Blog Post 3 – Project Outcome Reflection

My time on contemporary photography has taught me copious amounts about how much power photography has to emit a message which is particularly fitting for the times we are in right now.

Our brief was ‘Photography and the Family’ as well as being asked to capture 1) a self – portrait 2) someone in the home 3) an absent picture. I thought to do more of a spontaneous shoot in contrast to a planned, organised scene. This was to express the feelings and emotions that are flaring up during this period of self – isolation as a family.

This module has enabled me to start considering other aspects of photography that I was not aware of prior to starting; more related the technical issues such as settings on the camera, aperture etc. From where I was at the beginning of the unit to where I am now, I have realised I am now focusing more specifically on other important aspects in shooting such as conducting a ..

All of these have respectively found a comfortable part in allowing me to a reach a developed final outcome – a series of portraits seemingly encapsulating the zeitgeist of the odd times we currently residing in.

However, I did not want my work to focus and relay isolating as a fundamentally ‘negative’ experience. Although it has been unprecedented I can say with certainty that many good things have come from this period. In particular, a sense of closeness in relatives that we have not ever had the chance to explore in this context before.

I demonstrated this by shooting natural photos of my father and sister embracing each other under the washing line. I chose this location as it is a traditionally staple piece of domestic living in the household and can be identified amongst many other cultures around the world as a domiciliary item that transcends wealth, race, culture etc.

This allows this shoot to have a more timeless aura as it does not covertly enable anyone to feel excluded from feeling a sense of resonance to the pictures as their an no explicit signs of anything that can be seen as a divide. This was a decision I made with intent because I desired my shoot to have somewhat of a familiarity to the main themes of the Better Lives unit; pushing myself in this way would permit me to actually utilize what I have learnt into this work and also my future endeavors.

In particular, Social Responsibility, as it did not feel right to be ignorant to the times we are in right now and conduct a shoot that felt superficial and ill-mannered in response to the situation. Therefore, I felt for my work to progress in a way that exemplifies the concepts and themes I have learnt in this unit, I must address this in a way that is polite and uplifting.

In contrast to how many creatives have operated in the past by simply ignoring many issues and continuing to work in a very surface level way.

The outcome for my project was always to be informative, to explain an other side not usually seen from a manufacturing place where some big brands hire garment factories to produce thier designs there,  and the use of  important facts like more than 80% of the workers do not have a contract or the workers`shifts more than 8 hours a day to support the research done for a feature. I guess through the time of writing, it came hard to choose which information was relevant to explain the context of the topic since many of the readers may not know anything related to my country (I had quite a number of expiriences with people and the fact when I say where I come from, they don´t know where it`s placed). Writing a feature focus on peru´s fashion scene, helped me to investigate more what independent designers are doing, and it was nice to find that they want to tackle workers exploitation, clothing pollution and inequity through fashion. On the other hand, I had the opportunity to read from my other classmates´ features as part of our project. It was interesting to read different writing style but, mostly it was surprising to see the choices for the subject of the articles in which Covid-19 was a trendy topic amongs the ones I read. I guess I hoped I would read topics related to people´s background, society and city in order to have a wider idea about the inference of fashion through a personal view or experience. In the end, it turned out that writing not about a current topic is valid when the projects have a signicant connection and matter, and for me, that meant a change of thinking with an upgraded perspective. 

In this blog I’m going to reflect on a few key milestones that helped me achieve my project’s outcome and some of my personal developments. 

For my Fashion Activism classes, our project brief was to brainstorm, direct and create a visual campaign keeping in mind the themes of sustainability, diversity and social responsibilities. The campaign was designed for the clothing brand Lazy Oaf in collaboration with the mental health charity Time to Change. At first impression Lazy Oaf seemed like a progressive fashion house and that already resonated with the themes we studied, ie. sustainability and diversity. Whereas the mental health charity very clearly clicked with the social responsibilities theme and so we felt quite confident with the video we wanted to make. When we broke down each aspect of the campaign we had to make sure that they reflected both Lazy Oaf and Time to Change’s identity as well as the three themes. 

For example, when thinking of sustainability we ensured that every prop, pieces of clothing and illustrations were already available to us or made by us. This means we didn’t have to buy or borrow anything, thus reducing the amount of waste created. Being a diverse group we each brought different skills into this project, some created props using paper and recycled paper, some styled themselves in clothes that we already owned and some created illustrations with materials locally available to them. As we were creating this during the Lockdown period, using our own materials was key to stay safe and also make sure that we don’t over use resources during such a difficult time.

One of the issues we encountered was with the theme of diversity. Although we are a racially varied group, we were originally planning to be more inclusive as wanted to shoot with people from different age groups as well. In an ideal scenario we would’ve invited older and younger people, as well as people our age to a shoot, however due to the Lockdown rules we had to adapt and film ourselves and our families. It would’ve been interesting to maybe hold a casting call through social media and shoot people via Facetime or Zoom. Alternatively found footage could’ve been an option, but during my research I couldn’t find much to work with so it was better just to film ourselves.

