Group Meeting

After our tutorial with Robin the group decided to meet in the cafe in the new building to discuss the project further as some of the group still were not grasping the concept. We planned how we would actually put together the idea, and agreed that the only way to properly make any concrete decisions we needed to get down to the exhibition space ASAP. So we decided to go down to the Northern Quarter tomorrow and take a look on the 2 spaces we narrowed the list down to - Fred Aldous and Fyg Deli. I have decided that I am going to ask in store for the window measurements so that we can come up with a size that fits the window. This way we can start planning the final piece as soon as we have decided on the venue.

Also we decided that we were going to go away and create 2 samples of faces, and bring these together on monday, we will put the together to see if the concept actually works together rather than jumping in head first. My next plan of action is to find somewhere in which I can print my photography onto fabric for a low cost, in order to stitch into the photography as paper just rips.

Tutorial

Topic for discussion: Where are you now? Where to next? 

Today has been quite a successful and productive day. Firstly the FULL group (apart from the film students) all made it to the tutorial, which is a first and really set everyone in good stead and we are now all on the same page which is really good. Our tutorial was with Robin, one of the tutors from Fashion. He was really excited by our idea and helped us decide on where to have our exhibition. We had all been thinking about a hairdressers as Susan had suggested in our previous tutorial. Although some of us were quite apprehensive about this idea. Although it went with our concept at the time, for our final outcome it would just not have worked.

We came to the conclusion that a window display would be best for our concept, as we are still planning on going forward with defaced photography, the work will be textured and 3D but as we have decided that it will only be one piece, a smaller window display will suite us down to the ground, Robin as well as the rest of the group completely agreed with this. We need to get this organised ASAP as time is quickly running low, so tomorrow the full group are going to meet in the Northern Quarter and look at some of the venues that have been suggested to us. Ideally this should be boxed off no later than the weekend.

Another topic of discussion came back to the use of colour within our work. Lizzie had used some very bold and vibrant colours within her pattern work, which I thought gave her work a much more contemporary feel. We decided that our photography should be in black and white and the 'embellishments' will be in colour. However we are yet to decide on these colours. I may take my inspiration for this from Lizzie's colour work, in order to incorporate her work into my own.

Lastly we came to the most important thing. What is our final piece? Are we going to collaborate? The rest of the group and I all strongly agreed that it would be great to collaborate our work, as we have worked so well in a grow thus far. Gabby had the primary idea of having say 5 faces each to work with, and embellishing, distorting and defacing these photographs in the ways in which we have been looking into ourselves. Then bringing these pieces together as one and collaging them together. I am really interested in this idea and think it could work amazingly if done well. We now just have to get on with it!

175 Defaces of Chemistry

When I have been looking into stitching into photography and distorting our imagery I have became more enchanted by the idea of 'defacing' the face. Over the next few days I am going to experiment with this further, using the imagery that the group have shared with one another, collaging this, distorting it and then bringing in this concept of 'defacing'. However I am yet to share this idea with the group, we have a tutorial later this afternoon and then we are going to meet to discuss our ideas further straight after, I will use this time to ask them their thoughts on the idea.

de·face

 [dih-feys] 

verb (used with object), de·faced, de·fac·ing.

1.

to mark the surface or appearance of; disfigure: to deface a wall by writing on it.

2.

to efface, obliterate, or injure the surface of, as to make illegible or invalid: to deface a bond.

Maurizio Anzeri

After the last tutorial, the rest of the group and I were really keen to look into stitching into the photographs that we had already taken to create a more textured, 3D feel to the photography. I have been looking further into this over the past week and have found some interesting works by Maurizio Anzeri. He is a Graphic Designer who collects images from flea markets and car boot sales, he never actually knows the subject in his work.

"His embroidered patterns garnish the figures like elaborate costumes, but also suggest a psychological aura, as if revealing the person’s thoughts or feelings." 

The above images have been taken from a piece that Maurizio helped out on for Dazed and Confused magazine. He did not take the photographs, he just contributed the stitch to an already styled shoot. I much prefer this work than his work with vintage photographs, it is sleeker and more contemporary. 

I have found Maurizio's work very inspiring, to me the stitch looks very Spirographic. The geometric stitch is juxtaposed by the vintage photographs used as a back drop. The stitching actually transforms the photographs and almost changed the character of the subject. My group are looking at distorting the face however I like the concept of 'defacing' the face.

