SHADOW Proposal week 7

Shadow Proposal – Week 7 (This may overlap some of the previous posts..)

‘The basis of the philosophy of clothing and fashion, i.e. the well-dressed person’s inner worth is demonstrated and/or increased by the magnificence of the wrapping which surrounds his or her person’[i]

Being dressed is a way of feeling protected within your surroundings. These surroundings could be touching you or not. Being enclosed or covered is a way of feeling dressed, and therefore comfortable and protected. The idea of wrapping your body is an interesting concept in dressing the form. This act of dressing can be done anyway the person feels. My research has been based around wrapping the body as a form of dressing. To be wrapped in one mode or another gives the sense of being dressed or protected in some way.

The workshops we did in relation to our topic shadow have directed me to look at this Shadow in a very different way; which leads me to a series of ideas that I have based my research for this studio around;

Can the Feeling of compression or touch on the skin be a shadow of the wrapping/dressing, not just the physical marks?

A shadow – A feeling (or imprint) after an action; this could be physical or psychological.

A shadow has been made by the material onto the body – but if it doesn’t leave a physical imprint on the body can you still feel that it has left you feeling imprinted somehow?

Does a Shadow have to be seen or could it be only felt by the wearer; as it is a consequence of an action it necessarily isn’t seen.

Is a shadow like the aftermath or result of an action?

Can a memory or reaction be a shadow?

The exploration of Shadow in relation to the above questions has given some key words to focus on during this project for my research, assessment and outcomes;

Wrapping

Skin

Imprint

Compression

This project has shifted away from the initial shadow research and is focused on the feeling of compression on the skin or material and whether this can be a shadow and does it even need to be seen? Or just felt. This can be done through many different ways but this project is focusing on medical methods of body wrapping:

§ Dressing the skin; wrapping wounds and healing the body through wrapping. This is looking at sectional wrapping as well of healing which may contradict other modes of wrapping in this research. Also looking at how he body changes – feelings the wearer may have before/during/after the experience

§ Mummification – the process of mummification is a fascinating way of dressing and the different techniques used through this ritual can be implemented into my experimental works.

§ Religious and cultural practices – such as Chinese foot binding and ancient Egyptian head binding. How these alter the body and consequences from the way these wrappings have been performed. Dressing in veil; how bodies are concealed for religious and cultural practices.

Through research into these different practices I will be looking at how it affects ones self and what factors contribute to this; in relation to Shadow (skin imprinting: a result of compression on the skin.)

• § Time
• § Physical vs. psychological imprints
• § Natural vs. unnatural marking
• § Types of compression and application
• § Pain

Throughout my exploration I will be looking at compression via wrapping the body, trialing different ways to achieve this and essentially implementing this into garment outcomes. Further research into this topic will help define my outcomes but effectively will directly relate to the experiments with wrapping/compression/body. Research into Medical practices will help with wrapping techniques, fabrics, colours, transparencies and compression for outcome development. I would like to look at using elastic and stretch materials in conjunction with binding and wrapping techniques throughout the developmental and toiling process.

A shadow workshop earlier in the semester using light and obstacles has motivated research into transparent materials, looking at densities and layers on the skin. The layers and grades of transparency create an interesting effect using light; in the same way as a x-ray would transfer information, this will work well with the medical idea I am working with.

Alongside the garment outcomes I will produce a series of images that define my research – using my outcomes but also experiments with the body using methods of wrapping and skin imprinting.

Development of project and outcomes: Firstly researching in 2d looking at techniques and history of body wrapping. Then applying these techniques to the body to initiate design development (also alongside 2d development from imagery). Using skin imprinting research and history of medical materials to influence fabrics, drape, silhouette, also using elastic to design garments – highlighting compression. Research into these areas more thoroughly will help determine exactly what I will be producing or how I will go about this and whether this will be refined.

Artists Christo and Jeanne Claude relate to my research, however their work is about altering the environment rather than wrapping itself. Their techniques are similar to what I have been researching but in a bigger scale.

Fetish and bondage trends used in Herve Leger (s/s 09) and Rodarte (s/s 09) although are not directly related in research still have an interesting design aesthetic that related to wrapping and the body.