We decided to put a lot of importance on the theme of social responsibilities because it strongly represents the charity this campaign was designed for. In fact our outcome’s message was around the idea of taking care of yourself during this pandemic and being in charge of your mental health whilst practicing social distancing. Spending a lot of time by ourselves, isolated and away from university, family and friends can have a big impact on creativity and wellbeing. So we thought of shedding light on that as it is a type of social responsibilities. To ensure that everyone had a voice and input we discussed and brainstormed ideas, and also hosted Zoom calls to discuss further implements to the course of action but also to check up on each other. In a way this project happening during a pandemic has brought us together as a community and made the outcome feel more authentic and meaningful.

Below is a link to our outcome:

https://web.microsoftstream.com/video/a4de2caa-d871-4abb-8f33-7e777761a8f7

The first practical lesson taught by Steven Solomon was the first time I truly understood how the Better Lives unit come in handy with the Hair & Makeup industry. Prior to this, I had no idea how the 3 themes from better lives is going to apply in the ‘Developing a Character’ project. Steven kindly broke down the themes for us and it was so much easier to work with.

In the first practical lesson, I was introduced to some products that were often used in the makeup industry and how each of them are useful and sustainable in its own way; for example, using gelatin is more inclined towards the sustainable approach rather than using silicone because gelatin can be melted again and reused for other projects whereas silicone is just a one-time usage. It is true that gelatin is a more sustainable option to use but its production does produce water waste, even if it is responsible for just a tiny fraction of the environmental impact. This makes me wonder if there is even a 100% sustainable process throughout the whole product life cycle and how the time is ticking away as we try to achieve that 100% sustainable product. This puzzled factor led me towards my conceptualized design. 

In present day, the natural ecosystem has always been the provision, regulating, supporting and cultural services for the human beings. In our daily lives, we take advantages of the natural ecosystem without so much as giving back or considering the consequences that will be present later. I chose Sustainability- ‘Ecological Balance’ as my focused theme and character’s inspiration. My character was developed with a mindset that our Mother Earth has eventually succumbed to the transgressive activities humans have created. The character that I have created is a vision of a human form transitioning into a lifeless grotesque form where the tables have turned- the human body now serves the nature, almost as if it was sucking the life out of the body. I have painted my character as though it was part of nature; green mosses and tree-like features. I am trying to envision a world where humans would give back to nature. While designing this character, I realized that I have contradicted myself along the way. I could have used any computer program to draw out my character or repurposed newspaper/ magazine to create my design. Instead of using a more sustainable alternative, I have chosen to use a blank piece of A4 sized paper.

It is so easy to feel a thing and to do another. The Better Lives theme(s) made me realise that as a human being, I have very little knowledge on our natural surroundings and consequences our actions have produced along the way; as a student, I still have a lot things that I need to educate myself and change for the better. 

References

Our Commitment to Sustainability (2020) Available at: https://www.inditex.com/documents/10279/249245/Dossier_JGA_2019_EN.pdf/1664de2f-ca77-3a40-2b78-cace74c06c82 (Accessed: 10 May 2020).

The subject I took was ‘critical design’ which I had to make a short trailer about wicked problems in the world. There were some topics that I can choose, and I decided to focus on healthcare problems especially about covid19 virus happening right now. Due to the pandemic, people are isolating themselves at their place and not meeting people face to face. As said from Nick Almond’s lecture ‘Emerging Technologies in Fashion’, there are many rapid changes in fashion industries using technologies. 

At the begging of my project, I was struggling with how I am going to connect the covid19 pandemic with fashion communication. My first draft was just criticizing the government and people treating the virus in an inappropriate way. The feedback from the tutor and other students was to narrow down the theme so that I can give a stronger message to the audience and find a way to communicate with fashion communication. The way we are handling this pandemic situation and the lecture talking about technologies perfectly match with my concept, so it was quite easy to start developing the draft to the final. I first focused on what new technologies are affecting the fashion communication and how other brands are using them. I could get help by other students to get some information and references, they helped me to set the direction of my trailer and I found out that there were already few collections held digitally or using new techniques. Some of them were saying the similar message that I was trying to say, it was telling that, later in the future, the world would be like post-apocalypse if we do not take care of problems such as pollution, virus or other problems.

By developing the trailer in the progress as I mentioned before, My final trailer was telling that, far in the future, mask and gloves would become daily wear and other social communication like a fashion show, meeting people and etc will be running digitally using VR, AR or other technologies. My trailer is rather there to implant the consciousness metaphorically in peoples mind but not to give the answer directly how we should act in this pandemic. It criticizes the wrong attitude and behaviour some people are showing nowadays and also makes them think about how we all should act not to make the trailer become a real future.

I think this media (photography, film) is a good medium to give the message to audiences. It can give a message directly and clearly and also metaphorically as well. Also, while showing the mask and gloves in the trailer, it can advertise the product and give the message at the same time.

For the Better Lives project, I chose Makeup Breakdown course. Out of online courses, the themes of the final project are fashion mistakes, imperfection and color theory. Thinking of my minimal makeup skills, I chose fashion mistakes and imperfection as the themes of my final project.