Tutorial

Today we had a tutorial with Susan Atkin, the topic for discussion was processes & materials. Most of the group showed up which was really good, but unfortunate for those who did not as I feel that we learnt a lot from the tutorial today and I know feel quite inspired to power through my work. Firstly we went through everyones sketchbooks to see the progress that we had individually made so far. We also discussed what our current ideas were and how we would like to go forward with these ideas.

A few of the pieces that Gabriella had created really stood out to me, we spoke about collaborating our ideas, so she is going to send me some of the images of people she has taken. She has really experimented with the idea of expression, she came up with 175 words to reflect a persons expression, personality and emotions, then drew these words on her friends face and photographed this. I was thinking about looking at this from a different angle, incorporating my idea of stitching into the face, I could stitch words into the face, using different typography. This leads me to many questions, what scale? what colour? how many words? These are just a few questions that I need to ask myself in order to move forward.

The group discussed the issue of colour today, I must say it has been at the back of many peoples minds as we have such a strong idea that we have been concentrating more on the photography side rather than the actual concept itself. I think I was possibly the only member of the group (that showed up) who has began to consciously use colour, which is evident in my machine embroidery development work.

So what I have taken form the tutorial today was that we need to use a lot more colour, even if its just experimental, also that texture and a 3D element is important and needs further development. I also plan on using more photography, combining my own work with the work of other members in the group to start to collaborate our work into a final piece.

Satin Stitch

I have drew a small drawing of a little girl in fine liner, I have then used some embroidery thread to stitch into the image. This was inspired by an artist named Hagar van hu, whom I found on Pinterest. Their way of working has really appealed to me throughout this project as I feel it links to a lot of the criteria that our group is trying to reach. Portraiture, distortion and covering the face. This is just a basic idea at the moment but I would like to discuss this further with the group in our next tutorial, bringing in the ideas of 3D and texture.

To take this idea further, it could be done on a much larger scale, on a number of different materials and textures, and also in many colour ways. This is all down to experimentation which I plan on carrying out in the upcoming days left of the project. However, our group is yet to settle on an idea for a final piece, so I will act quickly on this experimentation in order to settle on a final piece soon.

Continuation of Work

So yesterday I posted about the pastiche I was doing, I have sort of finished the piece, I did not complete the full thing as I felt the idea was translated well already and it was just an initial piece to showcase an idea that I had about creating texture within an image by stitching into it.

I dont think that this is one of the best pieces of work that I have done but it certainly portrays the concept. The concept of expression really stands out to me here. The group and I have spoken about the idea of expression, using more peculiar facial expressions than general model-like poses. We have discussed the idea of covering the face or highlighting certain areas of the face, which I will no explore. Instead of using machine stitch I am going to look into hand embroidery to see if I can create a softer texture.

Making Progress

I really feel like I am starting to make some progress finally within this unit! It has taken a while but slowly but surely it is coming along. I have dug out my sewing machine and made a start on my pastiche of  Nikos Gyftakis' work. It is coming along a lot better than I expected. The only struggle I am having so far is the heaviness of my lines and the contrast between light and dark. The face is quite hard to copy as the skin is stretched into every direction possible, so to keep one fluid line is also quite difficult. This is an image of the progress that I have made so far, I will post an image later when I have completely finished the piece.

I think that the fingers have worked the best throughout this process, however I do need to define these more, as I have only used three of the 5 colours I plan to use. It's not perfect, but it is a start! I really like the texture that this technique creates, however for me, it is not polished enough. I have also been looking into distorting the face, using my scanner at home I scanned a few images of my face to see what the outcome would be like. The final images are slightly strange and I do not think I will be taking this any further.

More Meetings!

My group decided it was important for us to meet today, so we made a last minute decision and all met in the Holden Gallery. Items on our agenda were; what was said in our tutorial? Where to go from here? and what has everyone done so far?

A lot of the group is concerned about the speed we are currently working at. Personally I would like to pick up the pace a little, as there are only three weeks left to do everything, and I am starting to panic. Here is a copy of the feedback sheet we were given.

Most of these points were already on a lot of the groups mind before we had seen this sheet, as only one of our groups members managed to attend the tutorial, as myself and Lizzie both had out CP lectures which conflicted with this. I really like the idea of adding more texture to our work, as I have said in previous posts that this was an idea that I wanted to push forward with. I may experiment with tis tonight, adding words, objects and stitching to distort the objects face, firstly I'll ask my flat mates to let me take a photograph of them!

