The Politics of Looking by Matt Bowman Notes

    - Philosophical matters need to be dealt with

-   - Immanuel Kant 1781 critique of pure reason

-   - Duck/rabbit picture – cant see at the same time, mentally switch

-   - Jasper Johns – white flag

-   - Cultural seeing

-   - James Turrell – Afrum I, looks like a cube but actually just       light.

-   - Illusions

-   - At 6 months old a child will recognise their mirrors reflection as themselves. The baby identifies with its reflection and will begin to develop its selfhood – self identity, what makes things you

-   - Capturing gazes

-   - Alfred Hitchcock’s poster for Rear Window – lady in the window, barely in the movie

-   - Psycho – The Bates. Peep hole. When she’s murdered – see her still open eye, we see the eye but the eye no longer sees.

-   - Sherman’s photographs are portraits of the self as it emerges in the field of the other - in types presented in the media as women. In her work we see that to express a self is largely to replicate a model – Hal foster the expressive fallacy.

-   - Photos taken as if someone is looking at her

-   - Your gaze hits the side of my face 1982

-   - Execution of Robert-Francois Damiens

-   - Panopticon prison – sense of being watch would change how we act fundamentally

-   - More than ever are we being watched – internet and cameras

-   - In 2015 there is 1 camera to every 11 people

Subtraction Cutting

In pairs we practiced the tunnel technique in our Fashion Construction support module. Subtraction cutting is all about estimation and taking a chance as their is no prediction to how your final garment is going to look.



Using a duvet we sewed the sides and bottom, leaving the top unsown. Where you put the tunnel determines exactly how long or short the dress is, If the two circle tunnels are close together you will create more of a maxi dress, the further apart, the shorter the dress.

We used the top of a vest block, drawing around the neck, shoulders arm holes and sides (not the bottom) whilst doing so, making sure shoulders are relatively near each other. We then drew from shoulder to shoulder and subtracted the inside.

We then stitched the shoulders, side seams then circle outside to outside. This is mine and Laura's final garment.

Muse

Rihanna (Robyn Rihanna Fenty) is a Barbadian singer and songwriter who plays by her own rules, especially in terms of fashion. Being one of the world's biggest stars, it's understandable how she has become a modern style icon being dressed by every big name designer you'd care to name. She's often seen in clothes from Gucci to Marc Jacobs, Chanel to Tom Ford and not to forget Balmain and Moschino.

Rihanna's style is ever changing and always jaw dropping, she wipes the floor with whatever she wears but she always stays true to her iconic street style. From tracksuits, sneakers and sporting jerseys, Rihanna is the perfect muse for my project.

More starting points..

After deciding on my previous starting point, I then came to realise that although Bridal and wedding influences in my work would be a very extremely bold and unique way to represent Gender. I also realised that to create a diversity with a Bridal inspired theme, I would need to focus on menswear which is not something that I felt completely comfortable with. 

I looked back on my sketchbook work and previous workshops and remembered how well the Playstation controller illustration worked when I placed it on the dress making stand. I decided to analyse the images in depth and came to the conclusion that upon the dress stand it almost resembled American football armour worn underneath their jerseys.

From here I researched heavily into American football, the armour and sportswear. Using these influences and research I will begin to think about designing and developing previous designs further.

Starting Points and Colour Palette

After my previous lesson creating visual research from feminine and masculine objects, our next task was to choose one object and write 100 words explaining why we chose the item and whether its feminine or masculine, its purpose, the material etc. I chose my mothers wedding stockings, which I believed to be feminine.

'The shape of the object is tubular, with a  straight edge at the top of the stocking. It has a transparent, ivory or cream colour with the material being either polyester or nylon which is common in tights or hosiery. The purpose of a stocking is either to create warmth around the person's leg or simply to look good. In many cases they are worn as they hold some form of sexual appeal. This particular stocking was constructed to be worn for a special occasion, in this case a wedding. I selected this object as it was designed and created for a woman to wear on her wedding day, which is what I would confirm as extremely feminine.'

Taking my object as inspiration, I discussed with my tutor and peers and came to a decision that my colour palette is going to be plain and simple, white. This is due to the Bridal influence from my feminine object, as it is traditional in many countries and cultures for the bride to wear all white.

Collage of my colour palette:



A pinterest board of my colour palette:
https://www.pinterest.com/egmortimer/gender-games-colour-palette/

However, if I was to go towards the textile route for this project I would struggle to create prints using just one colour. I think if I was to focus on textile prints, I would potentially use blue and silver along side the white, also influences from weddings - the blue from 'something blue' phrase and the silver is influence by the six pence which women often wear in their shoes for luck.

Masculine and feminine objects

Our task for our studio module class this week was to use a variety of mediums and techniques to draw from objects that people see as feminine or masculine. In the masculine room there were items from big, bulky workman boots to robots and toy cars.

I used mediums such as masking tape, ink, bleach and gauche to interpret these objects. I really enjoyed the layering of the masking tape combined with the chaotic lines from the biro.

As I enjoyed layering as a technique I went on to experiment with layering with slightly different mediums like crinkled paper and crayon on top of ink. I think both of these are just as affective as the other however I do prefer the biro form the other page as the detail is finer.

In the 'feminine room' there was items from hair dryers, to shoes, to dresses and corsets.  I decided to focus mainly on a few items being a wedding headband, a garter and a stockings, this was because they possessed great detail with lace, beading and embroidery.

From these two pages I used shapes from my work to place upon a dress making mannequin in order to give myself some ideas to create silhouettes and seams for garments.

Exploration of gender

Gender is the state of being male or female. The word itself has been used as a grammatical term since the 14th century using referrals to classes of nouns such as masculine and feminine. Although the words 'gender' and 'sex' both hold the same sense stating being either male or female, they are typically used in slightly different ways as sex usually refers to biological differences between male and female, whilst gender refers to cultural or social ones.

Although typically there is two sexes, categorising males and females into social roles can create problems in society. Globally, many countries are guilty of interpreting biological differences between the sexes to create social expectations that define how or how not to behave.

Gender identity is a persons recognition of their own gender, i.e. male or female - A common division in many societies, however it has become more and more common, or noticed that some individuals do not identify with some or all of the aspects of their gender that are assigned to their biological sex.

Not everyone believes that their gender identity corresponds to the sex that they were born with, which begins the birth of transsexuals, transgenders and intersex individuals, all of which are likely to experience gender dysphoria.

It has become possible to reassign sex surgically in recent decades, meaning a person who experiences gender dysphoria can seek out these forms of medical surgeries, support and help to have their physical sex match their gender.

"What we're seeing now, is a seismic shift in fashion, a widening acceptance of a style with no boundaries, one that reflects the way young people dress." Ken Downing, fashion director of Neiman Marcus

In the 21st century many designers are advancing their collections, aiding for people who experience gender dysphoria or even members of society that don't experience completely but do have desires to wear the occasional item from the other genders wardrobe. A handful of designers have been showing identical pieces aimed at both sexes and are shrugging off the conventional gender labels.