ENC O U NTE R I NG D E - FA MI L I A R I TY MAKING STRANGE OF TEXTILE EXPERIENCES
LINDA DANG THESIS BOOK BACHELOR OF INTERIOR DESIGN RMIT UNIVERSITY 2014
E N C O UNT E RI NG DE-FAMILIARITY MAKING STRANGE OF TEXTILE EXPERIENCES
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CONTENTS 9
Introduction
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Definitions
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Thesis Question
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De-familiar through visual perception precedent_ Simulacra + Simulation by Jean Baudrillard precedent_ Daniel Arsham project_ Mind + Matter project_ Familiar / Unfamiliar project_ Fabri-cast
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De-familiar through manipulation project_ De-familiarised Object project_ Surface to Structure
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De-familiar through application precedent_ Christo and Jeanne-Claude project_ Wrapped project_ Fabric Wall precedent_ Petra Blaisse project_ Parting Pleats
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Image References
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Bibliography
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With a genuine encounter . . . the contrary is the case. Our typical ways of being in the world are challenged, our systems of knowledge are disrupted. We are forced to thought. - Simon O’Sullivan, Art Encounters Delueze and Guattari: Thought Beyond Representation
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⎯ INTRODUCTION ⎯
I am interested in the idea of creating a different experience of the conventional and the everyday and how we can create a different relationship with the materials that we take for granted. An element of the experience that I am also interested in is the visual encounter of spaces and how we understand or perceive the material which influences our experience. The role that the materiality can perceive and evoke a physical sensation such as tactility becomes a secondary engagement which can further enhance the relationship that the user has with the surrounding space. The research explores the techniques of de-familiarisation, how to make strange the familiar, to create this different experience. The familiar is the conventional or something that is frequently encountered which eventuates to being unnoticed.
The different spatial experience, or de-familiarised experienced is positioned as where one is in a state of awareness and curiosity. Through challenging the conventional expectations, alluding to a false impression and physical obscurity, this provides a strange approach to the familiar. In researching the concept of defamiliarity, this different experience is researched in relation to textiles. Textile in this context is referring to classical textile materials which are fabrics, not to membrane materials which can offer characteristics or functions of traditional textiles. Textiles is a materiality that I believe has the potential to be re-examined and re-considered when addressed in the interior design context, as it currently has a conventional association as decoration and embellishment in interior spaces.
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DEFINITIONS
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⎯ DEFINITIONS ⎯
DE-FAMILIARISATION making the familiar strange. A technique in art used to question the conventional perception of the everyday life. 1 As a result this activates consciously the mind to consider the present situation, otherwise unnoticed. A concept that later was situated as part of Bernard Tschumi’s six concepts in which he states “If the new mediated world echoed and reinforced our dismantled reality... one should to take advantage of such dismantling, celebrate fragmentation by celebrating the culture of differences, by accelerating and intensifying the loss of certainty, of centre, of history.” 2
1. Viktor Shklovsky, Art as technique, na, 1965, http://web.fmk.edu.rs/files/ blogs/2010-11/MI/Misliti_film/ Viktor_Sklovski_Art_as_ Technique.pdf, (accessed 30 March 2014) 2. Bernard Tschumi, Architecture and Disjunction, (Cambridge MA: MIT Press , 1997), p237
Tschumi’s re-affirms the notion of uncertainty and differing to the conventional, as something to be taken advantage of resulting in new developments of the architectural experience. UNFAMILIAR to not have any association or memory of; no knowledge of FAMILIAR the conventional or something that is frequently encountered on a daily basis; knowledge of
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⎯THESIS QUESTION ⎯
HOW CAN WE CHALLENGE THE P E R C E P T I O N OF A MATERIAL TO CREATE A D E - FA M I L I A R EXPERIENCE?
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DE-FAMILIAR THROUGH VISUAL PERCEPTION When visually alluding to a false experience, the blur between what we see and what it physically is can create a different experience of the familiar. Inspired by the notion of simulation by Jean Baudrillard, where imagery is another experience of reality.
