PORTFOLIO WEAVING THE MOSO
MA Interaction Design Communication 17_18 Lihua Li / LI_17528195
In collaboration with Art and lifestyle Journalism: Georgia Panagi Moso intangible culture inheritor: Aqi Du Zhi Ma (A Qi) and Locals of Wa La Bi
" We believe that research on craft and artisanship has the potential to open up new and evocative questions about contemporary concern: technology; access to markets, means of production, and control over work practices; tradition and innovation; urban and rural spaces; human rights and environment. " - Alanna Cant
INTRODUCTION I started this project from my personal interest in a handmade object- a Moso scarf that I bought several years ago when I traveled to Lake Lugu, China. To exolore its unknow stories behind it, to examine how craft was using narrative for telling the story of Moso culture, identity , values and social patterns, to provide the world a unique window into the realities of daily life in Moso minority ethnic group to realize their current status and challenges. The story being told through an handmade loom with an unfinished handmade scarf. I focused on how different materials, colours and patterns as a narrative for telling. My role as an interaction designer defined who participate in weaving this scarf. In collaboration in Georgia Panagi and A Qi , story behind this installation has been created. This would be shown in my degree show on 5th - 9th Dec, 2018.
CONTENT Introduction Description Final show sketch Inspiration Case study Research Journey Day Day Day Day Day Day
1 2 3 4 5 6
DESCRIPTION The outcome of my project was an interactive installation which included three parts: The first part was an handmade loom which was re-designed by local carpenters and me and made of local timber. The second part was a handmade scarf which had four defined sections. There were three sections weaved by A Qi Du Zhi Ma, myself, Georgia Panagi respectively before the final exhibition. The remaining portion will be woven by the audience during the exhibition. The third part was that audiences will be invited to touch this scarf during the exhibition. A documentary will be projected into a hand-made linen fabric which helped to tell story behind the scarf. Documentory link: lilih-idc.com Personal website: lilih-idc.com
FINAL SHOW SKETCH
Sketch Plan A : I will use a table for placing the finished ( No ) part of the scarf.
After communicating with curation team of our degree show and my tutor Helga Schmid, I changed my show's plan three times. I decided to choose a darker place for setting my artwork because the video will be projected into a piece of fabric hanged on the wall. For plan A, as the table may distracts audiance from my loom, so I change to plan B. However, where will I place my projection became a problem, as I can't drill holes in the linning wall. In addition, the audiances' shadow will be shown if the projection fix in the wallwhich is on the opposite side of fabric wall, so Plan C will be the best solution. Sketch Plan C : the green stage is a part of our degree show's design. ( Yes )
Sketch Plan B : transparents string will be suspended ( No ) from the ceiling, which helps to hang the scarf up.
INSPIRATIONS
Weaving Stories Lesli Robertson
A conversation and Beyond Jou-An Chen
Weaving Futures Philippa Brock
Weaving Stories, which was a contemporary interactive exhibition, displaying the wove installation which collaborates with artists, makers, students and educations, telling the artists’s personal stories of Kuwait through the pieces they created by using various techniques, from weaving to knitting, hand and machine embroidery and so on
An art installation created by a MA Textile Design student from Chelsea College of Art and Design. Narrating her journey by discovering the issues the Atayal were facing and herself reflection. It initiated a conversations between the Atayal and major markets in the world, raised awareness about the situation of Taiwan’s minority traditional culture.
A Data and Transport project brief were given to the Designers & Artists to explore the significance of Jacquard loom weaving beyond textiles, looking at how the Jacquard loom punch card system led to the development of computers and digital data, and how these have affected transport systems as a whole.
CASE STUDY
The reasons that I chose these three case, firstly of all, they all related to weaving, story telling and collaboration. Then, they all challenge and question normal notions of what a weaving objects is or could be. Thirdly, they made use of different combinations of fabric materials, weaving techniques, specific colours as a narrative medium for transforming and interpreting what their willing to say in their projects. Fourthly, there were all out of mass production and exhibition at the museum or exhibition hall. From the above analysis, my project would be characterised by the following features: collaborative, concentrating on Moso minority ethnic group and traditional weaving, carrying out my own research in Wa La Bi village, having broad appeal.
