Overall, I am happy with the initial research I have done so far on Kathy Prendergast , Karen Rose, Gee’s Bend Quilt Makers and & Other Stories X Giorgia Lupi Collaboration . I think all 4 artists/designers have a unique and creative style of work. I think the artist that I am most likely to take further to influence my samples and final piece is Karen Rose as she has created space themed textile pieces and I aim to create for my final piece a space themed garment.
Category Archives: Initial Research
What is Primary Data and Secondary Data?
Primary Data is data that you collect, study and record yourself. Primary research is more time consuming and potentially expensive than secondary research as you have to take time to observe and check your findings. Primary data can be in the form of surveys and interviews, for example.
Secondary Data is data that someone else has collected, studied and recorded themselves, as you have not collected this yourself you need to find a trustworthy and credible source. Secondary can be found in books, on websites and films/documentaries.
As I have chosen the theme of space within data, most of the data I will use in this project will be secondary as there is little data to do with space I can collect myself.
Bibliography
Glen, S., 2021. Primary Data & Secondary Data: Definition & Example – Statistics How To. [online] Statistics How To. Available at: <https://www.statisticshowto.com/experimental-design/primary-data-secondary/> [Accessed 12 March 2021].
Blog, F., 2021. Primary vs Secondary Data:15 Key Differences & Similarities. [online] Formpl.us. Available at: <https://www.formpl.us/blog/primary-secondary-data> [Accessed 12 March 2021].
FMP Criteria Breakdown
List of techniques – Initial Ideas
Data Moodboards – My Initial Ideas
& Other Stories X Giorgia Lupi Collaboration Research
& Other Stories is a clothing brand, who did a collaboration with an information and data designer called Giorgia Lupi.
I have chosen 3 garments from thier collection, which focuses on the work of three influential scientists, which has been represented through the patterns and designs.
This first piece is a front button down dress that it is fitted at the waist with a collar and puffed sleeves. The designer has used the colours red, yellow, orange, green ,blue, purple, pink, black, brown and white in her design that covers the whole dress and represents the work and data that the mathematician Ada Lovelace collected. I really like the colours and the style of the garment and also the hidden meaning behind the pattern and designs. The design seems to be made up from rectangles and triangles with bold black lines running vertically between each column. This garment seems to be made from a light material as it hangs very naturally on the models body. I think this dress is very effective and the incorporation of mathematical and scientific data and finding is very fascinating.
This next piece is a white patterned shirt, with cuff, a collar, a long back panel and I think it even has hidden buttons. This garment inspired by the work of Mae Jemison, who was an astronaut. The designer has used the colours red, yellow, blue, pink, black and white within the design of this shirt. I love the style of this shirt and the design, I would love this shirt even if there was no hidden meaning behind the pattern. I like Giorgia Lupi’s unique style of representing data in a visual way to create a fashion piece.
This last piece is a blue jumper with a design embroidery on to the front of it. This garment inspired by the work of Rachel Carson, who was a conservationist. The designer has used light shades of the colours red, orange, yellow, green, blue, pink and white within the design of this jumper. This garment looks like a practical jumper that can provide warmth, comfort and style. I think this piece is lovely and I definitely would wear this.
This collection definitely links to data in every way as the designs are created using it.
This could potentially influence my work as I could use secondary data and try to create my own design that represents it.
My lecturer choose this collection for us to research, as I think she thought it would be a great source of inspiration to look at, as initial ideas for our own work that is inspired by the theme of data.
Overall, I really love this creative way of interpreting data to create a visual design.
Bibliography
& Other Stories. 2021. & Other Stories – Giorgia Lupi co-lab. [online] Available at: <https://www.stories.com/en_gbp/giorgialupi.html > [Accessed 25 February 2021].
& Other Stories. 2021. & Other Stories – Giorgia Lupi co-lab. [online] Available at: <https://www.stories.com/en_gbp/giorgialupi.html?page=interview > [Accessed 28 February 2021].
Gee’s Bend Quilt Makers Research
Gee’s Bends is located in Alabama and is surrounded by the Alabama river. The women of Gee’s Bend are widely known for their quilt making and they have established their own style and techniques inspired by their strong cultural community and seclusion from the world at large.