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ENCOUNTERING DE-FAMILIARITY
⎯ PRECEDENT ⎯
[SIMULACRA + SIMULATION BY JEAN BAUDRILLARD]
Jean Baudrillard’s concept of simulation and questioning what is ‘real ’he states that “Simulation threatens the difference between the “true” and the “false”, the “real” and the “imaginary.” 3
3. Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation. (Ann Arbor :University of Michigan Press, 1994), p.3
Baudrillard discusses his theory in relation to the society of the spectacle and the fabrication of images against actual reality, the blur between these two forces is present when we start to digitalised reality. Through the method of photography, a ‘reproduced reality’ is created. This provokes the questioning of what is it that we see is, what it is in reality and is it what we expect. A photograph can only depict visually without knowing exactly what it is, the visual impact is a key element to how we experience a material, before physically encountering it.
THROUGH VISUAL PERCEPTION
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⎯ PRECEDENT ⎯
[DANIEL ARSHAM]
The work of artist Daniel Arsham, references the visual perception and illusion of what we see and what it is in reality. In the installation artwork, ‘Curtain’ (2007) as seen above, through the form and visual perception the piece alludes to a fabric and softness to it, but through knowing the materiality the opposing notion is present. Our expectations are shattered by the reality, creating a sense of confusion and strangeness. Visually perceived is the idea of the familiar form of drapery, fabric or softness becomes de-familiar through actual reality. In relation to materiality, implying a different to the conventional form and use, provokes a de-familiarity.
Through the imagery, a false impression arises to start to consider the materiality. How I can create this feeling of the disconnection between what is visually seen and what it is in reality, is research through the projects.
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ENCOUNTERING DE-FAMILIARITY
⎯ PROJECT ⎯
[MIND + MATTER]
Exploring Baudrillard’s influences, his concept of simulation applied to explore how visual perception can create a different experience of materiality. This project is examining the conceptual ideas of simulation by Jean Baudrillard, where he derived his theory of simulation into three levels: First level- obvious copy of reality Second level – Blur between reality and representation Third level - Hyperreal: a produced reality based on nothing related to the actual real world. 4
4. Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, p121-127
Through conceptual modelling the theory was applied to the tactile element of metal nails.
Applying the method of photography as a visual perception to the physical model it was intended to explore the disconnection between physical and non-physical existence. Baudrillard’s theory is discussed in relation to the digital realm; however I am interested in exploring this through the physical act of making. Considering something that is familiar, the perception of metal nails, I analysed the thoughts it provoked through words and ideas, these were then aligned with Baudrillards theory, which the concepts are physically modelled. The tactility experience as a means to engage in a material was analysed through the materiality of the models.
THROUGH VISUAL PERCEPTION
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FIRST LEVEL
Using bamboo skewers and painted metallic, where the form imitated metal nails.
SECOND LEVEL
Using acetate coloured sheets, to depict the sharp form of metal nails. Though physically the model does not create the tactile sensation of sharpness or solidness that the photography can depict.
THIRD LEVEL
Abstracting the idea of the ‘perception of nails’, and through the process of making as the representation of this idea. The model is created through applying the physical effect of the nail of piercing. The tactility output to this creates a new sensation that is abstracted away from the conventional through the process of re-production of an abstracted element.
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ENCOUNTERING DE-FAMILIARITY
⎯ PROJECT ⎯
[FAMILIAR / UNFAMILIAR]
This project explores how Macro photography positions the reality in a different manner, scaled up close, therefore providing another way of seeing the familiar subjects. The process explored framing and positioning elements to create a defamiliarised experience. It is based on the selective encounter by the photographer to induce a different experience.