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[i] Gell, A 1993, Oxford Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology; Cultural Forms, Wrapping in Images;Tatooing in Polynesia, Oxford University Press

I found a really interesting group on Flickr about Skin Imprints:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/skinimprints/

“This group is only for photos of skin (the human kind) with unnatural imprints. Meaning you either made the imprint yourself, or accidentally because you pressed your skin against some object that left the mark. No cuts, natural wrinkles, moles, scars, etc.”

I thought this description was quite interesting; looking at more unnatural ways of imprint the skin that is temporary. But i am not sure if what i am doing is as accidental or unnatural as this has described.

Here are some more skin imprints that have come from 3d experimental work:

Made from a couch.....

An experiement with wrapping with a bandage:

After 10 minutes:

After 20 minutes:
After 25 minutes:
The marks made by this bandage were quite subtle but the colour of my foot is intense.. Would this change on another person? This colour only lasted 1 minute but the imprints lasted up for 10-15 mins and faded slowly. Walking around with this bandage on was very painful and i had to hop around as pressure on the foot with this bandage was very high and was hard to stand on the foot normally because of how tight i had wrapped it.

Found this on an Architecture students blog – a body wrapping installation which I thought was quite nice:

The shapes created by this material (im guessing some kind of electrical wire) are so creative, i have never thought about wrapping the body in this way or using a material that could do this. I have been looking at more how the body would create the shape rather than creating my own and using the body as a base for this.

Image from: aafys.net/.../ bodies-body-installation/

Although this is a little off track from my medical research but these very beautiful images of bondage and rope are relevant, it has a fashion magazine feeling but are still very dark and provocative:

Images from: http://www.fashionising.com/pictures

I thought bondage trends are an great reference to body wrapping from a fashion point of view, these are from 2009 s/s collections:

Rodarte:

Herve Leger:

Images from: Style.com

Week 6

‘The basis of the philosophy of clothing and fashion, i.e. the well-dressed person’s inner worth is demonstrated and/or increased by the magnificence of the wrapping which surrounds his or her person’

Gell, A 1993, Oxford Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology; Cultural Forms, Wrapping in Images;Tatooing in Polynesia, Oxford University Press

I thought this was an interesting way of describing the feelings one would have when being wrapped – the action and/or imprint(shadow) of this on the body.

Can the Feeling of compression or touch on the skin be a shadow of the wrapping/dressing, not just the physical marks?

A shadow – A feeling (or imprint) after an action; this could be physical or psychological

A shadow has been made by the material onto the body – but if it doesn’t leave a physical imprint on the body can you still feel that it has left you feeling imprinted somehow?

If there was compression on the body this still means there was a shadow left? Even if we cant see it?

Some Artists and Images of interest:

Christo and Jeanne Claude:

Their work is more about altering the environment than wrapping itself.

The Wrapped Reichstag, Christo

Wrapping himself:

http://americanmagpie.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/christo_reichstag.jpg

Mummification:

livinginperu.com

Wound Wrapping:

www.zulunine.com/firstaid/ fluidcont/eb/eb.html

Imprinting:

flickr.com/photos/ clonpop/1395256350/

Wrapping objects myself:

Body Wrapping and Medical Shadows

Being dressed is a way of feeling protected within your surroundings. These surroundings could be touching you or not. Being enclosed or covered is a way of feeling dressed, and therefore comfortable and protected. The idea of wrapping your body is an interesting concept in dressing the form. This act of dressing can be done anyway the person feels:

· Wrapping only parts of the body,

· Tight compression on the skin

· Wrapping for modesty, superiority, narcissism etc.

· Wrapping the body loosely and freely

shad·ow   [shad-oh]

–noun

1.

a dark figure or image cast on the ground or some surface by a body intercepting light.

2. Shade or comparative darkness, as in an area.

3. Shadows, darkness, esp. that coming after sunset.

4. Shelter; protection: sanctuary in the shadow of the church.

–verb (used with object)

18. to screen or protect from light, heat, etc.; shade.

Word History: Shade and shadow are not only related in meaning; historically they are the same word. In Old English, the ancestor of Modern English spoken a thousand years ago, nouns were inflected; that is, they had different forms depending on how they were used in a sentence. One of the inflected forms of the Old English noun sceadu, translatable as either "shade" or "shadow," was sceaduwe; this form was used when the word was preceded by a preposition (as in in sceaduwe, "in the shade, in shadow"). As time went on these two forms of the same word were interpreted as two separate words. The same thing happened to other Old English words, too: our mead and meadow come from two different case-forms of the same Old English word for "meadow."