For fashion mistakes, as a fashion styling student, it is familiar for me, even for those who are in fashion industry. Mistakes are common in this filed since thousands of people keep finding mistakes in every experiment in order to perfect their creations. It is impossible to go through life without making mistakes and is not bad to make a mistake, on the contrary, there is much to be learned from wrong reflection. These points of views are also suitable for makeup. I am still a makeup learner and it is not uncommon for me to make technical mistakes. For example, I used to make my eyebrows look very thick by using dark color eyebrows pencil and often overuse shading powder in order to make my features look more three-dimension. Meanwhile, I have to talk about another theme – imperfection to explain the existence of these mistakes. It is well known that compared with Europeans and Americans, most Asians have flat features and yellowish skin, including me. The trend now is that in some Asian countries especially in China, most girls take fair and unblemished skin as the standard of beauty. Due to my dark complexion and acne marks, I felt insecure and unconfident when I was a teenager. Therefore, I bought bright color foundations that didn’t match my skin tone so as to have fair skin. Every time I put on makeup, I tried to hide my acne marks with concealer until the blemishes ‘disappeared’. However, it resulted in flat facial features. Thus, I used to make those technical mistakes. Now as an adult, my ideas of beauty have changed. Diversity is one of the three main themes of the Better Lives unit and some lectures related to it gave me great enlightenments. One lecture by Shahidha Bari pointed out that inclusion is of great importance connected with diversity.Everyone is born different. We should not only learn how to be inclusive of others but also be inclusive of yourself, facing your own imperfection and feeling comfortable expressing yourself.

For the final project, due to my poor makeup skills，I decided to use non-traditional cosmetics, creating looks with the themes of fashion mistakes and imperfection. I did two experiments. In first experiment, I put on a full makeup, hiding all my blemished with concealer and using red threads outlining facial contour.Surprisingly, contrary to feel weird about emphasizing facial contour by traditional cosmetics, by using something else, it looks exaggerated but more interesting. In second experiment, I stuck some tiny colorful pearls found at home on the face along the lower eyeline. I exposed my blemishes with nude makeup so as to highlight my special eye makeup. This time I found that through photos of my second makeup, the pearls caught my eyes easily and I paid little attention to the ‘imperfection’ on the face. At last, combining the results of two experiments, I chose plastic ropes outlining my whole facial contour based on nude makeup, creating an outcome which I feel successful for and proud of.

For my final outcome of the better lives unit, we have been told to choose a brand that we ‘re interested in and create three fashion illustrations based on the research that we have done on the brand. The workshops have taught us techniques on creating fashion illustrations and I think the workshops have helped me a lot in the process of making the final illustrations. We have been taught to create drawings of images and poses in fashion magazines and also using different mediums. And I have tried to also draw fashion illustrations with different mediums, colors, and techniques

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I have chosen the brand Y’s by Yohji Yamamoto for my final outcome. The first thing that I noticed when I first saw this brand is how the color black is widely used that there is usually not many other bright colors in his designs. It actually doesn’t affect any of the tensions and quality of his designs and it is just as eye-catching as some of the other designs that uses many saturated and bright colors. Personally I really like the color black but I have to admit that in many of the situations bright colors are more drawing to the eyes and so it is one of the reason why his designs really intrigues me. In my culture and in my family’s values black is very not ‘welcomed’ color and it is often a symbol of something bad. In his designs he has really proved that black can be also be ‘aggressive, rebellious, somber, romantic or seductive — is beautiful’(Menkes, 2000) just as all other colors. In the past blogs, I have also mentioned about how I was inspired by Yohji Yamamoto’s words in his interviews. After knowing more and doing more research on him and his brand it has made it clear for me that I am choosing Yohji Yamamoto for my final outcome.

I have looked over the past campaigns and runway looks of the brand and then chose a couple of the looks to do an illustration on. I wanted to create this very layered texture for the illustrations so I have used scrap materials as a base of the drawings and then painted it over with white acrylic. I then dry brush and drag pastel over the base while I was drawing.

In all of the three pieces, I have used Magnolia for their hair. Magnolia in Taiwan and also many parts of Asia, is a flower that is commonly seen sold by some of the people who are economically unstable or dependent to support their livings. This community I think is a group of people who generally will be considered to be ‘excluded’ from ‘fashion’ But after studying in LCF and better lives unit, I have learned that it is important to include every community in fashion as it is always inclusive of all people in the society and it is also what that creates diversity. I feel like adding this element into art, it is then including them in ‘art’ and ‘fashion.’

Magnolia is very well known for its strong scent but the scent disappears as it withers and it is most likely to be thrown away and very unlikely to be kept. In my opinion, witnessing the process of it wilting away is also witnessing how time flows and how life fades. I think this then corresponds to the concept of time and sustainability. No matter how flower withers and how time fades when art is created it is ‘perpetuated’ and is ‘timeless’- which is one of Yohji Yamamoto’s pursues.

In conclusion, the better lives unit not only helps with how I read a piece of art and also how I create in the future. It has taught me to think deeper and about the responsibility that comes with it. Lastly, to be very honest, I think one of the most important things that I retrieved from my fashion illustration tutor is to really have fun during the process of creating as it is where the passion lies.