THROUGH VISUAL PERCEPTION
MACRO
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As the objects are familiar to me, the only obscurity would perhaps be to other people. The influence of memory plays a part also to how we experience what we see, therefore to one it may be unfamiliar but to another we can associate and guess what the item is. The real and the visual perception becomes subjective, as Vernon states in ‘The Psychology of Visual Perception’ that “when we are confronted with a new and unfamiliar object we may try to match what it looks like, or feels like to the touch, with imagery of objects perceived in the past.” 5 Vernon describes that the confrontation would be linked to what we already know and understand in our minds when we perceive this object, therefore it becomes a very individual experience.
5. Magdalen D Vernon, The Psychology of Perception. (Great Britain: Penguin, 1971), p35
ENCOUNTERING DE-FAMILIARITY
THROUGH VISUAL PERCEPTION
⎯ PROJECT ⎯
[FABRI-CAST]
Casting fabric provides a new way of experiencing through the notion reproduction in another material This project explored the method of casting to reproduce the surface of textiles. Through free form casting plaster in a loosely formed mould of cotton fabric, the plaster produced a fluid and organic characteristic of the textile. The surface finish replicates the texture of the cotton textile, however upon touch it is solid and not soft as what it can visually depict.
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ENCOUNTERING DE-FAMILIARITY
THROUGH VISUAL PERCEPTION
I casted the surfaces of an upholstery textile and a window treatment textile with plaster. The surface pattern produced alludes to the actual textile. The image on the far right is the plaster casted surface. Through application the defamiliarised experience of textiles is engaged, the insertion of the casted surfaces into the conventional domestic environment produces a false expectation.
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ENCOUNTERING DE-FAMILIARITY
The visual implications are a notion to the experience of a casted surface. This contradiction to the textile becoming a solid and opposing the textiles common characteristics is an interesting idea to the awareness it brings to the materials and what is seen. In the domestic environment textiles are a form of comfort, warmth, and provide a homely feeling. Produced from a different material, something that is solid, cold and rough, a disconnection is produced.
THROUGH VISUAL PERCEPTION
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The tactile experience is also defamiliarised as it has challenged the fluidity and softness of textiles, producing a tension between softness vs. hardness and warmth vs. cold. The disjunction between familiar and unfamiliar is suggested through this material deception, where one can feel a sense of discomfort, discomfort in being misled and literal discomfort through application.
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ENCOUNTERING DE-FAMILIARITY
CHAPTER TITLE
DE-FAMILIAR THROUGH MANIPULATION When the physical form of textiles is altered a different understanding can be experienced, this is inspired by the notion of disjunction by Bernard Tschumi. Opposing expected conventional notions of forms and functions can create a de-familiarised experience.
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ENCOUNTERING DE-FAMILIARITY
⎯ PROJECT ⎯
[DE-FAMILIARISED OBJECT]
6 + 7. Tschumi, Architecture and Disjunction, p147, 146
Bernard Tschumi’s theory to create architecture that is unexpected becomes an influence to exploring means of creating a different experience of the familiar. In his book Architecture and Disjunction, Tschumi states something occurs when there is “Disjunction between the expected form and expected use” 6 The ‘disjunction’ is positioned to provoke a different way of looking at something, as a result further attention and curiosity arises which then provides a new engagement to question what it is. As a means to produce spatial experiences, the juxtaposition of different programs such as, as Tschumi suggests “bicycling in the Laundromat” 7, creates an uncertainty and disjunction to the conventional experiences which is where the new lies.
This project explored the research at a physical scale, challenging the conventional notions associated with a cup. The familiar elements of the cup were described, then opposed and represented through model making. Taking an everyday object as a cup, different ways of ‘de-familiarising’ the materiality and functionality was applied.
THROUGH MANIPULATION
DE-FORM The formation of a cylindrical shape to hold contents was removed through changing the shape of it.
Disjunction between the expected form and expected use.
DE-PLASTIC The materiality of solid smooth surface was removed through applying a soft absorbing material such as cotton pom poms.
- Bernard Tschumi, Architecture and Disjunction
DE-EXIST The actual cup was removed through casting the form of the cup only to exist. Casting method of fabric and gelatine to create the silhouette only of the cup
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ENCOUNTERING DE-FAMILIARITY
DE-USE The ability to contain something was removed through casting the void with plaster.