There is many interpretations of what a shadow can be - i particularly respond to the 4th point - to protect or shade the object, which could be reflected back into the body and dressing as a way to protect the body. I have been looking at protection in a medical way - whether this be a way of protecting the body after death (mummification, cremating, coffins?) or protecting from disease or infection (dressing wounds or applying something to the body - this could be a physical something or a psychological something)

Medical Dictionary

1. shad·ow definition

Pronunciation: /ˈshad-(ˌ)ō, -ə(-w)/

Function: n

1 a : partial darkness or obscurity within a part of space from which rays from a source of light are cut off by an interposed opaque body

b : a dark outline or image on an X-ray photograph where the X-rays have been blocked by a radiopaque mass (as a tumor)

2 : a colorless or scantily pigmented or stained body (as a degenerate cell or empty membrane) only faintly visible under the microscope

"shadow." Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary. Merriam-Webster, Inc. 15 Apr. 2010. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/shadow>.

I have found this medical explanation interesting, as a shadow is an obscurity or blockage. Could this be a way of protecting or hiding something that would otherwise be shown without the shadow? A shadow seems to be negative in this picture – a tumor? Or degenerate cell..

Could covering the body be a negative form too? By blocking the body we are unable to read what is underneath, similar to an x-ray.. But is this why people dress, to keep a façade up?

Some images generated with light and obstacles:

I particularly like this one as the paper was twisted to layer and look wrapped to some degree.

The layers and grades of transparency create an interesting effect – if the light box was the body and transparent layers were lapped over and levels of shade were created this could this be seen as a medical shadow like an x-ray?

Week 5: Material Character Workshop

A reworked fashion equation…

Feeling + Substance = Dress

Or does dress mean satisfaction? Being dressed is a feeling of satisfaction to some, or even modesty. To me, feeling dressed is about feeling comfortable myself (in what I am wearing, whether this be clothing, makeup, moisturizer, deodorant, perfume etc. )

Some interpretations of my dress from my materials workshop……

Soap:

Glad-wrap:

A very frustrating materialto use or make any real shape out of, except tubular shapes.

Salt:

This made some interesting shapes, reminds me of making snow fairies.

Icing Sugar:

I particularly liked ‘wearing’(eating) this material

Studio homework: One Material, one garment and 4 different Responses:

Using PVC (in 4mm pipe and a garden soaker hose) I am attempting to create a basic tailored jacket.

Jacket outline:

This becomes like a Skelton to the jacket form, using pipe connecters to create the shape.

Soaker hose:

This was a much thicker and less-pliable PVC to use.. but gives a interesting shape curving away from the body.

PVC collar:

Concentrating on one aspect of the garment and building up the layers of pipe to create the collar.

Body Wrapping:

I really enjoyed this, not only because my brother was uncooperative and thought it was ridiculous but also because it was such a long way of getting dressed. i couldn’t do this to my own body because it wasn’t tight enough and kept falling down, this reminded me of corsetry and the act of dressing the lady (except it was my brother and he was complaining of the pipe being too tight rather than the corset and it didn’t make him skinnier just more annoyed)

The act of wrapping the body as a way of dressing I found intriguing, especially in history such as mummification and in first aid of the body with dressing(a wound). These acts of dressing are something that you cannot perform yourself - which is interesting in itself as dressing is something that most people do not want to waste time on, everything is becoming fast, easy and something someone could do on their own. Could the act of dressing become a performance that we would want to prolong and enjoy?

This leads me to my first response to Shadow…..

Wrapping the body; Compression and Imprint

Using the 4mm piping as a way of dressing the skin or wound, confining one place rather than dressing the body entirely.

The compression on the skin made these marks which faded fairly quickly - each mark depended on the pressure on that particular area. Can the compression and imprinting left on the skin after being wrapped be the shadow of your dressing? A shadow is something that follows the former, could this also be a mental shadow not just a physical shadow?

I came across this clip of a artist I like Delphic. The dress and wrapping of the body I found to be so beautiful and effective, which relates well to the research I have started to do into wrapping.

The chorography works so well with the cloth and setting… the entire clip is just amazing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFHxtnacFV8