Pointy Lychee

epilogue

2008-10-30T19:07:00.005+13:00

At the exhibition, someone asked me "so what do you think of claystation?"

I think it's something that we don't get to do very often, just like my project for mapping K'Road fashion, exploring conceptual idea for a long period of time seems to be a luxury thing for architectural student. we do that for the beginning of every design topic off course, but after that, the final product has to be architectural, has to be resolved.

This course is refreshing because it is conceptual, and allowed us to enjoy it, learning how to learn (the process) .

Through my project of mapping , I had the opportunity to talk to over 50 strangers on K'Road, and get their response to my project.

From the simple action of drawing yourself, it's breaking the " I can't draw " or "I'm not pretty" or " I'm not fashionable" walls. And personally I think it can be repeated anywhere, everyone can draw! probably not like an artist, but everyone can draw! just like the idea of making buildings out of clay, everyone can draw themselves on a piece of paper.

If you look at some of the drawing, there are animals and robots and non- human creatures. some people are quite self-conscious and only showed a little bit of themselves. some people even had the idea of a jumper with all these photos printed on, but instead of strangers, you could "wear" your family and friends.

This project opened my eyes and hopefully those of the gallery patrons to the diversity of K'Road, and to the diversity of people in general - a simple exercise in surveying, drawing and displaying has revealed the depth of character in the participants.

before the exihibition

2008-10-30T19:03:00.004+13:00

This is me standing infront of my work

The map of K'Road is drawn on the wall in light pencil

there are about 50 "people" pinned on the map at where I asked them to draw for me

the stickers are ready to go!

2008-10-30T18:43:00.011+13:00

A designer on K Rd finishes her self-portrait

2008-10-30T17:05:00.002+13:00

I’m having fun!

2008-10-03T23:18:00.000+13:00

Some people have been telling me this is “funny, much better than asking questions” and they usually start with feeling embarrassed and when finished the drawing feeling they have done something fun…

Interesting Stories

2008-10-03T23:15:00.000+13:00

I got my first guy today!! I think he’s Irish…. >.<
He was just sitting in a café, reading, and I asked him if he could draw himself and he drew this for me! (Below)

I also found someone that is not afraid to draw …. The first time!
He’s a fashion student in AUT, very friendly and stylish, and probably quite good at drawing, look at him! (Below)

That was good start to get guys to draw ^. ^

Major Change

2008-10-03T23:14:00.000+13:00

After a discussion with Kathy, I realise that Dress and mannequin are probably not the best way to present the project.

People often relate mannequin to person, because they are the same scale as human, therefore the attention might be on the mannequin, not the drawing …

The second issue is map dress, the drawings are very interesting by themselves, if I put too much focus on “making a dress” there is the danger of losing the project’s meaning. It is more about people on what they are wearing, not making two awesome dresses.
I will keep collecting the drawings on K’Road, now the presentation is much simplified to a 2D presentation, hopefully the focus will be clear.

Budget and quote@.@

2008-09-22T13:26:00.003+12:00

so, money,money,money!

I went to a screen printing shop today and got the quote (attached)for my project ...

so far I have collected about 20 drawings~~ but my target is 60~80

after that , they will all be printed on fabric, the biggest size in the shop is A2, I will have about 5 of those....

The other thing is fabric, I'm going to use black and white chiffon (or other material depend on if its printable)

The working mannequin (bloody mary) is borrowed from a friend, the ones that are going to exibition..can we borrow them from AUT fashion school? (I have sent an email to artfrom mannequin but no reply>.<

2008-09-22T13:25:00.002+12:00

2008-09-22T13:23:00.001+12:00

first time >.<

2008-09-18T08:21:00.005+12:00

I hand out some flyers to people ~~ and no one has refused me so far ^.^ that's very lucky!

But the first thing everyone say to me is : I'm not that good at drawing~~(even a fashion designer said that too!)

I also need to ask some guys to draw......

How to make the dress?

