IMPERFECT DESIGNING HARIS IOANNOU MA Graphic Design & Art Direction
The regenaration of perfection
Digital and physical malfunctions are always unexpected and unwanted as they are regarded as errors. Through breaking the default of design the aim was to bring back to life discarded objects and processes in order to show that unwanted and unloved items can be restored in worth and beauty.
EXPERIMENTATION
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CONTENTS
INSPIRATION
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DEVELOPMENT
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IMPERFECT DESIGNING: INSPIRATION
Lin Tianmiao
Lin Tianmiaos’ childhood memories of her mother sewing during the Cultural Revolution, prompted her to develop the technique of embroidery in order to express ideas about the feminine, birth, motherhood, sexuality, aging, and death. Recently she has examined the way that language constructs female identities. Her embroidered Badges take words applied to women in Chinese and English—from “witch” to “courtesan,” “whore” to “leftover woman,” “phoenix lady” to “cougar.” Stitched onto silk and hanging from the ceiling in embroidery hoops, they question how women are perceived and defined.
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http://dailyserving.com/2014/01/material-practices-stitching-fabric-and-textiles-in-the-work-of-contemporary-chinese-artists/
IMPERFECT DESIGNING: INSPIRATION
http://anthologymag.com/blog3/2014/06/24/textile-art-by-ana-teresa-barboza/
Ana Teresa Barboza
Ana Teresa Barbosa’s sculptural creations include landscapes, seascapes, florals, and portraits. She uses needlework, knitting, and crochet techniques that yield a wonderful texture. Whether it is a grassy knoll or the current of the ocean, her textiles capture movement and emotion. It’s especially interesting how she frames each piece, for example the way her landscapes and seascapes pour forth from embroidery hoops—as though she is giving a nod to the more traditional art form of needlework while also turning the process on its head.
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IMPERFECT DESIGNING: EXPERIMENTATION
O n the first practice, the definition ‘Glitch Art’ was the initial concept of this project and it has transformed through the whole year. This semester was focused on experimentation and research looking at electronic glitches and reflections on abnormal surfaces. This experience was exciting however the project needed further development as many artists focus on similar concepts.
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Practice 1
IMPERFECT DESIGNING: EXPERIMENTATION
Practice 2 The second semester was challenging as the project remained at the experimentation process. Looking at serendipity, different games were played to help with the further decisions of this project. The collection of broken and unwanted items such as books, kindles and broken glass pieces helped this project to develop. One example is when the glass pieces were reflected on different surfaces altering their characteristics through photography. The images of the broken objects were hauntingly beautiful. The computer programmer Michael Michaelides was a great contributor to this project as he created a program that randomly deconstructs and reconstructs the coding of images. The results were unique as it was impossible to get the same outcome twice. Another experiment was a Facebook group that was created for people to post their everyday experiences with glitches and accidents. The amount of images and videos uploaded on the group was impressive and some pictures were later taken into digital embroidery.
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IMPERFECT DESIGNING: EXPERIMENTATION
Practice 3 Through Practice 3, the history of embroidery was revealed through my research and it connected perfectly with the contemporary digital process. In 1973 Lady Mary Wortley Montague stated that
‘It is scandalous for a woman not to know how to use a needle as for a man not to know how to use a sword.’
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This shows that until recent centuries embroidery was considered as an accomplishment rather than a hobby. It showed off the accomplishments of a lady and her marriage value was increased.
IMPERFECT DESIGNING: EXPERIMENTATION
Digital Embroidery
An old archive image of three women in Crete in the 1920’s was used in the digital embroidery program called Pfaff. This program creates unexpected results with imperfect stiches through the textile piece. The reason why this program was chosen was to communicate the uniqueness of modern technology. People are used to seeing multiple copies of a piece, perfectly produced. The Pfaff embroidery program gives unexpected results that some people would consider as flaws. The stiches are uneven and loose and the results are random.
Today, embroidery machines are expected to give quick, cheap and easy results and hand stitching has taken a back seat over the years. Women used to produce distinctive creations something that is difficult to find today. The textile of the three women was separated into three layers to show the depth of the design. Three is an important number in this project as the three ladies have a very iconic look, reminiscent to a religious icon and the holy trinity. My corresponding work in the exhibition of the three hoops is a tribute to the three ladies.
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IMPERFECT DESIGNING: EXPERIMENTATION
Transparent Materials Though experimentation, the concept of using transparent materials in order to give depth to the design, seemed to work best. Light was projected on to a white surface, through an embroidered projection sheet so as to give an illusion of movement. This was reminiscent of the glass experiment from the second semester and it was clear that lighting embraced imperfections. There were also other trials, for example by placing the embroidery on a window. The test of adjusting the textile on top of the original digital image before it was taken into embroidery, led to the idea of combining the old, and the new.
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IMPERFECT DESIGNING: EXPERIMENTATION
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IMPERFECT DESIGNING: DEVELOPMENT
Resin & Light box With the religious connotation of the embroidered pieces, I felt a certain reverence and need to protect the images of the three ladies. Through storing the textile inside a resin block, the purpose was to present the work as a treasure, like the ones that museums keep as archives. I wanted to retain the memory of the women in Crete, who have been forgotten today and replaced by machines. The resin was a way to capture the memory and preserve it as an archive of a memory of both the ladies and the process of embroidery. Through using a light box to exhibit this embroidery creation, it feels like the women have been brought back to life and as the textile is illuminated, the light works as a third layer. The resin operated as a storage medium and the light box exposes the intricacies of the embroidery piece.
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IMPERFECT DESIGNING: DEVELOPMENT
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IMPERFECT DESIGNING: DEVELOPMENT
Video projections
During the Professional Platforms project we were given the opportunity to make connections following the collaboration with the MA Film making student Saiful Mazlan. Through videos projected onto three embroidery hoops, the process of working with embroidery was shown.
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The first hoop exposes a Pathé archive film, which shows women doing needlework. The second hoop shows a machine needle working in slow motion. At full speed, it appeared that the digital needle, worked in a very harsh and quick way against the material in contrast to a woman’s hand, which was delicate and protective against the fabric, treating it like her child. When the machine was slowed down, the sound of the needle was like a ‘pregnancy ultra sound’, connecting this idea of creation and tenderness. The third hoop shows how the human and the machine relationship will be developed in the future, indicating that machines will become extensions of our bodies. It displays a hand holding a sewing needle. However it is working with the movements of the machine. The three videos create a timeline of how embroidery used to be, how it is today and how it will become in the future. The three hoops represent the women in the embroidery piece and the hanging fabric reflects femininity, as the flow of the fabric looks like the dresses that the women are wearing.
IMPERFECT DESIGNING: DEVELOPMENT
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IMPERFECT DESIGNING: DEVELOPMENT
This project opened multiple paths and it was challenging to choose one of them and follow it without knowing if it will succeed. The idea of imperfect designing focused on the concept of surprises, not knowing how it will develop. Though multiple successful and unsuccessful experiments, the final results fitted my expactations. Through imperfect designing, the beauty of discarded objects was embraced. Perfection is often unexciting and repetitive and it is through our imperfections that we find uniqueness and after some consideration, beauty.
M e A h T e
erience xp
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