Beyond Humanity - Research Zine

MINOR MAKERS LAB 2020

BRITT DE HEER

03. INTRO 04. LARGER CONTEXT 07. PERSONAL MOTIVATION 08. THE CONCEPT 11. OUTCOMES 12. REFRAMING MOMENTs 14. alginate recipe 17. images 32. trail of evidence 43. SOURCES

INTRO Being yourself doesn’t have to be in human form.

These body accessories are made out of bioplastics and are meant to break through the limitation of the human form. With these accessories I don’t want to accessorise the body, but embrace the body. These accessories could be your second skin.

03.

LARGER CONTEXT For this project I was inspired by drag and performance artists. Most people know drag as a man dressed as a women, but drag goes way deeper than that. The art of drag is based on a physical transformation that goes beyond sexuality and gender. Within these transformation there is no need to identify as a certain gender. You can also even identify as a creature of your own liking and own imagination.

One of my biggest inspirations for this project was the design duo Fecal Matter (@matieresfecales on Instagram). Their transformation goes beyond humanity. Even though the way they look is not a costume but a way they identify theirselves, it’s still a physical transformation they go through. The accessories and clothing they wear, look like their actual body parts but reshaped.

The reason I wanted to make these kind of body accessories out of bioplastic is because bioplastic are biodegradable just like most parts of the human body. These accessories are definitely not timeless.

Through life the idea of your body changes and because these accessories are so close to the body they might not fit the idea of your body anymore.

The accessories are also unique, no piece is the same. Just like people.

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IMAGE FECAL MATTER

IMAGE ISSHEHUNGRY

PERSONAL MOTIVATION I started off with wanting to make jewellery out of bioplastics, but that was a very broad subject. So I started to brainstorm what kind of accessories I wanted to make. Also taking my personal interest and fascinations into consideration. I was immediately inspired by drag, because they always wear these extravagant accessories and jewellery. There are a lot of micro plastics in the jewellery and micro plastics are very polluting. So I thought bioplastic were a great alternative. What I didn’t think about was how hard it was to shape bioplastics without a mould.

So I started brainstorming again and I still had drag as my inspiration. As I mentioned before, drag goes way deeper than just a man dressed as a women.

So I landed on post-humanism. Post-humanism is about questioning what it is to be human. Breaking through the limitation of the human form that’s what it is about.

07.

the concept I started making a concept for myself so I had something to hold on to and fall back on. Afterwards I’m really glad I did, because sometimes I felt lost in the process. I changed the concept only a little during the project. The final concept is making body accessories out of bioplastics to break through the limitation of what it is to be human. With these accessories I don’t want to accessorise the body, but embrace it with accessories that could be your second skin.

08.

Outcomes The recipe I decided to use is an alginate based recipe. The reason I wanted to use this recipe is because it’s heat-resistant and waterproof, which are necessary qualities for accessories. I thought I could control this kind of bioplastic more than I actually could. It was really hard to shape and form this bioplastic into something without a mould. It sort of lived it’s own life. Which actually fitted really well to my concept. So I learned to let go a little bit of the design.

I started pouring the recipe on different kind of things to see what is does to the shape. I poured it on a mannequin, some weird cushion which was in a delivery box as protection, on a platter and also just with a syringe and funnel into the calcium chloride bath. Afterwards when it was hardened I was looking if it fitting nicely onto the body. There are some nice pieces, but if I hard more time I would’ve tried more ways of pouring and shaping.

The hard thing about this project was that I wasn’t in control all the time. I had to work with what the material was doing. This was hard for me, because I’m used to being in control with my project.

Although it was hard I think I learned a lot.

11.

reframing moments The reframing moment that changed everything for me was the first reframing moment with Laura. She was asking me questions about my idea to make body accessories and I couldn’t really answer those questions, because it was just a vague idea in my head. Also Marjolijn said earlier that I maybe need to make a concept. So after those two reframing/ feedback moment it instantly came all together.

So I decided to write my concept down including a vision and a mission as I learned at Fashion & Branding. This really helped me to get a clear idea and also picture a clear idea for others so they could understand.

12.

alginate recipe The recipe I used is a recipe from Loes Bogers and can be found here: https://class.textile-academy.org/2020/loes.bogers/files/recipes/alginatestring/

INGREDIENTS Sodium alginate powder - 24 gr Glycerine - 40 gr Water - 800 ml/gr Sunflower oil - 20 gr Calcium chloride solution 10% - 300 ml (30 gr to 300 gr water) PREPARATION Put the oil, alginate and glycerine in a blender and add a dash of the water. Blend into a thick and homogenous paste. Then add the rest of the water and blend again.

Leave the mixture overnight to allow the bubbles to come to the surface and pop.

There are different things you can do with the alginate mixture. You can put it in a syringe and spray it immediately into the chloride solution. You can also pour it on a platter and spray the chloride solution over it. You can pour it over all sort of things like a mannequin doll for example, but make sure you wash the chloride solution off. The things I gave as an example are the things I did. The drying time is five to seven days.

14.

images - beyo

“BIOPLASTIC AS A

ond humanity

A SECOND SKIN”

17.

TRAIL OF EVIDENCE

32.

SOURCES IMAGE FECAL MATTER: https://highxtar.com/5things-to-know-about-fecal-matter-the-post-human-fashion-designers-duo/?lang=en IMAGE ISSHEHUNGRY: https://arminmorbach.com/ job/hungry-2/ Bogers, L., 2020. ALGINATE STRINGS - Loes Bogers. [online] Class.textile-academy.org. Available at: <https://class.textile-academy.org/2020/loes.bogers/ files/recipes/alginatestring/> [Accessed 17 April 2020].

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