This first quilt below was made by Addie Pearl Nicholson in 1974. The size of this quilt is 77 x 77 inches. The quiltmaker has used a variety of different coloured patterned material for this quilt, the colours include red, orange, yellow, green, blue, black, brown and white. This quilt looks as if it has been planned and designed prior to construction as each piece of fabric looks like it has been particularly chosen, cut and organised to create pattern and design throughout the quilt. There seem to be 9 clear squares with the design in and wide strips of fabric dividing the quilt up to define these squares. Within the 9 different squares there seems to be 9 L-shaped pieces of fabric that are all, different sizes each one is slightly smaller that the previous one, finishing at a square of yellow gingham. I really like this design of quilt, I personally don’t particularly like the choose of colour combination. However, it is still lovely and effective quilt.
This second quilt below was made by Lucy T. Pettway in 1975. The size of this quilt is 73 x 66 inches. The quiltmaker has used a range of coloured material for this quilt, the colours include red, orange, yellow, purple and pink. This quilt then has a patterned edge and the materials looks as if it is green and brown. This quilt has a really beautiful design and has quite vibrant colours, like the bright yellow, this colour always gives off happy emotions. This quit has combined several colours of triangle most of which are the same side and has chosen two colours and put them together as if they create a square. This quilt must have taken a long time to make with all the small sections of fabric.
This second quilt below was made by Geraldine Westbrook in 1950. The size of this quilt is 80 x 70 inches. The quiltmaker has used scraps of denim and cotton from work clothes to produce this quilt. I really like the resourcefulness of this quilt. I personally think it is very important repurpose and upcyle old clothes that may have holes in them or be worn from good use. I love the combination of horizontal and vertical strips of fabric to create this design as most of the pieces of fabric are the same colour so it creates a nice variation.
I think these quilts can link to data as patterns are a visual representation of data. Patterns usually have a key design which repeats.
I think the pattern and style of the quilts may influence my work.
I personally believe that the exam board chose this group of quilt makers as there is data behind each quilt and also within the patterns and designs.
Overall, I really like the uniqueness of the three quilts I choose to look at but there is a huge collection of quilts made by different women, with different styles.
Bibliography
Soulsgrowndeep.org. 2021. Gee’s Bend Quiltmakers | Souls Grown Deep. [online] Available at: <https://www.soulsgrowndeep.org/gees-bend-quiltmakers > [Accessed 28 February 2021].
Karen Rose Research
Karen Rose is a textile artist and has recently created a series of textiles pieces inspired by the universe.
This first piece of Karen Rose’s work is called “Andromeda Galaxy”. It is a textiles art piece. Karen has created the galaxy using a variety of different coloured threads, she has used the colours red, orange, green, pink and white. This is combined with colourful embellishments such as sequins added on top, these sequins add a bit of shine and sparkle to the piece. Each sequin may represent a different star in the galaxy. I could not find the scale of this piece or when it was made. I think that this piece is very eye-catching as it is very colourful and sparkly. The way Karen has created this piece is very creative as your eyes are drawn to the centre of this piece where there is a large white circle with little dots around it. I think that maybe this is a cluster of stars in the centre of the galaxy. Everything around this white “cluster of stars” looks as if it is in motion and is revolving around this particular “cluster of stars”. The embellishments and details that have been hand sewn onto a plain black piece of fabric. I definitely could not easily recreate this piece as it has so much detail and has clearly been carefully planned and designed before being made. It also looks as if it has been hand sewn using embroidery threads and hand embroidery which takes a long time to do.
The next piece below is also a textile art piece and it’s title is “The Moon”. This piece has been created using the colours blue, green, purple and white. Parts of the background of the moon looks as if it has been dyed before embroidering into it adding beads and sequins onto the design. I really like this textile representation of the moon is very effective. I think there is a great attention to detail and also there is layering. For this piece I also don’t know the scale of it or when it was made.
The last piece that I am analysing below is called “Orion Nebula M 42 (Taurus)”. I could not find the scale of this piece or when it was made. This is also a textile art piece. This piece has been created using the colours red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and pink. The background of this piece looks as it has been dyed before adding detail and embellishments onto the surface. I think that this design has been created using netting, embroidery threads, beads and sequins. I think that this piece is really effective. Karen has used several different techniques and has used them to created layers of embellishment within the design.
I think that this can link to data as scientists all around the world have researched the universe, galaxy’s and planets. They have collected and recorded data on them and continue to do so.
Karen’s work could influence and inspire my own style of work and focus on attention to detail.
