Evaluation of the Sampling Unit

At first, I found it difficult to research into artists and designers that would be suitable to relate to my work, however, after thinking more carefully about key words that I could search for it became a lot easier.

One of the first artists I looked into was Irwin Glusker, who created a piece of art about the phases of the moon. I liked the shapes he created and the element of time in his work. This then led me to think about the way that time affects the natural world.

When I visited The Language of Process Exhibition at the All Saints Library, I discovered 'Earthbowl' by Fluid Forms (2008) which is a piece that defines the contour lines of a piece of the Earth. This piece particularly reminded me of how tree rings determine the age of the tree and made me think about possible designs for the laser cutter. Furthermore, over the Christmas vacation I sourced primary images from local forests in order to drive ideas for when I returned with tree rings in mind.

By carrying out sampling in the beginning of the project that was relatively flat, with occasional surface relief from the fabric rather than more sculptural samples, I wanted to carry out contextual research in order to develop my designs into something more exciting. The initial research allowed me to generate ideas for the first samples, but I then wanted to make my samples more 3D. I found an artist called Sivan Roys that cuts out several of the same shape and strings them together to make a structure. I tried this out with one of my own designs and, although I liked the effect of the more 3D shape, I felt this area would not allow me to develop a clear context for my work.

 

After experimenting with lots of different design possibilities for the laser cutter using different media and materials, and once I had thoroughly explored the idea of tree rings as data, I concentrated more on the shapes that they created. I have been inspired by threeASFOUR, (a team of three designers that have had their garments featured for numerous years in New York Fashion Week), due to their garments being sculptural and of similar concept to my project. Their designs were inspired by crop circles and spirals, which led me on to think about creating a range of samples that were of a more abstract nature. I used the pin-tuck Bernina foot in order to sew in a spiral pattern onto corduroy and denim to experiment with how the materials would be affected - the denim created a curve when I sew the spiral onto it. I then wanted to make the sample more 3D and sculptural, so by looking at threeASFOUR’s garments I decided to attach several spirals together and create a piece for the body. This allowed me to develop ideas to make more 3D samples and gave me more of a context for my work.

 

Throughout this project I have engaged with research relating to the audience and context of my work and, although I found it difficult at first to find relevant work, I have discovered a lot about different artists and designers along the way as well as being influenced by their work.

I feel that I would have benefitted from carrying out more contextual research in the beginning in order to kick start ideas earlier, whereas I concentrated more on this aspect towards the middle of the project.