Blog post 1
Irony within industry — power
The first lecture, power by Julia Crew, presented an overview of the fashion industry and how imbalanced it is, creating gaps between genders. It is such an ironic situation that even though bigger part of fashion industry focuses on women consumers, owners of fashion companies were mostly men. Why would opposite gender produce products for the other? Is it possible for them to consider the factors that even women themselves don’t realise?
What this lecture suggested took my eyes from telescope where I could only look at a tree, such as ‘beautiful photographs’ and ‘pretty garments’ and showed me the forest of fashion industry. Then I realised what I produce is not just an editorial or a magazine cover — it is a symbol of current situation, a chance to tell the message and solve the imbalanced power. Understanding the role of myself in the fashion industry enlightened me on what I should do. Being more active in terms of the problems that fashion industry is facing and having my own perspective are the first step I would take to solve the imbalance.
Working with others — collaboration
Second lecture, Collaboration by Claire Swift, suggested me the new way of working. This lecture reminded me of how I worked in past 2 years. I have been working on school projects on my own but whenever I encountered a challenge of a problem, opinion and suggestion from others always helped me to find a way to solve the problem. For example, on the last project, I have struggled to settle on the idea I have chosen, which I though it is not working well at that time. Then a friend of mine suggested me a fresh new idea and it melted the shell of my own thinking. It was the point where I realised listening to others could be actually helpful and it is important to have a feedback.
Synergy is another kew word I have earned from this lecture. When different opinions are collected and selected, it builds a powerful synergy in creative process. This is something I should be looking forward in the future. I have always been afraid of sharing my work but this will change, considering benefits that synergy can bring. However I also have learned that negative synergy could happen — where members share only one stiff opinion. We are all individuals and those individuals form a group. We might function as a group but we are not the same. Keeping in mind the fact that we all can and should have different opinion will let the creativity bloom without locked in boundaries.