Week 7:
Reading response:
Ever since I started my education in Parsons, I have always been taught that research is a very important part in deign process. It is the spirit of a design. Without the solid support of the research, a design would just be a walking dead, no matter how beautiful it is. While I am aware of the importance of research, I never realized that I was actually over looking it, not in a way of ignoring it, but failing to understand research itself. I was not sure what it meant in the reading when the author used a quote “Knowledge keeps as well as fish!” But it reminded me a saying in China, it is “Giving someone a fishing pole is better then giving that person a fish.” We have been catching fish for so long but never really took a good look at the fishing pole. It is very inspiring that the article pointed out that learning about research is more important than doing research, in another sentence, methodology is more important than the product. As mentioned in the reading, knowledge is tentative. Today’s knowledge could possibly be tomorrow’s joke, but once we learned how to pursue the knowledge, we will be able to improve what we have.
In the reading, the author used a metaphor to describe a research as a journey, and listed the stages of a research as different stages of a journey, which are “planned the journey,” “mapped the terrain,” “located your position,” “crossing the terrain,” “interpreting the map,” and “recounting the journey.” The list made it very clear for me to see what I have been doing good so far and what are the steps I have missed. I am currently in the process of expanding my research and test my practice, which is in the stage of “crossing the terrain.” However I realized that I did not do the first two step very well which led to the confusion I have now about my research. While planing the research, I only answered the question “what,” and a little bit of “how” (which will be further explored later so does not matter), but not “why.” My position in my research is vague and unclear. I should reestablish my position and purpose in order to further identify the direction of my research and project. Fortunately, the stages do not have to be conducted strictly in the numbered sequence, they can be revisited several times and sometimes are concurrent, which means I still have time to solidify my research. Besides, I was also not quite familiar with the last stages (‘interpreting the map’ and recounting the map’), but I am sure they will be very helpful when I want to clarify my research direction and make a strong conclusion of my research.
One thing that has confused in phase 2 of my project is the user. In China, people say that, “Living in a mountain makes the shape of the mountain unknown to you.” My project makes me the user but also makes me lost in the bigger picture. However I should be able to use my insider knowledge as a practitioner-researcher to help the research. I should treat myself as an independent user but at the same time, use my experience. I think a part of the reason I was confused is, that being the user and the designer at the same time, I assumed that I know everything I need to know about the project, but in fact, you have to map everything out on the table so you can enable the creative thinking in a much wider space. I have to push myself to explore more in this project, both pragmatically and philosophically. Meanwhile, I should document every step of thinking and every dialogue with myself. With these new knowledge of the methodology of my research, I believe my research would be greatly improved.
Week 5:
Reading response: What does materiality mean in relation to context and concept? Can materiality connect concept and user, if so, how?
Materiality can help to shape the context and concept of use of fashion, but it does not shape everything. It has the power to influence people’s experience and choices on the context and concept. However this relationship is getting blur due to the alienation of users to the true materiality. Being able to understand the materials, human efforts, and making process would bring more awareness of the value and meaning of the garments to their owners. Under such a pattern, people are less likely to purchase too much extra clothing without knowing them, and more likely to purchase relatively less garments while knowing, enjoying, loving, and valuing them. That can lead us from a “consumer society” to a “truly material society.” The decrease of understanding of materiality does no good for the customers, since the important connection between our self-created fashion context and concept is missing. When materiality weights more in our fashion system, we would have more accurate judgement and stronger confidence to the cloth in front of us.
Materiality can definitely connect the user and concept. A better understanding of materiality can help us evaluate our garments and fashion choices better. Just like the examples of the never-laundered garments provided in the reading, the closer the owners are to the true materiality (material, making techniques, history, story, emotion, sharing experience, scent, and even stains) of the garment, the greater and value and clearer the concept are to the owners themselves. Their understanding to the materiality of their special garments created strong narrative and bonding to the cherished pieces.