DE-FUNCTION
The ability to hold a liquid was removed through producing holes in the material.
THROUGH MANIPULATION
⎯ PROJECT ⎯
[SURFACE TO STRUCTURE]
This project explores the physical manipulation of a material. Textiles conventionally seen as a two dimensional surface was changed through applying techniques that would alter the material’s form into a three dimension surface.
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TECHNIQUE ONE
ENCOUNTERING DE-FAMILIARITY
calico fabric
Smocking has a spatial implication through creating a relief pattern in the surface. I smocked calico which is a common fabric, nylon netting which has a stiffer form and plaster cloth, which was intended to produce a solid surface material. The deception produced through manipulating the two last materials through applying a textile technique, further produces visually a complication to perhaps what the material is, which then perceives a strange appearance. Smocking applied to plaster cloth produces a solidify material but with the impression of a textile process, the disjunction between what the material is and its performance was underestimated through the final outcome not being as anticipated.
plaster cloth
plaster cloth + nylon netting
CHAPTER TITLE
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ENCOUNTERING DE-FAMILIARITY
THROUGH MANIPULATION
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TECHNIQUE TWO Shibori is a Japanese technique used to embellish textiles by shaping and securing before dyeing. The word comes from the verb root shiboru, "to wring, squeeze, press." 8 This Japanese word emphasises the action performed on the cloth, the process of manipulating fabric. The technique applied to polyester transformed the materials’ two dimensional surface to a relief surface. It has an interesting spatial outcome as there is a sense of solidness and depth, however upon touching the material it remains the characteristic of polyester fabric. The characteristic of this method produces a notion of the unexpected through making. The elasticity to the fabric along where the ties were and the three dimensional surface relief is produced. There is a moment of chance and accident which becomes the element that produces the beautiful final product. 8. World Shibori Network, Shibori as Art, Yoshiko I Wada, http:// shibori.org/shibori-asart/ (accessed April 4, 2014
The materials have an element of tactility which is a notion related to textiles and the experience of materials that I am interested in investigating to produce a different spatial encounter. An interesting result from the plaster cloth performing not as intended as ‘a cloth’ but a mesh of plaster and the elasticity produced to the polyester. The project illustrates the theoretical idea that the lack of knowledge can produce a different and strange experience or in this case, outcome. When there is not an existing association or memory, something new, there’s a notion of the de-familiar experience.
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TITLE
DE-FAMILIAR THROUGH APPLICATION When the application of textiles challenges beyond conventional associations, a different experience can allude to a different engagement. Inspired by works of Christo and Jeanne-Claude as a means to create a de-familiarised application of textiles.
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ENCOUNTERING DE-FAMILIARITY
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⎯ PRECEDENT ⎯
[CHRISTO AND JEANNE-CLAUDE]
9. Christo and JeanneClaude. “Why do Christo and JeanneClaude Use Fabric.” video, 1:08, January 8, 2012, http://www. christojeanneclaude. net/videos/why-dochristo-and-jeanneclaude-use-fabric#. U31DGfmSxnk. (accessed June 2, 2014) 10. Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Christo and JeanneClaude FAQ- Why wrapping? Why fabric?, Christo and JeanneClaude, http://www. christojeanneclaude. net/faq (accessed June 2, 2014)
The work of Christo and JeanneClaude is inspiring through their application of textiles. Textiles according to Christo have a poetic implication, he expresses in an interview question the application of fabric “To translate the fragile nomadic quality of our project, very much like the people in the desert and Sahara, they can build their tent overnight…… The fabric gives a living quality to project.” 9 The beautiful poetic notion of the materiality to have a connotation beyond the conventional suggests a potential importance of the textiles through the application. Christo and Jeanne-Claude also employ the concept of wrapping as the means to “altering an environment” 10. Their application of textiles de-familiarises the familiar landscapes as seen in the installation
artwork ‘Wrapped Coast’ in Little Bay, Sydney, Australia from 1968-69. The awareness to the covered subject arises through this intervention into the natural landscape as viewer to determine what has been covered. Along with this idea and as previously researched that through intervening into the conventional, physically or metaphorically, a different way of seeing the once familiar can be produced with textiles
THROUGH APPLICATON
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⎯ PROJECT ⎯
[WRAPPED]
This project is to explore how through opposing the context of textiles a defamiliar sense occurs. Photographs of the natural landscape are intervened/collaged with fabric. The application of textiles as something within an interior space now on the exterior, the idea of intervening into the natural landscape with a manmade materiality, and the idea of collaging as a method that takes the familiar and applying it in a different context to form a different relationship with the subjects arranged. This exploration challenges the conventional purpose of textiles through application.
