RUST, GROWTH,
THINK IT MIGHT BE NICE TO EXPLORE THIS SEPA-
MOVEMENT (SOMEHOW). I’VE DISCOVERED THAT
RATELY TO THE GROUPS EFFORT. SOME OF MY FA-
MOVEMENT AND SPACIAL TRANSFORMATION REALLY
VOURITE METHODS THAT WE DEVELOPED FOR THIS
INSPIRE ME. I RECENTLY SAW A VIDEO OF YING GAO’S
ICE EXPERIMENT WAS DEFINITELY THE HANGING.
LIGHT SENSITIVE GARMENTS THAT MOVE AND BLUR
STUFFING BALLOONS WITH ICE PRIOR TO FILLING
AND CREATE THEIR OWN LIGHT AND DO ALL THESE
SO THAT NO ONLY WILL THEY BE ABLE TO HANG
OTHER AMAZING THINGS.
YING GAO PLAYTIME
Inspired by Jacques Tati’s film Playtime (1967), this series illustrates these garments’ ability to metamorphose when one tries to take their picture. Playtime 1 reacts to a camera flash by contracting and becoming blurred as the fabric, activated by light-sensitive sensors, begins to undulate. For ying gao, this blurriness is a space of freedom which defies the supremacy of the image, that capital element of the fashion milieu. Playtime 2 also reacts to its environment: by means of light-sensitive light pads hidden in the fabric, the dress emits a fairly strong light when struck by a camera flash. There is thus a quite playful element to this piece, which thumbs its nose at fashion shows where photography is king.
ANDREW HUANG SOLIPSIS “Solipsist” is meant to be a purely visual film built around the idea of convergence and unison between living things. The title comes from the philosophical theory of solipsism in which the self is the only thing that one can know or prove to exist. The isolation of this theory inspired me to imagine a counter-hypothesis – a world in which living beings are not constrained by a singular experience. Rather, the characters in this film are constantly merging into one another, forming a collective consciousness through unison of their minds and bodies. The visual style of the film is also an integral part of the film’s concept. My goal is to create a film that is extremely colorful and playful in its materials with an emphasis on practical special effects, costumes and puppetry. Jim Henson’s muppets and fantasy films of the 80s are a huge inspiration for me in their use of physical props and creatures. I want to bring this practice of using tactile production design and creature-making into my own work to bring this fantasy world to life.
ST
Steven Siegel is very interested in the materials he works with, and is probably most well known for works where he places enormous piles of paper, wood and other biodegradable materials into beautiful landscapes. Its really very shocking against the green scapes and being predominantly rubbish and waste materials, accentuates the shock appeal.
STEVEN SIEGEL