WEEK 1: State of the Art, Project Management and Documentation¶
INTRODUCTIONS¶
This week was about introductions - to the faculty, fellow students, the workspace, and digital techniques.
This week offered insight into the importance of participating through questioning, note taking, photographing, and recording.
It was the beginning of an open-source journey.
We participated in the first Global Lecutre.
DOCUMENTATION¶
Learning how to integrate documentation into our everyday lives for the next 6 months.
Learning the most effective ways to document our process over the next 6 months.
The first assignment was to become acquainted with Gitlab - an open-source web software for managing public and private projects. I am becoming familiar with software terminology, and learning how to translate computer-processing languages like Markdown into different output formats. With a background far from computer science and programming, I belive I am making positive progress.
OPTIMAL WAYS TO DOCUMENT | BACK END TO FRONT END¶
1. Compartmentalise Codes using Excel Spreadsheet¶
2. Compress IMG using Adobe Photoshop¶
BEST VIDEO UPLOAD OPTION¶
1. Vimeo¶
Bio Terrae from bela rofe on Vimeo.
MOTIVATION¶
I worked in the fashion industry for 5 years both in Sydney and London doing photography, styling, set production, public relations, and retail. To say I have seen the dark side would be an understatement. The industry is in ruins - a poisonous cycle rooted in injustice. How could I be contributing to an industry that works against nature and is entirely fuelled by the human ego? I simply could not lift one more finger for it.
I have a background in anthropology and environmental art- exploring the human condition and the potential of art as a mechanism to reposition our species from anthropocentric to biocentric beings. To live in a world where the rights and needs of humans are no more important than the rights and needs of non-human animals and the environment. Environmental art has the power to inspire compassion for other beings. I use photography to capture natural environments and, using digital programs, magnify and augment patterns and systems in the biosphere as a way to draw connections between all living things. The role of the artist is to wake people up. And Fabricademy has offered me the opportunity to do just this.
Fabricademy provides the balance necessary for me to channel my experience and skills into redeeming the fashion industry. The academy works at the intersection of art, science, technology, and materials - four fields I believe to have the power to redefine the fashion industry. I believe Fabricademy cultivates a space of intelligence where art, science and nature can fuse forces for bio-material innovation. I hope to intersect these three fields to create an exhibition piece for my final project that showcases fashion as a canvas worn to educate and raise awareness about environmental conditions and the urgency to reconnect with the origins of our evolution. In the face of total digitalisation I believe fashion can be powered to overcome peoples numbness and disconnection from each other and the natural world, shift perspectives, make the invisible visible, and help imagine alternative futures.
INSPIRATION¶
BIOGARMENTRY . STUDIO NIENKE HOOGVLIET . MARTINE JALGAARD . LUCY MCRAE . THE FABRICANT . NON HUMAN NONSENSE . DORA KONTHA . ELENA AYA . ELSPETH DIEDERIX
FINAL PROJECT MUSING¶
1. Texture¶
Throughout the course I will be exploring the role of texture as a mechanism to reconnect humans to the origins of their evolution. Texture is a very important part of my practise. Texture is something that holds the ablity to ignite most of our senses at once and spark or generate a new memory. Texture is something I will be exploring deeply- particularly how we can use texture as a tool to learn about our connection to the complex, interdependent system of life on Earth.
As we enter a world of total digitalisation, I believe there will be a resurgence in texture as people will want to physically reconnect with the world around them.
Concepts of mine I will be exploring include regenerative textures, and redefining textures as skins of the Earth. These concepts involve repurposing various ‘scraps’ and human waste into textiles to accelerate the transition to circular living.
There is a huge importance for bringing texture back into our lives. Everything around us is texture. Texture is how we conceptualise feeling. And in a future where more of our time is channelled into a static online world, the role of texture in our immediate environments will be an imperative indicator to remind our species of our sensory ecology. This powerful link between texture and reconnection is a theme I hope to document throughout the next 6 months.
2. Bio Indicators¶
Fashion as a canvas to educate humans about the conditions of their immediate environment.
Designing responsive bio-materials - responsive to conditions the internal environment (the body) and the external enviromnet (the world around).
Biomimicry x Fashion - nature inspired design.
Using lichen as a bio-indicator - lichen changes form, colour, texture in accordance with air toxicity. How can I use lichen as a biomaterial to educate humans about the level of air pollution in their immediate environment?
Responsive fabric - this idea plays with the word Nature and really see's the convergence of nature and technology through design.
Redefining what nature actually is then...
Nature and technology once had a dichotomous relationship, how can we use fashion as a canvas to positively integrate nature and technology.
Nature and technology working in alignment with each other, not against each other.
3. Harnessing Human Hair¶
What textiles can we work with in the wake of an apocalypse?
Harnessing the human body as a resource when we are stripped of natural resources.
Human hair as a powerful future textile.
Material properties of hair - almost 100% protein, so why are we wasting such a valuable material?
Visual Inspiration, Credit: Bela Rofe Pinterest Board