East Village Prototype

Refined Proposal:

what is the problem?

The problem is that graffiti is illegal in NYC.

what is the design concept that solves it?

To bring the graffiti into people’s daily life, graffiti is not only on the walls.

how will it be presented to the public?

The first idea is the double side cloth, I can wear it to the street to let people feel how I bring the graffiti into people’s life instead of being on the wall. The second idea is the graffiti cloth, I will invited some people to erase what is on the cloth, it is gonna be a wall with graffiti in East Village.

mood board

IMG_1487Prototype: outside

IMG_1488Prototype: inside

IMG_1489Final prototype: Front inside

IMG_1490Final prototype: Side inside

IMG_1492Final prototype: Side inside

IMG_1491Final prototype: Back inside

IMG_1493Final prototype: Front outside

IMG_1494Final prototype: Side outside

IMG_1496Final prototype: Side outside

IMG_1495Final prototype: Back outside

Present Plan to the public

In my plan, I want my friend to wear this cloth to go to Union Square. In front of the public, he changes the cloth from outside to inside, so people can see the difference of the graffiti feeling and the formal suit. I will record the entire process with my camera.

Sem Garment research

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The garment I researched is Bohemian clothes, initially, Bohemian clothes were just the regular clothes for the people. Gypsy travelled abound the world and collect different elements adding to the garments. As time went through, the garment of bohemian becomes the symbol of freedom and nature. Gypsy was a group of people traveling around the world, their steps were all over every single corner in the world. “Generally associated with artists, writers, and intellectuals, bohemian culture incorporates Gypsy, and various ethic clothing styles, as well as historical costume.

They also came to NYC, Gypsy people adjusted their traditional clothes to the neighborhood. Some people left NY, but some people stayed in the NY, as same as the Bohemian Style. During that time, Bohemian style had some changes, because of the Hippie. Hippie happened about 1960s, people wanted freedom, they hated government, they did a lot of crazy things. “In 1966, Andy Warhol opened the Exploding Plastic Inevitable in the Dom’s upstairs space, installing the Velvet Underground as the house band.” Andy Warhol was one of the art leader in that period. He leaded people to pursue freedom to be whoever they wanted. As the consequence, the garment of Bohemian had certain changes. People started to dress what they wanted to be looked like, people added more elements or remove some elements, further some people redesign everything. 

“Boho – The Fashion History of Bohemian Style.” HubPages. Accessed March 4, 2015. http://hubpages.com/hub/BohoTheFashionHistoryofBohemianClothes.

“The Strange History of the East Village’s Most Famous Street.” Curbed NY. Accessed March 4, 2015. http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2014/09/04/the_strange_history_of_the_east_villages_most_famous_street.php.

Bohemian East Village

Intervention

Artifacts

1. A pin, I got it from my dorm building, it was pinned on the wall.

2. A coin, I found it on the street.

3. A smoked cigarette, I found it on the ground in front of our UC.

4. A bobby pin, I asked it from one girl lived in Kerrey Hall.

5. A box of matches, I asked it from a shop’s owner at St Marks.

6. Three packs of sugar, it is from Starbucks.

7. A condom, I got it from school’s dorm.

8. A business card, I got it from diesel store in Soho.

9. A leaf, from Union Square.

10. A decoration, I asked the shop’s owner to give to me, in Chinatown.

11. A sample from Fresh.

12. Isolation paper, from Starbucks.

13. A stopper, From Starbucks.

14. A set of dinner service, from UC’s cafeteria.

15. A tree branch, it is from Union Square.

16. A sucker and tissue, it is from Starbucks.

17. An art project, I got it from Kerrey’s trash room.

18. A piece of muslin, I got it from Sewing Room in UC.

19. A piece of patter paper, I got it from Sewing Room in UC.

20. A plastic bag from Cafeteria in UC.

Reading response week 4

Hijab online: the ethnography of a website

Observation 1: The author mentioned the problem of youngest people don’t want wear jilbabs, because it is not fancy.

Location 1: “There was a real problem for youngest brought up in this country. I could see it with my sisters and their friends. Many didn’t wear jilbabs because most of the jilbabs in the shops were catering for the old generation which the younger generation didn’t fancy, so didn’t wear. At the same time there were some sisters designing their own jilbabs but these weren’t so widely accessible. So i thought I’d try branching into that and make them available over the Wed.”

Interpretation 1: I thought the author noticed what happened in her society, and do some research about it and solve the problem the younger generation had.

Observation 2: The author said that she made one hijab fitting on all size.

Location 2: “After about a year of trying to sell jilbabs, I hit on the hijab idea. I realized that the hijab is easy. It’s compact, easy to stock and you don’t have to worry about sizes. One size fits all. It’s just a square or a rectangle, and everybody needs it, and they will but more hijab than they will jilbabs.”

Interpretation 2: I think there is always some thing better than what you do, also you have the ability to do it. But in most of the case, we didn’t find it. From the book, the author also tried a year to sell jilbabs, but later on, the author found that the hijab might sell better than jilbabs.

Observation 3: The author said the way how the society judge the way of models wearing the outfits.

Location 3: “I must say I would rather show the faces of the models. It looks much nicer cos you get the whole package, the whole outfit, but I think people are reluctant still. It will change, but not yet. I think by next year I might be able to get away with showing the face!”

Interpretation 3: Personally, I think the designer should have the power to manipulate the way of showing the outfits. I could feel that the author also have the same faith about that.

The Craft of Research

Observation 1: The author gave the idea if we got too much freedom to choose our research top in a short time, making the decision is gonna be very difficult.

Location 1: “If you are free to research any topic that interest you, that freedom might seem frustrating—so many choices, so little time.”

Interpretation 1: I agree with what the author said, because in my case, I have the same problems.  The topic teacher gave me is too big, I had to spend a lot of time on choosing the right topic. But if we narrow our topic a little bit, we have fewer things to choose. Which means we can get the topic we want easier. Also as what the author said in the next few pages, author also gave the same idea to solve this problem.

Observation 2: The author mentioned the importance or the meaning of the research to the public.

Location 2: “Many high school teachers would reward such a report with a good grade, because it shows that the writer can focus on a topic, find data on it, and assemble those data into a report, no small achievement—for a first project. But in any college course, such a report falls short if it is seems as just a pastiche of vaguely related facts.”

Interpretation 2: I think each thing should have some meaning in it. As well as the research, the result of your research that people should care about, or it should be helpful. As a guide, it could make research better, we don’t have to waste time on the topic nobody cares.

Observation 3: Each title of the chapter five are quite important to us to learn how to do research.

Location 3: “Knowing how to use three kinds of sources.” “Locating sources through a library.” “ Locating sources on the Internet.” “Evaluating sources for relevance and reliability.” “Following bibliographical trails.” “Looking beyond predictable sources.” “Using people as primary sources.”

Interpretation 3: Basically, the author just list the steps for research. I have to say that we have a lot of sources can be used, library, the people, the Internet, a lot of things we can do research or get data. Meanwhile, also because the source is too much, sometimes it is difficult to choose the right source. The instruction above is the right order to do the research.