2008-09-17T09:50:00.002+12:00

option 1:
screen print all the drawings on fabric, make little fabric flyers then sew them together.

option 2:
find a existing simple black dress, sew all the paper flyers on the dress.

Equipment :
Two mannequin girls
a digital photo frame

Project Proposal

2008-09-17T09:43:00.001+12:00

Hand out flyers on K’Road and ask people to draw themselves

From the drawing we can see:
What they are wearing at the time?
How they see themselves? (Personal identity)
Stylish....or not......

The Dress (day /night):
Express the different fashion style on K’ Road day and night.
The digital photo frame on model’s head shows the process of making the dress

Starting this afternoon >.<

2008-09-16T15:50:00.000+12:00

2008-09-16T15:38:00.001+12:00

Proposed Dress

2008-09-16T12:17:00.000+12:00

Proposed Flyers!

2008-09-16T10:25:00.003+12:00

What is the relationship between fashion and architecture?

2008-09-11T12:37:00.001+12:00

Both fashion and architecture express ideas of personal, social and cultural identity, reflecting the needs of the user and the spirit of the times. The relationship between fashion and architecture is a symbiotic one, and throughout history clothing and buildings have echoed one another in form and appearance. This symbiosis is only natural as they share the primary function of providing shelter and protecting the body but also because they both create space and volume out of flat two-dimensional materials. While fashion and architecture share many traits, they are also fundamentally different. Both realms address the human scale, but the proportions, sizes and shapes they adopt differ enourmously. A piece of fashion design is often intended to be used by an individual whereas architecture is often intended for use by multiple people at a given moment. Also, while fashion is by its very nature ephemeral or 'of the moment', architecture traditionally has a more solid, monumental and permanent presence.

By Erandi de Silva on April 28, 2008 6:39 PM

Why?

2008-08-20T10:00:00.002+12:00

social event: bring designers together, increase awareness of K'Road's fashion network.

Mapping: the fashion network, people's response, comparison of normal people and designers' thinking.

Event and End product

2008-08-20T09:43:00.005+12:00

EVENT : Send postcard to all designers on K road, with blank space at the back to draw on, the winning design will be made and send back to designer as a gift.

Hand out flyers to people on K' Road, get them to design a map dress in 5mins and list the key design ideas.

Tea party for all : at the end of collection, invite all designers to starbucks and have a chat about the project, introduce them to each other.

End Product: a book of map dresses and the winning dress.

Designers come together!

2008-08-20T09:35:00.006+12:00

K'Road has a wide range of fashion shops,
but the connection between them is quite
weak, a fashion event base on map and history of k'road would be a good opportunity to bring them together... also provide promotion for some independent designers, giving them a stage to show off their talents.

Questions

2008-08-06T09:48:00.002+12:00

K' Road -------Fashion/Music/Architecture

Interactive flight charts

Mapping--------Clothes/music/architecture made from map

Map Dress 2

2008-08-06T08:56:00.009+12:00

Map Dress 1

2008-08-06T08:45:00.008+12:00

K' Road

2008-08-05T18:47:00.000+12:00

Karangahape Road is a famous street in Auckland, known for cafes, boutique shops, nightlife and formerly, for being a rea light district.

Flight charts

2008-08-05T18:02:00.004+12:00

Flight charts are interesting, it's like a map that shows you where the plane have flew, with geocoodinates.

Because aerial photography are collected by people taking photos on a plane, then these information will be put together in a big map (like the maps on google earth), flight charts provide a good guidline of how much photos they've taken at each point, and the exact location.

I think this will be a good tool for mapping, each "run" will have a flight line showing the run number and other interesting things, looks like the example above.

Blog 1

2008-08-05T12:47:00.000+12:00

Blogging is quite fun^.^
I have been reading Else/Where and LA now
The first book is about mapping all sorts of weird things......
mapping contours &colonies interest me the most, the process leads to some clothes that are made of maps:
The Dress of Faith and Fidelity
The Dress of Here,There,and Other dislocations.
The Dress of propiety and longing
Other interesting topics are mapping skywriting, message in a bottle and conversation.