BEFORE DEPARTURE Based on above three case study, I started to plan my research journey. collaborative A Qi Du Zhi Ma Locals in Wa La Bi designers or artiests who are interested in my project and China ( good at photography )
After i asked several friends who might be possibile to collabarate with me, I was so happy and exciting that Georgia Panagi accepted my invitation. She comes from USA, applying successfully Chinese Visa which is not easy, but we prepared all the visa documents, finally She got the visa!
concentrating on Moso minority ethnic group theoretical research (such as history, conflicts, customs, patterns, rituals, kins...)
Moso traditional weaving Moso basic weaving skills Moso traditional materials and current status Moso traditional weaving tools
contemporary situations and challenges
carrying out my own research in Wa La Bi village
having broad appeal
-flight tickets -accommodation -foods -itinerary
how to interact with?
how it looks?
my audience?
2nd, November: from Kumming, China to Wa La Bi
urgent items
7th, November: from Wa La Bi to Kunming, China
uncertainty items
I got an email from A Qi's son - A Qi Ni Ma Ci Er invited us to visit her mother and lived with her mother.
Goal problems had been solved.
INITIAL PROTOTYPE "(3x3) MATRIX: The 3x3 gridded matrix is a methodology that comes from the University of Cambridge. It is put to use at the early stage of projects on the MPhil Architectural and Urban Design, run by IngridSchrรถder and Aram Morodian. It allows students to speculate on the different scales and possibilities of their projects, which may be buildings, urban plans, or small design interventions."I got some insights from my tutor's recommended approach which was the 3X3 matrix.
After discussing with my tutor about my 3X3 matrix, I made a prototype by using some readily available materials at home, which helped me to visualise my initial idea and explain my idea to others more easily. There were three colours in this scarf, area was surround by green colour tape belong to A Qi, area was surround by the yellow tape belong to me. the rest of the purple area belong to audience during the final show.
After 16hs' flight from London to Kunming , I couldn't fall asleep as the jet leg.
I met Georgia at Kunming international airport on 1st November.
On the flight to Lake Lugu at 9:30 am 2nd November
Arrived at Lake Lugu airport and on the way to tourist attraction - Lake Lugu, this was more sufficient means to Wa La Bi
Waiting for the minibus to go to Yongning Village. There was no timetable of the bus we waited around 3hs.
Finally, we got on the minibus, there was no bus stop, people got off at any time.
The road was very curve, steep and bump. Georgia tried her best to prevent our luggages from falling off.
The scenery on the road was so beautiful and impressive. Water is clean and the air is fresh.
This was a street view in Wa La Bi, very quite, few people was chatting on the side of the street
We arrived at A Qi Du Zhi Ma's house. Facing the mountains and had a really big garden.
There were a lot corns on the floor , A Qi told me that there are foods for feeding ducks and chickens
A Qi prepared a super sumptuous dinner for us, we felt warmth.
Day 1 : 3rd November, 2018 After we chatted with A Qi, she accepted our request for recording what she was doing on the next day. For the first day, what we did was that observing A Qi's life, documenting what were her hands doing.
She got up at 7:00am, then would do the following things : chanting, rotating stupa, sweeping the floor, making breafast, watering the flowers, feeding animals, weaving, cornhusking... She told me that tufu was one of her favourite food.
Day 2 : 4th November, 2018 We talked a lot and her neighbours usually came to chat with her. Compared with people who lived in cities, people lived here enjoy slow life. A Qi 's weaving studio was an half- outdoor place, facing a beautiful garden and blue sky. “What will you really want to weave for yourself?” - I asked “I will weave one sentence - make up your mind, do not fear failure and difficulties, be yourself. (translate into Chinese: 下定决心，不怕困难，争取做好 )" - A Qi mused.
Day 3 : 5th November, 2018 " I have experienced several period hard time for my weaving . Especially at the very begining, there are little consumer willing to buy the things I make because everyone know how to weave a little bit, so they don’t buy outside. At that time, we have 2000RMB things in stock . My lover teased me that no one would buy it. I said : ' it is a good thing that no one want to buy it, because I am going to set a table in the street and give every people who pass by as a gift if it necessary.' " - A Qi said. "When I made my mine to weave, a lot of people look down upon me, because they thought that weaving was not a way can make a living. Moso People were proud of working on land or being a peasant. However, I don’t like that, I like weaving, I make up my mind I wanted to reuse Moso traditional weaving to making a living and support my family. However, we experience some difficult time that we didn’t have enough money for supporting our daily life. But I told myself, I wouldn’t give up , I should believe myself, if I was not afraid of failure. Day after day, month after month, year after years, 20 years had been passed. I felt happy that I didn’t give up at that time." - A Qi said.
