things to think about !!!!!!

- androgyny (does it need to be tailored for a gender ... why should girls have to wear dresses... )

- should a real body fit into this? why not multiple 'pant legs"

... why not pant legs that exponentially grow ... or maybe sleeves?(my good friend fibonacci)

-fractals are cool 

... use standard "dress"/"body contours" as the shapes for fractals?! 

..am i trying to prove we are geometric maybe (rigid... the same.. matheimatical?)

 ... or maybe people think that we are (sizes 00-0-1-3-5-7-9-11-13-etc(is there anythign bigger?)

 ...maybe this sequence means something?!)

 ... standardized sizes are we our sizes?! we become a number?! 

.. maybe my clothes should be made to fit these numbers!!!!

Ruttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To paraphrase Krauss:

"fashion can never be art because of the commercial aspect, with american copyright laws not allowing for reproduction"

"American law priviledged function and use, and it therefore failed to recognize in dresses the intellectual property rights developed for works of art as products of the mind. instead of reinforcing Poiret's claim to authorship as an artist, the law recognized only his right to commercial trademark protection of his couture label, and as we shall see it compelled him to acknowledge that his name signified his status as a businessman, not a fine artist." 

------------------------

Pointless rambling and thinking: 

what if other artists become the label --because sometimes it seems that their name has ensured their status (though still they are seem as producers of things or thing are produced under them) what if "pollock" brand clothes ensured that it was legit... though (who the F*@k is jackson pollock) proves that ...hmmm..welll... rigorous testing is underwent to ensure that it is legit art .. and that only the high class can have a real important piece of art work... ::ELITIST?!:: if i made a line of dresses and their label was the artists name... then it would be art about art and artifice... im not sure if i want that...

What does it mean for you to have a designed thing --> financial you have the means for it and you must flaunt it i guess... and that you know what's fashionable (what does that word even mean ?!)

-what if art was created under the guidelines of whats fashionable ... (i think that happens already).. ok so.... what am i doing ... Preserving integrity ... HOW?! by one person grueling over it ... maybe someone will just be able to appreciate the rigors of ones pains and labors?.. probably not .... we'll seeeeeeeeee

Tedious Sewing

I have spent the last two weeks incessantly printing, cutting 1.5 in and 2 in strips, and sewing them into various sized looped strips... I have no more strips so i am currently printing more paper to cut and sew... this is what the whole voluminous skirt will be comprised of! 

Negativland, Culture Jammers, and the infringement festival

CULTURE JAMMING

A resistance movement based on the production of counter-culture. The term was coined by the band Negativland in 1984. Kalle Lasn's 1999 book "Culture Jam" helped popularize the movement.

To culture jam is to make a cultural comment on a cultural artifact that is recognized inherently in our minds through semiotics. It changes the symbol we see and adjusts the meaning to make a statement.

It is the act of transforming existing mass media to produce negative commentary about itself, using the original medium's communication method. It is a form of public activism which is generally in opposition to commercialism, and the vectors of corporate image. The aim of culture jamming is to create a contrast between corporate image and the realities of the corporation. This is done symbolically, with the "detournement" of pop iconography.

It is based on the idea that advertising is little more than propaganda for established interests, and that there is a lack of an available means for alternative expression in industrialized nations. Culture jamming is a resistance movement to the hegemony of popular culture, based on the ideas of "guerrilla communication." It has several forms: adbusting, guerilla theater, billboard hijacking, and graffiti. 

For more on the culture jamming movement, check out Naomi Klein's book No Logo or some of the links below. 

What is an infringement Festival, anyways?

 

The infringement is a democratically run, non-hierarchical interdisciplinary arts festival open to all critical artists - theatre, music, film, street performance, visual arts, you name it.

 

The infringement will never discriminate, censor or charge a registration fee and only accepts ethical sponsors that pose no conflict of interest.

 

It began in Montreal in 2004 and has since spread to Ottawa, Toronto, Buffalo, Regina, New York City and Bordeaux, France, with new communities hopefully joining very soon.

 

Links that need to be further investigated for their other links!: 

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2204777656

http://youtube.com/watch?v=FmKUh3ndmow

Semiotics, Systems, Shifts, and Semantics

**So i haven't updated in two, due to being in NJ for my brothers' graduations... but i have spent this dedicated to sewing more pieces for the bell skirt on the 'photo dress'... as well in reading Nancy J. Troy's 'Couture Culture'... and found some interesting bits... :

Roland Barthes (structuralist) in his analysis of "the fashion system" (1967)

"clothing is not, or not simply, a functional necessity but, more importantly, the material ground of fashion. Fashion in turn is a semiotic language through which cultural meanings are constructed."