I have chosen Karen’s work to research and analyse as when creating my initial ideas and research I am very interested in space and the new data that is being collected and the research that is ongoing.
Overall, I really like the style of Karen’s work as it is a very detailed textiles interpretation of a real galaxy, the moon and Orion Nebula.
Bibliography
Rose, K., 2021. Karen Rose Textiles. [online] Karen-rose-textiles.com. Available at: <http://karen-rose-textiles.com/#home2 > [Accessed 27 February 2021].
Kathy Prendergast Research
Kathy Prendergast is an artist and sculptor.
The first piece of artwork below is Ink painting onto two pages of an atlas. Kathy Prendergast has used a combination of both black and white ink to create her design, the black ink covers both of the atlas pages with lots of randomly placed speckles of white ink over the pages.
I was unable to find a clear title of this piece. I have read from another sources that the size of this piece is supposedly 45 x 30.5 x 1cm and that it also was made in 2014. I think that I could try and recreate this piece although I don’t think it will be created with the same amount of skill and subsequently I think that would be less effective. This piece reminds me of the night sky, with the conflicting colours as the sky is very dark with very lots of very bright stars. This lead me onto think why has the artist used an atlas for this piece, I then thought could there be a hidden meaning why she chose to use an atlas, as wherever we are in the world we always look at the same sky and the same stars.
This next piece below is an ink drawing, I have read from another source that this piece is called “Fujidelic”, that it was made between 2015 and 2016 and also that the size of this piece is supposedly 46 x 58cm.
Kathy has used a variation of different shades of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and pink to create this piece of art. This is a map, which is used to show the height and contour of the land. I think that the name of the artwork is linked to the name of the mountain it is representing, this could potentially be Mount Fuji.
I really like this piece as it is very colourful and vibrant and personally it gives off happy and joyful emotions. I don’t think I could easily recreate this particular piece as all of the different contour lines are different colours and are very precise shapes. This piece must have taken a long time to create with so many contour lines in one piece. I personally don’t think knowing the process of how any artist creates a piece of artwork, never really lessons my appreciation for it. As behind each piece there is a story and a journey of how and why they came to creating a particular piece and this unknown journey is what makes the piece.
This last piece of Kathy’s work which I am analysing is a watercolour map to show the height and contour of the land. I think that the title of this piece is “Cotopaxi”. I have read from another source that this piece was made in 2013 and also that the size of this piece is supposedly 37 x 55.4 cm. I love this piece as some of colours are pastel colour, Kathy has used red, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink and grey in this piece. I don’t think that I could easily create this piece for the same reasons as the piece above. I personally think that this piece is very effective.
Kathy’s work can link to data as a map is a way of plotting and visualising key data such as continents, country’s, particular locations and the height and contours of the land. Every day people look at maps and use the data that has been plotted and recorded to help us navigate in day to day life.
This could influence my work as I could look at maps of earth and other planets to see what key features have been recorded.
I think that the exam board has chosen Kathy as an good artist to look at and use to inspire our own work as she uses secondary data that has already been recorded and develops her work from that.
Overall, I really like the way Kathy has incorporated maps and data into her work, I think all 3 of her pieces, which I have analysed are really effective.
Bibliography
Kerlingallery.com. 2021. Kathy Prendergast – Artists – Kerlin Gallery. [online] Available at: <https://www.kerlingallery.com/artists/kathy-prendergast/artist_works > [Accessed 26 February 2021].
Tate. 2021. Kathy Prendergast born 1958 | Tate. [online] Available at: <https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/kathy-prendergast-2786 > [Accessed 26 February 2021].
Discovering the Zeitgeist
Zeitgeist is a german word meaning the spirit of a specific time.
Trend forecasting focuses on small patterns in information and data to predict the possible future trends. Fashion trends represent the zeitgeist.
Paul Nystrom created a framework which focuses on five different dominating factors to help predict the future trends.
This is the mindmap I created using Nystrom’s Framework for trend forecasting.
Bibliography
Collinsdictionary.com. 2021. Zeitgeist definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary. [online] Available at: <https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/zeitgeist >
[Accessed 24 February 2021].
Bloomsburyfashioncentral.com. 2021. Bloomsbury Fashion Central –. [online] Available at: <https://www.bloomsburyfashioncentral.com/products/berg-fashion-library/article/bibliographical-guides/fashion-trends > [Accessed 25 February 2021].
Unpicking Fashion 