A Qi told me that she had six clothings, which are made of the thread she save in her whole life. Because all the materials came from the place she was born. As planting hemp was banned after 90s in Wa La Bi. So these six clothings are precious to her.
A Qi granted my request happily and surprisingly. because I invited her to weaving the sentence she mentioned yesterday by using her precious linen threads. She told me that she had never done this before, everything was new to her for making my project's scarf. She was not confident about it. Georgia, A Qi and I decided to choose the blue fabric as the main colour of the scarf. Although we came from different places and countries, we met each other and shared with the same sky.
It took A Qi almost 24h for weaving her part, I will explained the meaning of each patterns in our documentory, which included following patterns: Tofu, Terraced fields, The key, Swallow, Buddhist ritual instruments, The flower room.
Day 4 : 6th November, 2018
I would like to weave a bridge by using A Qi's precious linnen threads, because as for me, it represent her spirit and soul which also could be found in myself. For example, most women who had married in China thought that it was impossible to leave your family for a long period to study abroad. A year ago, I made up my mind to learn design, and applied postgraduate course by myself succesffully. I guessed that we have something similar between A Qi and I. After A Qi finished her section, it was my time to learn Moso weaving skills. Firstly, I choose the white thread as my main color as I was regarded myself as a person who knew nothing about the Moso, to see , to listen, to feel, to enjoy, to explore things and stories in here. Secondly, it tooks me 3 to 4 hours to adapt to the loom. I felt my back and shoulder painful, my eyes were tired because I had to cncentrated on weaving, otherwise the mistakes would be shown in the scarf obviously. I was distracted by my phone and made lots of mistakes which can be seen in my scarf.
o1 The combination of the colour that were represent Georgia and I came to Wa o2 this combination of the colour, red, white, blue, which meant I came to UK La Bi, met A Qi and the Moso people. to meet different people from different countires, to experience another culture that totally different from my culture. 03 I choose green and red to represent one of my journey in Morocco. because I 04 I choose black thread to represent LCC, because the logo of LCC used the met Georgia in morocco, we were both took part in LCC's surfing clubs and went black. I brang my dream of design to come to LCC. During the whole year, I to Morocco to learn surf. learnt so much and became more and more clear what I was going to do in the future.
Day 5 : 7th November, 2018
in collaboration with locals of Moso for redesigning and making the loom by hand
Day 6 : 8th November, 2018 I kept a diary during the whole journey,I harvested an unforgettable journey. I experienced uncertainty before departure, then communicating with the locals very carefully on the first day of arriving at A Qi’s home, forgetting all the research I had done to observe their everyday life, to communicate with the locals in a sincere manner. This is extremely precious memory for me. More importantly, I started to rethink myself who I am, what I value. ‘When we watch other birds sitting in their custom trees, it may be worthwhile to glance also at the tree from which we took off ourselves.’(Oppitz, 7)
Bibliography Robertson, L. and Robertson, L.(2018). -. [online] Weavingstoriesq8.blogspot.com. Available at: http:// weavingstoriesq8.blogspot.com/. [Accessed 23 Nov. 2018]. Theweaveshed.org. (2018). Exhibition: ‘Weaving Futures’ | London Transport Museum » The Weave Shed. [online] Available at: http://. www.theweaveshed.org/1873/exhibitionweaving-futures-london-transportmuseum/ [Accessed 23 Nov. 2018]. Wilkinson-Weber,C and DeNicola,A.(2016). Critical Craft: Technology. Chen,J.(2018) A Conversation and Beyond: How my journey with Atayal led to a deeper understanding of the human connection. MA thesis, University of the Arts London.
A special thanks to A Qi Du Zhi Ma, the locals of Wa La Bi for their great support for my project. I came to know about so many new things and impressive stories that I am really thankful to them. My thanks also go to my mother and my husband for their understanding, love and encouragement throughout my postgraduate studies.
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