Through removing certain sections of the photograph intuitively; I have suggested and allude to a new thought about what would have been there previously. The collages express a different outlook to textiles and a different outlook to the subject of the photograph.
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ENCOUNTERING DE-FAMILIARITY
THROUGH APPLICATON
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ENCOUNTERING DE-FAMILIARITY
THROUGH APPLICATON
⎯ PROJECT ⎯
[FABRIC WALL]
This project is exploring the use of textiles as a three dimensional form, which starts to consider the application as a structural element. The making of the textile into a cube is considering the idea of a brick, as something that has volume and can visually depict solidness. The textile is a sheer polyester material, which is commonly applied as a sheer curtain. I wanted to challenge this common textile’s use and application in this project. Producing the textile to act metaphorically like a brick it was formed into a wall where it resulted as a screen-like device.
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Through the application in a domestic context the contrast of materials, soft textiles and hard plaster walls is explored. In the familiar domestic context, conventional association of textiles is as a curtain or embellishment, but through this different form, it becomes defamiliarised. The tactile sense is provoked to figure out what the material is. The application as a domestic wall, however, starts to question further the structural component of it. How can it become self-supporting? It cannot, however it can create a visual perception to allude to a structural element, not as a curtain or hanging fabric.
ENCOUNTERING DE-FAMILIARITY
THROUGH APPLICATON
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⎯ PRECEDENT ⎯
[PETRA BLAISSE]
Petra Blaisse creates a relationship between the textiles and the architecture which house the textiles, but her outlook to the importance of the application and use in textiles is where my interest in the defamiliarised application of textiles lies. Blaisse describes her work as impacting on the minds of the occupants; this is interesting as she positions the use of textiles to have a further involvement to the spatial experience than as a final treatment to the space. They are considered in all their physical and conceptual notions to produce the unique application of the textiles.
11. Sylvie Kruger, “The Emancipation Of The Curtain: Interview with Petra Blaisse”, In Textile Architecture. (Berlin: Jovis, 2009), p11
“Our interventions, super present as they are at times, start to trigger subconscious experiences and effects, pulling our interior work more in the direction of the natural, biological world…” 11
The Storefront for Art and Architecture installation for the ‘Movements Exhibition’ (2000) as seen above, Blaisse applied a curtain on the exterior of the building, where it was intended to question the relationship between the interior and exterior. This project is an example of the large scale and un-conventional application of the traditional curtain. Her works brought me to consider how can textiles become the architecture, not just an afterthought.
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ENCOUNTERING DE-FAMILIARITY
Curtains do not only create or regulate space; they are space themselves. Their scale, shape, structure, pleats and folds and technical implications become part of the architecture that they are serving. - Petra Blaisse, The Emancipation of the Curtain in Textile Architecture
THROUGH APPLICATON
⎯ PROJECT ⎯
[PARTING PLEATS]
Inspired by the idea of the ‘curtain’ and the work of Petra Blaisse further exploring the notion of textiles as a volume and a dense component. This project explores pleating the curtain and applying it as the walls that form the space. As the conventional application of a curtain as a covering to a window, I extended this idea to produce a greater volume. The material is pleated to form a dense volume in which can be implemented as a structural component. However, I found that the material on its own is not structurally supporting, but the intention to de-familiarise the perception of textiles is introduced as the space forming materiality.