"his concern was to create a rhetorical model for understanding the operations of what he called "written clothing" as a linguistic code; in fact, the code itself, the system, was his principal interest: fashion was a pretext for his exploration of how linguistic signs are made and how they function systematically in the production of social discourse."

to paraphrase 

"clothing (fashion) moved from a way of denoting ones significance through symbols, tradition, prerogative, heritage, caste, lineage, marital status, political belief etc to a more standardized convention in which people became more self conscious and relied on subtle nuances to delineate onesself from another and to secure their repsectabiliy... (high class fashion became easily accessible to prostitutes and non aristocratic persons) 

Balzac, "in our society, differences have disappeared: only nuances remain."

(this conformity can be illustrated in the shift in practice from Poiret's colorful, eye catching clothes to the woman who took over his prominent position, Coco Chanel, and her implementation of  couture fashions that projected an image of standardization ie. the "little black dress"

--> think Seurats Sunday afternoon's uniformity in dress portrayal and surface treatment with paint --> also holman hunt and other painters depicting prostitutes (the subtleties like in ankle exposure or languid positioning were cues in telling who was promiscuous and who was virtuous)

In thinking about words and perhaps semantics... 

the dual meaning of 'Fashion' 

 verb - to give a particular shape or form to; make;

    to accommodate; adjust; adapt:

noun- a prevailing custom or style of dress, etiquette, socializing,

    the make or form of anything:

Rough Draft Artist Statement

Assignment:

 

1.     Bring an abstract or artist statement to the next meeting.

 

I am interested in conflating the art and fashion industry in order to collapse medium specificity within an artistic practice. In order to visually communicate the blurring of Fine Art and Haute Couture I feel that is necessary to materially break down boundaries to confuse something predominately 2 dimensional for another that which is 3 dimensional. Using paint on canvas and photographic processes, I am interested in creating ‘textiles’ that define the quintessence of the ‘handmade mark’. Continuing with this idea I am also interested in using these ‘textiles’ to construct by hand an object that resembles a couture gown. What I hope to communicate is the true presence of the creator, the integrity of the artist, as well as a response or question to the ultimate dissolution of boundaries and specificity.

 

Assignment 1

Journal Reflections:

 

1.     Briefly describe one positive research experience of week 1.

 I have been very fortunate in the fact that with every endeavor and exploration I initially pursued, another question, idea, thought etc resulted. I have been able to take my original ideas and push them to the next level. Whether that level be a new direction in concept or new way of materially communicating the idea. From the general issues of the handmade product in art and fashion, I have branched out into exploring ontology, the history of art and fashion also being ‘handcrafted’, different ways of revealing integrity within an artistic practice (whether it be art or fashion), and also how to express the life and ‘alivedness’ of the human creator rather than mundane mechanized machine. In creating sketches I was drawn to my unconscious employment of designs compartmentalized into 6 units, which led to me to think about carbon (whose atomic number is also 6), and way in which algorithms that represent life (Fibonacci sequence) can be employed in the construction of my final objects. With all the thought about numbers it also made me contemplate numbers vs words, numbers expressing a value and words used for communication… interestingly so the timeline of fashion is demarcated by numbered periods (the 80s, the 90s etc) and in art it is in words, the –isms (expressionism, impressionism).

2.  Briefly describe one negative research experience of week 1

There has not been any real negative experience within my own research. Though I had come across a couple obstacles in trying to prepare my working space (keys, chemicals, etc.) though those problems have been situated. Other than that I sliced off a small bit of my finger while cutting photo paper (nothing too serious that some pressure and bandages couldn’t help) and locked my keys in the darkroom (though I was rescued by pub safety). Also I think there might be a leak in the sink I am using, which I will attend to as soon as maintenance is present.

 

3.  What goals do you have for next week?

I have started the construction of my first garment and would hope to have it completed within a week. While constructing, I still want to mull over newfound interests and ideas and materially explore their relevancy to my research.

(un)easily (Re)produced

This is the beginning of my first dress... which is composed of Black and White Photographic paper... it was important for me that the the photographic process was used... but more important that this mode of reproduction was manipulated in a way to showcase the hand made mark of the artist (which was done using developer and a paintbrush)... Im in interested in keeping the integrity of the artist... in that everything (the sewing and images) are all handmade .. with out a camera and without a sewing machine 

Wall of Skecthes

Sweet sketches, drawings, and predominately explorations with pastels, charcoal, water, and ink. Plus some sweet Baileys (creamy and beige), Bootsy Collins, old gregg and a funky ball of tits from outer space compliments of Kerri

Two Year Old Chemicals (hopefully will) WORK!!!!!!!!

Saturday! The first day of the first weekend and it proved to be the busiest day/ most productive day yet! After acquiring some unopened chemicals from a fellow Artist I decided that though they were two years old... and UNOPENED... they would have a better chance at working then the half empty chemicals that were previously in the lab... So after mixing... setting up... getting locked out of the lab (silly me forgot my keys)... getting back in... and doing lots of printing... the Developer, Stop, and Fix All appear to be working!!! ... though the ultimate test for these prints being archival will be if they do not turn purple by tomorrow!!!!