Week 3:
Reading response: In my identified fashion system, what interventions do I see as necessary? What places within the system seem appropriate for interventions?
I picked the Miao’s fashion system in southeastern part of China, which I am still exploring and researching. However I did find some thoughts about the intervention and the leverage point of this system. The Miao’s fashion system was always handled by the locals. Due to the self-sufficiency in the villages till recent decades and poor communication to outside world, this fashion style remained to the locals and villages around for centuries. Nevertheless, in order to expand this system, it has to be shared by a larger market. Therefore some interventions by outsiders become vital. The system has to face a head-to-toe makeover and evolution. Starts from the physical structure of production, it is not easy to change since it has lasted for hundreds of years, besides, changing the sustainable mode would make the system loose one of its most important advantages, which is sustainability. However, a larger scale production should definitely be considered. After figuring out the fundamental support, design would be the next priority. In order to meet the demands of a modern and international market. The traditional fashion should accept some new approaches such as pattern and outline of the garments. When reaching the selling phase, a matching mode of the producing mode should be applied. As the human efforts and the time the craftsmen put on the garments, they will be labeled with a relatively high price, which becomes a natural buffer to stabilize the stock and flow. It is meant to produce slow and sell slow. This system does not need to grow fast, or it should not grow fast. In that way, the value of the system could be remained well.
Week 2:
Reading Response:
In such an integrated and interactive system that is not divided hierarchically, fashion does not only satisfy one aspects of fundamental human needs, but all nine aspects, which are subsistence, protection, affection, understanding, participation, leisure, creation, identity, and freedom. As subsistence, people need proper garments to live in different weathers, hot or cold. Also, in order to survive in the society, under various kinds of dress codes and preferences, there is a standard dressing requirement. As protection, cloth can physically protect our body from getting hurt by external environment to different extends. Mentally, it can create a sense of secure when we dress in the cloth we feel comfortable with. As affection, fashion usually help people to express their affection or their intention of getting affection, such as dressing in nice cloth for a date. As understanding, people tend to become more interested in the individuals who dress in the styles they like. During the process of making friends or evaluating others, understanding from both sides are satisfied. As participation, a dress code is usually required or expected for different occasions, such as club dress and formal suit. As leisure, fashion is actually a fun part for most people even though some of them did not realize it. It is a game we play with ourselves. As creation and identity, we all try to create and enhance our identity. We design for ourselves. As freedom, under a certain minimum restriction, we all have the freedom to express ourselves. Through the list above about the role of fashion in different aspects of fundamental human needs, I found that none of them can be completely separate from others. In nowadays, with the evolution of society and human beings, the quantity and the quality of the satisfier are developing rapidly. In my opinion, needs for fashion will be switched from the massive production mode to a more private and intimate mode which also comes with the rising of quality. There is a chance for fashion to start to become more universally customized, which should led to evolution of the entire fashion system include in designing, producing, selling, consuming, using, recycling, and decomposing. Fashion, as one of the satisfiers of undamental human needs, meets and will always meet the needs in an equivalent integrated and interactive way as the system itself.
Reflective writing:
A fashion system is an “ecosystem” (which also contains production, consumption, degradation, and other similar features like a real ecosystem) that is built based on the relationships among natural resources, social relations, human efforts, and beauty pursuing. It is a system which people live in, work for, and improve. It is very closely related to every individual within its domain, even though most of them could barely realize. A user could be any individual in this “ecosystem,” no matter which part he/she/it is in or what role he/she/it plays. It could possibly be a fashion designer, a factory worker, a buyer, and a customer. It does not even have to a singular word, which means it could be a group of individuals that share similar pattern to different extent in their fashion life. I believe a family is a system, although in the traditional form (which contains parents and other family members) the “eco-pattern” might not be as clear as a larger system. Nevertheless the individuals in the family is connected very closely like any other system, or even closer. It would be a very ideal condition if fashion can be a family. Many issues would be easily solved or at least alleviated as people tend to think more for other individuals in a family. And I believe it is a possible goal for human future, because ultimately, caring is a human nature. Although it is not very likely to happen in the recent coming decades since the system expended too fast and too unsteady, it will settle down, start to reflect on its problems and fix them.