The final comment on the sheet is 'BE MORE AMBITIOUS!' which I feel is very necessary, we are thinking too literal and not experimenting enough. Personally I feel that the final outcome should not be just one final photograph, it could possibly be a number of things, expressing all of our ideas collaboratively.

Sketchbook Work

I have been looking into a few different artists, which I have mentioned on my blog before, today I have been looking further into Nikos Gyftakis, like I said before the use of colour and expressive fluid lines really spoke to my style of work. I have attempted to recreate his way of working. The outcomes are better than I expected however still need improvement. To develop this work further I am going to try recreate his work using the sewing machine, creating the lines with stitches and the couching technique. I plan to do this as I feel it links to my textile course a lot more than what my group are doing at the moment.

Allison Diaz

Today I managed to get to the library and print off a lot of imagery that I have been meaning to get for a while now. Allowing me finally get some work down into my sketch book. I have started by looking into our initial idea about the 175 project, taking photographs of peoples faces. So I found a artist named Allison Diaz. I have been stalking her blog today and found out a lot about the images I found of her work.

The meaning behind what she has done is really intriguing and interesting and really challenges you to think deeper into the photographs. This leads me into our Unit X project, we could ask the person in the image what they think their most recognisable feature is, what they like/ hate about themselves most, or even what is the first thing they see when looking at someone? I tried Allison's technique with just two images that I had collected. I think the outcome works well, however I am interested to see how three images could look like with different races, ages and genders in the mix.

Stitch & Photography

So my group have decided to go down more a photography route.. so i have been looking at ways in which I can still incorporate my style into the images and maybe enhance/ distort the images. I found this great images from Hagar Van Hu on Pinterest. The artist has used stitch to distort the image and enhance it. I love the first images of the faces, as our group plans on hiding the face/ exaggerating something that the person in the image does not like about themselves. I just thought this idea was quite different to what we have been currently looking at and slightly more on my level.

Zero-Waste Pattern Cutting - Fiona Mills

Today we had quite an interesting lecture about sustainable fashion. Basically the concept of zero waste fashion is to use the full yield of the fabric provided and to not let anything hit the cutting room floor.

There is at least 15-20% fabric waste within fashion construction, this wasted fabric goes into landfills, does not breakdown and therefore becomes toxic to the environment. I did not know this and it came as quite a shock. The yield of a fabric in a lay plan is obviously very important to companies in the lower market, who want to get more garments made from their fabric as possible. Fiona showed us many different researchers who had looked into zero waste fashion in a lot of depth.

Most of the designers that Fiona showed to us today were mainly researchers and did not actually sell any of their designs. Some of their designs I would personally not buy, however I love the concept and think it is extremely interesting. These designers entered a competition called YIELD. A particular design which I loved was by Timo Rissanen, who produced a jacket which just seems genius.

Communication within Collaboration

Our group for this Unit have done quite well I feel with communicating with one another so far throughout this project. We have a group of Facebook which we use to share our blogs, pinterests, ideas and we also discuss meeting up. This morning before our lecture we decided to meet up for a quick coffee and to just update one another on what our thoughts are, if we are on the same track and where we think we can take the project. We are starting to become more aware of the little time we have left.. and starting to panic a little. Personally I feel that I have done a considerable amount of research so far and NEED to start drawing and developing my ideas. After speaking to the rest of the group my mind has been settled a little as we all feel that we are in the same boat.

We have been thinking about our final piece, which I feel is still a little early to think about. However we are thinking about have a photography outcome, using different images of peoples faces and exaggerating this persons insecurities or something that they love about themselves. These will be collaged and mounted onto A1 paper. Although, this is just an initial idea, we are going to book a room within the photography course and start taking images and we will them separately work on the images ourselves, but checking up on each others blogs to see if our work is relating to one another.

Also we have made ourselves a time table as uni have not provided us with one this term. We have set deadlines which I feel is very important as we have goals to meet and we do not want to let one another down. I am currently in the process of printing out my research imagery and responding to this. I plan on working into my images with the sewing machine and seeing what outcomes I can create with this technique.

Research Safari..

When I first heard that a 'research safari' had been organised I was quite hesitant to par-take.. exercise is not my strong point! However, a group of around 20 of us from unit x, and Susan the tutor set off around Manchester to learn more about the history behind manchester and also to discover fabric shops that we did not know about.

