On Monday 9th December, I met up with Nick Thurston to discuss my ideas surrounding my project. Prior to this I was starting to head in a new direction, experimenting with space and creating a comforting space. However, this brought new challenges of considering the space in a more sculptural sense rather than referring to it as a piece of textiles.
When talking to Nick he identified that I had four aspects to my work; clothes (making something for the body and a scene for the body), environment (sculptural questions, would help to look at the work of Rena Begum and Spartacus Chetwin), photography (how can I make someone who's not wearing the clothes experience it too?), and edited style of photography (how can I control the image through the creation of this 'dreamscape' through editing in pre and post production?). He suggested ranking the different elements from most to least important, and encouraged me to think of them as separate bodies of work, despite the fact that they are all engaging with the same subject matter. I think this will be challenging to me as the four aspects feed into each other and help me to process different ideas that I have surrounding this subject. However, by thinking about the different parts to my work, this can help me prioritise them and focus on them individually in order to better develop my ideas within different mediums.
Nick also suggested thinking more about my audience, prompting me to consider how I can encourage them to participate in my work. He noticed that some of the questions I had surrounding my clothes and my comforting environment were similar. Asking, how do I structure a built environment? Could both works incorporate items of comfort and discomfort? Can I prompt choreography with these works? If so, how? Nick encouraged me to stop thinking of my worn items as clothes, but rather as "wearable scenes"
Ultimately our tutorial concluded with one big question of; 'What is in a garment which controls how the body interacts in an environment? How can I make a wearable item which controls how the body interacts in an environment?
With that in mind, I have begun to make a comforting pillow helmet, which totally immerses the wearer in a cloud-like space, encouraging them to be comfortable and to lie down, to experience being surrounded by pillows. I am planning to show it in an exhibition tomorrow, and am thinking about how I can encourage my audience to pick it up and wear it.