In this week's workshop, we carried on looking at words.
Our first task was a mind map. To identify a word associated with our project, and brainstorm from there. I chose Feminism - see mine below.
We then selected a few of these words to break down further, in terms of their meanings. See mine below.
From this list, we 'planned' some ideas on how we could respond, creatively, and then using this to actually make. Thinking about how we would visually represent these, what materials, processes, etc, we may use. I found this the trickiest part of the workshop. Going from a word to something visual, I found to be a challenging task, without being too literal. Overthinking was a factor. I felt myself imagining or preempting what outcome I was going to get. To solve this, I stepped back whilst making and thought 'What do I want to do?' - 'How do I want to manipulate this paper to communicate this word?'. Asking myself these questions really helped, instead of thinking hard about what the outcome would look like.
This was my table of various practical approaches I could take:
My first two outcomes were 2D - I felt myself starting off this way, just to get the brain moving.
These drawings above were for 'Movement' - I was thinking about 'timelines', how they move, how we create them, how they can be quite straightforward, but sometimes very messy. Some can be quite structures, whereas others overlap and merge. As I want to look into the history of women's rights and the feminism movement, playing around with these or a series of events could be really interesting.
From there, I moved onto 'Spirit'. Whilst researching, I thought about what the word 'Spirit' actually means, and what context we use it in. Two definitions stood out to me -
- Team Spirit - being together, one community, hope, courage, as one.
- Spirits - Supernatural, the 'other side', psychics, mediums.
I also had a think about the colours I personally associate with this word. After looking into all these aspects, I chose yellow, silver, shimmery tones, etc, and created this piece above. I do like the pattern and it does represent what I think of when I hear this word, however as an 'outcome', not one I want to develop. I feel this was more of a 'feeling' I needed to get onto paper.
After creating these, I thought more about visually representing in a 3D way. Since starting this course, I have found myself always more drawn to this way of working.
This next outcome, see above, relates to 'Movement'. When thinking about the research I could do for my project, to help me understand the history of feminism, careers and the job industry came to mind. To have an actual career as a woman is a much more recent change. Men have dominated this area, like many others, for decades.
With this in mind, I made this. To represent the male majority, with women only being introduced in the last 150+ years.
I really like the idea of exploring statistics through 3D approaches, to start of this project. How can I do this? What 3D ways of working could I include?
I chose the word 'Structure' due to the idea of a 'structured society' and how it has been a certain way for years. Women having a set place as well as men. The idea of challenging this structure came to me when thinking about the 'Suffragettes'.
This is what I did. I took the paper, quite a rigid structure, in the sense it already has its form and purpose, and turned it into something more free and loose. All it took was me, some scissors and staples to completely change the structure. I think this outcome is more of response to a concept/idea than a piece I want to develop.
Last, but not least, we have this piece above. I used the same method to cut the paper as I did with the bed sheet, to make my own yarn earlier on in the year.
I was thinking about how I'd show 'team spirit' through shapes. Circle was the main one coming to mind. Being together, as a whole, all helping eachother to form this circle. I manipulated the paper to show this, forming these curves.
I really like how this one turned out, especially the idea behind it. I also get a sense of community when I look at it, each section being a person, or a group of people, coming together to form this shape.
Some pages from my sketchbook:
I really enjoyed this workshop, even though I found it difficult. I feel the outcomes were really fun, but the meaning's behind each one is what I want to focus on. Some brought up areas of research I could do, people to look into, etc.