Firstly we started off around the Northern Quarter and the Ancoats, I am not really that familiar with this part of the city as it can be quite out the way from the centre. The Ancoats was really pretty in some areas, keeping Manchester's artistic vibe but with a lot more character. A lot of people of italian decent used to live in the Ancoats along side a lot of the fabric mills and factories, they opened a lot of ice cream parlours, making the Ancoats now my favourite part of manchester!

In the top left image there is a spy hole peeping into one of the abandoned factories in the area, which I though was really interesting, although this image isnt a very good one.. It still has all of the old machinery in there and is currently under construction. It is sad to see all of these historical places being put to different uses now that the country has no need for many British manufacturers. Also all of the streets are named things to do with the industry such as Cotton and Loom street which I thought was quite sweet.

We also took a walk through parts of the city centre, passing through Victoria Railway Station and Cheetham Hill. Susan lead us to the part of the city that holds a lot of textile retailers, one of which we were allowed to visit and take a look around, Central Trimmings. They had so many different trimmings, fabrics and fastenings, floor to ceiling! Now this district is full of mainly wholesalers which is not good news for us students however if we all chipped in the owner said we would be more than welcome to return. 

I feel that this trip was quite useful in the sense that I learnt a lot about Manchester that I would not have learnt otherwise. Also it broadened my knowledge of the textile retailers available in Manchester as I did not know of many. However I do not feel that this activity related to the actual project 'Unit X' itself.

Nikos Gyftakis

Another artist which I found myself on Pinterest is Nikos Gyftakis. He has created a number of self portraits using a fluid-like technique. It looks to me that he has used oil pastels to create these using a large scale of colour.

His portraits are so life like and fluid. I am going to try and re-create this type of drawing myself to see what outcome I can get, although these will not be self portraits, they will be portraits of other people, and I think that I will try and incorporate some of my textiles style into it by using couching to create the fluid lines that Nikos has used. I will use different threads and thickness' of stitches to create this. I believe that this could look quite interesting as a lot of the work that I have been looking at this past week have been more embroidery based.

Ernesto Artillo

One of the girls in the group posted an image from an artist she had found and I thought it was extremely inspirational. So I looked a bit further into the artist and found a few images that I thought related well to our project and could help us develop our concept further.I find these collages really interesting as they are very abstract, this is something I would like to look into myself.

Easter

I have been really disappointed with myself over the Easter holidays as I really have not done a sufficient amount of work.. or at least not as much as I would have liked. So this week I am basically just getting on with it, doing the tasks that have been set by the tutors and turning up to sessions, keeping up to date with my blog and gathering more research. I am also going to start drawing this week as well. However I am not the only person with these worries as I have spoken to my group about this and we are all in the same boat. Although I have a lot of faith in my group as we all seem to be quit hard workers.. when we want to be!

Hetain Patel

As part of our Contextualising Practice lectures we occasionally have guest lecturers, this week we had a man named Hetain Patel. He is a visual artist who graduated in 2003 and has been working on a variety of pieces of art ever since, mainly focusing on using photography and film. In the majority of his work that I showed us today, he was very involved in all of his pieces, they were all mainly based around himself and his heritage. His passion for experimentation and investigation was evident throughout the lecture, what interested me in his work was his use of recording the work. Many of his pieces were just photographed and documented, however some of his pieces were recorded. I feel this is something my group need to look into a bit more as our Film and Media studies students have yet to turn up to any of our group sessions.

Although these students have not turned up, I feel that we should not rule out recording our ways of working or even using a film as a final piece. It is definitely something I am willing to look into and venture into further, however, I will discuss this further with my group. 

On the other hand, I was not overly fond of Hetain's work. I was inspired by the use of texture within the photographic pieces, however the film did not interest me. Maybe because I did not understand a lot of it, and we were only shown short snippets.

Presenting our Posters

So today we had to attach our posters to the walls in the Hilton House for all of the other groups to see. This was a really good idea as it allowed us all to see what other interesting ideas people had come up with, and some peoples concepts were extremely interesting. We had around two minutes to come up with a three minute presentation about our concepts and posters, and everyone from our group had to speak. Although some of our group did not turn up I believe that our group did quite well, we had a lot to talk about as we had really went into a lot of depth with our concept and had a lot of ideas to share with everyone. We also had a great feedback with the tutors who loved our ideas. The idea behind these presentations was to review other peoples work, to learn from our own and to create inspiration from one another. Also as this was our first creative task it gave the group some opportunity to see everyones different styles.