EVALUATIVE NOTES
- We started to look into a brutalist building but instead I looked at a building with a brutalist story
- My samples were made in respect for the families who suffered in the tragedy
- This is considered by me an interference to the building structure. Instead of burnt wood, metal and concrete I now had memories, photos, messages, prayers and pleadings of justice. And yellow ribbon, lots of it. At all times I also had to consider the immense respect the victims and their families deserve and that definitely needs to be added to my reflection
3O.OCT.17
Today we visited the Barbican centre, as a basis for research for the project. To be honest I didn't find this so helpful as I had already spent a good part of my weekend collecting research for this project as I have a clear direction I want to take it through. Although I didn't find the visit to the centre helpful in terms of practical research, I did however find seeing real forms of Brutalist Architecture inspiring. What most inspired me at the Barbican was seeing the Brutalist Architecture of the housing area in the Barbican. This reminded me of the homes people had lost in the fire of Grenfell and the original structure that now is lost. I could analyse this by observing the adjacent buildings that were built at the same time.
We did observational drawings of the Architecture and took photos. These were helpful as I could compare my drawings of the linear structures I saw in front of me with the broken, crumpled structures of the Grenfell I have drawn over the weekend.
After break we did a group exercise called 'Environmental Collage'. We were challenged to recreate the Barbican structural environment that we were observing using the objects we had with us. It was observational drawings but with objects and documenting through photography. At first this seemed odd and I wasn't understanding how this was linking to textiles. After much confusion, trial and testing, our group managed to create two 'structures' to represent the environment.
I managed to link what we were doing with textiles after all. I realised that looking at the environment and enterprising our understanding of the environment using the materials we had was like creating a textile sample. I will use this method when creating my samples for this week. I will use my research and the environment of the Grenfell as my 'observation' and the processes I have learnt and also researched will be the 'materials' I will use for creating my samples.
Lastly in the afternoon we headed back to Archway to start sample making. We started with textural mark-making on A4 sheets. This would be our sample making materials. We then looked at SHAPE, STRUCTURE and REPETITION to develop our samples using only our mark-making papers. This afternoon activity was helpful for me to start brainstorming ideas for my final samples.
29.OCT.17
Today was research day. I went out with my camera and sketchbook to Ladbrook Grove in order to gather my Primary research for this week's project. I conducted my research, referring to the brief by focusing on Tactile qualities found in the built environment of Grenfell Tower area. I started my research by visiting the remains of the tower to get a feel of it. I drove around the area to try and get as close as I could to it, documenting my views through photographing. I realised that all the details of the tower remains were not coming through as strong as I wanted in my photographs so this resulted in me taking out my sketchbook and experimenting another method of recording what I could observe. In my sketches I wanted to convey the tactile qualities of the tower, looking at the textures, colours of the rubble and remains of the windows and skeleton structure of the tower. I used my mark-making skills to convey the feel of different materials both in the structure and as a result of the tragedy. What was metal what is it now? What was wood what is left now? Does concrete get destroyed? Does it change the texture of it and the aspect? What was glass now is light going through the gaps clearly left in the building. I kept asking myself those questions and trying to get a response in my drawings and ideas for samples.
Then I wanted to explore ideas that could inform me and support my creation of mixed media samples. As access to the building is closed to the public I had to look around the surrounding area. Walking around the Ladbrook Grove area, I spotted many corners of the streets that were enthralled by scattered objects, stuffed animals, dead flowers and posters left in memory of the victims. There was even a walk through alleyway dedicated for the memorial. I then realised that what I couldn't get by not being able to get closer to the tactile aspects of the building, I could truly have a feel of it by observing and photographing the surrounding memorials. This is considered by me an interference to the structure. Instead of burnt wood, metal and concrete I now had memories, photos, messages, prayers and pleadings of justice. And yellow ribbon, lots of it. At all times I also had to consider the immense respect the victims and their families deserve and that definitely needs to be added to my reflection. I choose to photograph the details I found of these areas to inspire me for sample processes and ideas. I realised that the memorial itself was full of tactile structures from the kids crafts to melted candles. Documenting aspects of the memorial provided me with the perfect contrasting balance for my research of the Brutalist Architecture and the Grenfell Tower. Combining this research of two completely different scales (the grand architecture and the detailed memorial) has enriched my research for this weeks project.
31.OCT. 17
This morning we started the day by producing 3 'paper samples', thinking about surface texture. We were restricted of using anything but a simple plain white piece of paper, scissors, our hands and our imagination. This was interesting because we were encouraged to explore our creating process with the little we had.
No colour, no pens or mark making!
Manipulation of the white paper included:
cutting
pleating
curling
tearing
weaving
scoring
braiding
layering
I chose the correct manipulations that related to my previous samples - like the ribbon pleating I created that are inspired by the flower decorations I photographed at the memorial.
This was challenging as I found myself lost looking at the blank white paper for a good few minutes. However after looking back at my research images and previous samples I managed to start putting ideas together and I started to understand the activity more.
I feel like this allowed me to explore purely on sample making techniques, and focused my brain on creating surface textures, rather then focusing on colour, print or even material. By restricting our making materials to just the white paper, scissors and our hands, I felt like my focus was more on the process of 3D manipulation and construction. This allowed me create ideas for samples far more unconventional, then if I were to also focus my attention on the colour and material.
This process was so simple, yet so successful for sample development. I understand that just because I'm in 'fashion and textiles' it doesn't mean I need to spend so much money on expensive or fancy materials for sample making. I realise it's about thinking about the materials you have in front of you to work with. Also just because it's textiles doesn't mean I have to use only actual 'textile materials' and fabrics to create interesting samples. I can use ANY materials that I can manipulate that will enable me to expresses my idea.
Next we created a double page on mark-making inspired by our research. From these marks we took 3 marks and translated them into stitch. By being inspired by our abstract mark-making I was able to create decorative and connective stitches. This was interesting to me as this gave me play area to explore unconventional ways of stitching for future projects and future sample making.
Next we took our sample exploration to a larger scale. We chose to look at one motif in one of our unconventional stitches and repeated it, attaching the motif shapes in a chain form, creating our own 'non-traditional yarn'. We used only one large sheet of paper to do this. I felt like this was a way of developing what we had done in the morning with the plain white paper samples.
27.OCT.17
After reading the brief for this week, I headed to the CSM library and started to research into the meaning behind Brutalist Architecture, as I was truly unsure about the meaning of the term. I found that the term refers to 'unfinished' or 'roughly finished' concrete buildings and is often associated with 'fundamental misery'.
After much research into the basis of our brief… Brutalist Architecture, I wanted to take the term and interpret it in my own way. I made a connection with the Grenfell Tower that I had driven past earlier this week. Remembering seeing the tragic remains of the building, reminded me of Brutalist Architecture of this week's project. Therefore I have decided to base my project around The Grenfell Tower and the story of the Tragedy that occurred earlier this year (June 2017).
I plan to visit the Grenfell this weekend for Primary Research. I want to photograph and do observation drawings of the remains of the Tower itself and collect images of 'Tactile Structures' in the environment that surrounds the Tower.