Evaluation for 'Too Much Information'

For my project “too much information” I took into consideration the various types of themes I could aim my research at. I came to a final decision to choose “fashion” as the main outcome for my primary/secondary research, artist research and ideas/experiments. I chose fashion because i feel i can relate to it a lot myself as i have a deep interest in this area, and also it has a lot of information surrounding it that i could go into depth about and analyze. I also thought that with fashion i could look at designers, labels, brands, components, barcodes, construction, materials, length etc. So there was a wide range of research I could fulfil.

So therefore I began to collect general everyday information like receipts, menus, bus tickets, maps, tags, labels etc, but trying aiming a lot of it towards my theme. I kept a record of all my research information inside a sketch book. Moreover first of all i did a mind map so I knew what type of information I was looking for and all my ideas. I then began finding a way to bring together both information and fashion so one of my favourite experiments was in my sketch book where I designed a model stood posing and collaged it with train tickets, which was useful as it presented my creative side and the fact that I understood the project and what I had to do. I also looked at artists to gain ideas and learn how they construct art that involves information.

For my research in the summer holidays, I was on holiday in Reighton Sands for a week so that was a perfect opportunity to collect photographs, information and research as I could. I collected receipts from cloth shops and supermarkets, I drew labels out of clothing I had bought and the instructions for washing, I took photographs of shop brands to represent my fashion theme but I also too photographs of other buildings to show a variety to my work. I also experimented with lettering of shop brands to do the font of one brand in the name of another and this seemed really interesting and useful, as I did MODO shop brand in the style of hollisters font which showed my understanding of experimenting and showing I can interpretate this into my own work. In my sketch book i also did i technique of layering up information in a style of Joan Schulze as this is a style she did and made art out of different parts of information. In my sketch book I looked at different ways to present a button using information I did one out of newspaper, receipts, train tickets etc, to show a button as a popular component to fashion and information involved within it. I also visited cooper galley in Barnsley and picked up leaflets of information presenting upcoming exhibitions or current ones. Plus i insured to commit four days out of the week to spend time on it through the holidays because i wanted to insure I did enough research for when I came back to college.

Furthermore for my artist research I looked at Bethan Ash, Joan Schulze and Holly Levell because they all in some way relate to my theme. Bethan Ash specialised in quilting which has a big effect on fashion because quilting involves sowing, patterns and components and Bethan’s work was very expiring. She had a way of not following a pattern of guidelines and just creating her imagination. I envy her use of colours because they are all vibrant and in some way illuminous and i think this represents fashion and it been so popular in fashion. The part of Bethan’s work that inspired me the most and therefore will be involved in my work, is the way she laid out her work in which she didn’t organise it or follow a pattern/structure, i use this in my own work by not sticking to a certain pattern.

Furthermore, I also used Joan schulze in my artist research and she was my favourite artists to research because there was so much surrounding her and her work that inspired me and i gained interest on. Joan had a style that made you concentrate and really look into her work and she made pictures out of pictures and layered items/information up to create something. She had a good use of watercolours and blending them into each other which i envied because it created either a background or a mood to the piece. She also always used names of places/objects as like a heading for her work as if it was putting a name to it. I liked the way she layered up information but really the font part of it to create some sort of picture, it always intrigued me and made her art that even bit more interesting. The main reason I used Joan in my artist research was to layer up my work but because my theme was fashion I would layer up receipts/tags/photographs of shop brands or clothing etc, and make art out of layering up information.

Finally, my last artist to research was Holly Levell because her work was so fascinating. Her work is all based on hand embroidery and designing things out of felt and components. All her work looks so time consuming but looks so delicate and so unique which is most inspired me to look into her work the most, the fact that her work isn’t like any other textiles artist, shes used things that are around us every day.  I looked into bow she constructed her work, what she does first and last, why and how long it takes her. From her work in my own style I experimented with doing a screen print and then attempting to sew around my design to see what the outcome was. I enjoyed doing it because I felt it enhanced my work however as I thought it would be, it was very time consuming if you wanted to be exact.

Moreover for my repeat tracing I made sure to involve evidence of artist research, photographs and primary/secondary research I had done. I also insured my repeat tracing represented my theme. I included washing instructions you find on tags on your clothing, I included a sketching of a model I found in the vogue magazine modelling for Dior and on my visual sheets I had her body collaged in train tickets but I knew itd take too long to do this on the tracing sheet and it wouldn’t be accurate. I included shop brands I had looked into and photographs as this shows evidence of primary research. I included a shape which had different parts of magazines of different words in each triangle and this represents my way of information and what I gained and was in the style of Joan Schulze as she layers things up to create new art out of art. I also included a background of a train tube tunnel as I used this at the beginning of my sketchbook as a ideas starter and it causes an effect to the background.

Once we’d done our repeat tracing we began on the sewing machines looking into experimenting and free hand embroidery. I enjoyed doing this because id seen it used in Holly Levells work so I wanted to try it for myself so I could use it in my own final piece but it was hard at first. I had to learn to only press my foot slightly onto the pedal and just gets a light steady pace going so I could be more accurate on what I wanted to achieve. I also found that if it wasn’t going to the standard I wanted or kept going wrong to unthread my bobbin and my needle which usually ensured a better experience. But I felt once you got the feel for the machine and what pace to go I thought it was an enjoyable experience and learnt me some new skills.

I thought my final piece went quite well, but i would of done better if I could. It missed a couple of days at college due to not been well and it had a massive effect on my project as it was around the time that my class was in the textiles room so I missed out of achieving the most I wanted out of my final piece. I like the way in which my final piece shows all the detail really well and its all accurate with how far apart each screen print is but it didn’t go as dark as I would of liked because on my pre- final piece the colours went more darker but it was after that I missed a couple of days so when I came back and constructed my final piece the colours weren’t exactly the same which was the main downfall. But compared to the darker example the lighter one shows more detail and represents my colour scheme more, but if I would of been more time consuming I would of experimented my puff binder first and puffed it up with the heat gun before applying it to the fabric so I knew I was getting the appropriate colours.

But overall I thought this project went really well and I fulfilled my theme of fashion, I just wish id of taken more photographs of shop brands so it was primary research and I could interpreted them into my tracing because it would of been my own work instead of some parts I just copied instead of changing it myself so it was in my own style of art.


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