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THROUGH APPLICATON
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Applied in context as the materiality that forms the interior space of a retail shop with cut outs in walls that become display areas for products. This application alludes to a different application of textiles in the interior design context, rather than a traditional curtain The intention of application considers the familiar and conventional textile material in a de-familiarised manner. Through considering it in a different application, as a further significant space forming materiality the awareness to the materiality and curiosity is engaged.
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⎯ EPILOGUE ⎯
Through alluding to a false impression, challenging the conventional expectations and physical obscurity through application, a strange approach to textiles can be seen. The three strategies become a means where we can take the familiar and defamiliarise them, because there’s enough of the familiar that remains to recognise but not entirely be passive about it or to create entire abstraction. This tool has the potential to provide a different manner of seeing the everyday, in particular to the experience of textiles and to create experiences that allow a conscious awareness of what surrounds us, what makes up these spaces and then reconsidering a new relationships to the familiar to perhaps create a more lively and exciting environment. I intend that this de-familiarise experience of textiles would then address re-considering textiles in the interior design context.
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IMAGE REFERENCE p17 Daniel Arsham, “Curtain”, installation, 2007, http://www.danielarsham.com/index.php?/ project/sculpture/
p40 Christo and Jeanne-Claude, “Wrapped Coast”, Little Bay, Sydney, Australia, installation, 1968-69, http://christojeanneclaude.net/projects/ wrapped-coast.
p47 Petra Blaisse, “Movements Exhibition”, Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York, USA, 2000 in Textile Architecture by Sylvie Kruger (Berlin: Jovis, 2009) p.36
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BIBLIOGRAPHY Baudrillard, Jean. Simulacra and Simulation. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1994. Kruger, Sylvie. “The Emancipation Of The Curtain: Interview with Petra Blaisse”. In Textile Architecture. Berlin: Jovis, 2009. La Marche, Jean. The Familiar and the Unfamiliar in Twentieth-Century Architecture. University of Illinois Press, 2008 Lane, Richard J. Jean Baudrillard. New York: Routledge, 2000 O’Sullivan, Simon. Art Encounters Deleuze and Guattari: Thought Beyond Representation. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. Tschumi, Bernard. Architecture and Disjunction. Cambridge MA: MIT Press , 1997. Vernon, Magdalen D, The Psychology of Perception. Great Britain: Penguin, 1971 ONLINE Christo and Jeanne- Claude. “Why do Christo and Jeanne Claude Use Fabric.” video, 1:08, January 8, 2012, http://www. christojeanneclaude.net/videos/why-do-christoand-jeanne-claude-use-fabric#.U31DGfmSxnk. (accessed June 2, 2014) Shklovsky, Viktor. Art as technique. na, 1965. http://web.fmk.edu.rs/files/blogs/2010-11/MI/ Misliti_film/Viktor_Sklovski_Art_as_Technique. pdf, (accessed March 30, 2014) World Shibori Network. Shibori as Art. Yoshiko I Wada. http://shibori.org/shibori-as-art/ (accessed April 4, 2014) PICTORIAL Arsham, Daniel. ‘Curtain’. Installation. 2007. http://www.danielarsham.com/index.php?/ project/sculpture/. Blaisse, Petra. “Movements Exhibition”. Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York, USA, 2000 in Textile Architecture by Sylvie Kruger. (Berlin: Jovis, 2009) p.36 Christo and Jeanne-Claude. ‘Wrapped Coast’ - Little Bay - Sydney - Australia, installation. 1968-69. http://christojeanneclaude.net/projects/ wrapped-coast
⎯ ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ⎯
Thank you to Chris Cottrell and Tessa Blazey for the insightful knowledge sharing and guidance. A special thank you to family and friends for the support.