The Number 6... Algorithms... Life

In my mad pursuit of sketching, I realized that one of my "dress designs" was compartmentalized... and it was in 6 sections... It was so splendid to draw a connection of that unconscious employment of 6 compartments to Carbon whose atomic number is indeed 6!!! 

Carbon is the basis and backbone to ALL organic life... How great it was to think about a garment for life representing and talking about life... 

This unintentional discovery made me think back to what I had mentioned before concerning numbers... perhaps numbers ($$ amounts) could have some academic/intellectual resonance out side of a value scale... or maybe .... (for fashion) What if every price for something had to be a number that came from some sort of algorithm... or its numerology had to have some basis in whatever the garment was trying to communicate about the individual... or perhaps ... (for Art) the construction of it was based around an algorithm... 

And then it hit me.... tHE FIBONACCI SEQUENCE!!!! ... i have become mildly obsessed with this beautiful spiral  (perhaps robert smithson was too!) and sequence of number (And Mario Merz as well!!! )... So i started to write it out ... but without numbers....

I

I

II

III

IIIII

IIIIIIII

etc...

hmmm                    ......                                  ......

...looks kind of like a figure wearing a voluminous dress

 (lucky for me dresses/skirts with a lot of volume are 'in style' this spring/summer)

ontology, history: hand-crafted

I have always been interested in Ontology - what is real and what constitutes a reality and if it is someones' and not anothers' then in a sense it is contrived, so is it truly real; what it means to have existence, and the state of being etc. 

History ... Completely contrived... based on events and mostly from the white man's perspective... 

So, for those like myself, that are studying, memorizing, and regurgitating some sort of history (art for me) well then they are just perpetuating a facade, a contrived past existence or state of being. For example when i have a conversation with someone i am taking in (consciously and unconsciously) certain details while the other individual is doing the same. let just say, we both write down our individual accounts, which would ultimately be our reality of the situation. Totally different, they will be. So which is real, well can something be real if it is refuted? Well in science it is, if you can prove a hypothesis wrong then your assumption is invalid. 

Acceptance... our society accepts these truths as each and everyones reality...  i say, question your answers... or theirs

So.. to get to the point of this all, In looking at a timeline of fashion and comparing it to my previous knowledge of art history.. on first inspection i was interested in how 'styles/trends' are demarcated by numbers... years.. but mostly numbers.. the 50s 60s etc. and with art it is those avant garde -isms, words, letters etc. 

Interestingly so... Fashion... an industry powered by commerce and consumerism ($$).. knows nothing but the universal number system... 

Art... i believe should maintain a certain level of integrity... yet as we get closer to this day and age i see those -isms dying down and and art being referred to its decade... have we moved from the age of concept, ideaology, and MOSTLY communication! (bc as visully artists I use my art to talk to others/ communicate/ and instill ideas and thoughts in the viewer).. how can one communicate a feeling emotion or idea through numbers? (im sure there is a way.. .numerology.. but for all intents and purposes I am going to be looking at numbers with in the universal knowledge of each).... 

So as i previously stated in another entry, what i think interests me the most, is this idea of the 'hand-made' or 'hand-crafted'... and not only are the products (art works and clothing) hand made but the history is as well... hand crafted by the writers of the cannon -they chose what to include and to exclude... (maybe, in a duchampian way of thinking, historians are artists as well, they made the final decision, and because they chose to include or exclude it gives them full artistic rights over that history) ...

Both industries are shaped by the people in them... if we have ex stock-brokers (no names mentioned... : cough: koons) creating art then their interest will lie in the numbers... and it will be carried over... clearly.... 

So perhaps im really interested in the idea of 'hand-crafted' 'hand-contrived' all encompassing... and for me the only way to say that ... is to do it!!!! I can't keep telling you... so ... im an artist.... I will SHOW you!

Language...!!!

Emerging Thought Process:

 Language (semiotics?) has also been extremely important in regards to my search, i found it interesting how the word 'trend' is only used in the 'art world' when it comes to the market (changes in buying/ selling/ as a comodity) where as style has been reserved for the aesthetics (movement/avant garde / established way of making a mark)... trend in the art aesthetics seems to be tabooo; interestingly so trend is used for the changing 'looks' (hot new items/latest garb and accesories/ patterns, colors,cuts etc) used freely and coinciding with established styles in fashion.

Haute Couture Meets Fine Art

Currently I am in Delaware working on research. The concept is loosely based around conflating the art and fashion industries in an attempt to collapse medium specificity within an artistic practice. 

My first step has been researching what entails haute couture fashion and the latest trends/styles in fashion for spring/summer 2008. In the process I have also been referencing a how to draw for fashion book, in which have done several practice sketches of the 9 headed.

croquis

I have also been in a mad pursuit of obtaining keys for a working space. In which i spent a bulk of last night trying to clean up the printmaking darkroom, as well as discovering that the chemicals in that space were last used in 2006!!! I am a bit unsure as to whether I want to open and/or use them!!!