Week 1:
Parsons ShirtLESS Reflective Response & Reading Response
T‐shirt printing: what do I need to know about the materials I work with this semester?
Going to the “Parsons ShirtLESS” event is a fun and light start for my junior year. We attended the event in a beautiful morning under the supervision of professor Timo Rissanen. At first I felt it was a little too easy and not so educative since we just printed a big “P” letter on the old T-shirt we brought to class. Most of us picked the T-shirt because we did not care if it would get ruined by a potential wrong print, and we probably would not wear it whatsoever. However sometimes magic happens without anybody’s notice. Right after we finished the printing and returned to classroom, some of my classmates put on the cloth they just printed on. I somehow felt different for mine as well. In fact I put it on the very next day and went out for grocery shopping. It was not until I started to think about this reflective essay that I realized what happened and saw all the connections. (Because of the jet lag, my mind has been really dull for the past week.) What we did was much more than just print a “P” on the T-shirt, it was design, or more specifically, redesign. We gave the nearly-abandoned cloth a new meaning. We refreshed our feeling for this particular item we bought and forgot in the closet. The life of this item is now extended. With a simple material, you can always design and offer different experience for the users and multiple lives for the material. Has not this been going on in fashion history? For example, shirt was first worn as underwear in the seventeenth century but now it is an outfit and still keeps surprising people with its various looks. Did the shirt evolved itself? No, we fashion designers are the people who gave cloth endless life and infinite energy. We have been doing this for centuries, and now this ability is especially crucial for the society now. With the development of economy and society, people started to crave more options of fashion and larger consumption to satisfy the growing needs of self-expression, and felling into a vicious circle called fast fashion. It is our responsibility to lead the system to the right track, but how are we able to save tons of clothing from burning to ashes just like what we did for our T-shirts? Behind all the beautiful material we get to work with, there is always a tremendous system operating. We have no choice but keep optimizing the system, not only for greater profits, but also for our own good as human beings. The system might have flaws, and it might be easier to ignore them and just use the system in the “quick money” mode, but one day the system will force you to face all the problems. If the day does come, it would take us, human, much more efforts to fix it.
Reading response: How do my existing skills support my expression as a designer? What skills do I need to improve or acquire to enhance this expression?
Aaakko (2016, p.90) stated that the design skills and craftsmanship can help a designer to take more control of the over all design and production process. In my situation, I learned basic design skills such as researching and sketching, and some manual skills such as pattern making and sewing. These two kinds of skills helped me to conduct all my ideas and create actual pieces. Without either of them, I will not be able to make any garments. That is just a case of students in academic institution. It would naturally follow this pattern since most students cannot afford to form a professional crew include in artisans and business manager to split the work. However after graduation, there will be more possibilities outside of school. I have no experience working in a big company to see what it was like to be a screw as a part of a large machine, but I did have the fortune to intern in a “fashion atelier.” From my internship, I closely observed how the designer, also the owner of the studio, got to supervise and control the all the work of the studio, include in design process and business decision. This “freedom to creative control” and “designer’s integrated role” allow him to express his aesthetic value and philosophy through his work. The team works very closely and communicate very well. This should be the most ideal working condition for a designer, however things are not always so perfect. The studio I worked for has been founded for ten years. Sure it has had some amazing achievement, but the business was still not running so smoothly. Besides the designer’s own collection, which he loves the most, he also had to take some other jobs that are not so exciting to support the whole studio. Also, the designer has an investor, therefore, there are actually restrictions for the designer’s freedom. I cannot make a conclusion to this topic yet because I have not seen much in this field. But I do wonder if there is any “ideal land” for a designer.
