it is hot and humid. I have just finished my notes on the workshops I held last week. Thinking about touch, I realize that for me the whole area has become much broader than just touching objects. The more I work with people from a radically different culture, like here in East Africa, the more i get fascinated by the' Human Touch' also. Constance Classen questions in her fascinating book "The book of Touch ", Do we learn a 'Mother Touch' with a mother tongue ?A tactile code of communication that underpins the ways in which we engage with other people and the world ?' I am certain we do. Because people touch each other here in Uganda much more often , there seems to be a sense of friendliness around them. Touch smiles, and aggressive, uninvited touch growls and hurts.
What I will remember most of the workshops was the sense of respect for the programme, the total engrossement, the willingness to apply newly learned skills and information, and the laughter. We laughed because somebody gave a smart answer on one of the questions we shared, .we laughed because the human knot was hard to entangle, we laughed because i could not remember the first sentence of Chinese whispers, one of the senses we explored.The practical end results is a series of hand held objects, which will be put in a Touch Cabinet, which Mark , a local carpenter is working on ( I will write about him and the cabinet later )
It is all coming together....
Monday, 21 November 2011
Thursday, 10 November 2011
Visit to Kampala, preperations for the Master project
The main museum in Kampala, where my Touch-Cabinet is going to be displayed, is right in the centre of Kampala. Entrance fee sets you back a mere 3000 shilling, about 1.50 dollars. The museum, although perhaps at one point of its long history ( It opened its doors in 1908, but in a different building) was a light and contemporary place, it now smacked very much of a forgotten era. But strangely enough, this sense of nostalgia added to the atmosphere.A musty, smokey scent, like in so many places in Africa, filled the rather forlorn looking rooms. With every turned corner, there were displays of a huge variety of objects, which varied from the artefacts used during rainmaking ceremonies to fishing and harvesting,ceremonial headdresses, many more anthropological artefacts. As a textile artist i found it interesting that 'Basketry and netting were fundamental industries in Uganda, were textiles did not penetrate until the late 18th Century'. There were display cabinets full of 'instruments of punishments', fetish objects, and the recreation of bananabeer, which the young schoolchildren absorbed with bemusement.Some display caskets were eerily empty,with a mouldy long-legged bird put on top as an afterthought, which showed its sillouette in the hot Ugandan sunshine. Then, just as one thinks that it might be better to spend the day outside, the sound of drums start to fill the building. first, carefully, then harder, and more intense. I am following the sound of the noise and swiftly find many children happily interacting with traditional percussion instruments, their hands touch the tightly streched skin over the drums, Finally interaction , touch, and ....FUN
Saturday, 19 February 2011
Angelina
No, not Jlie, but a very interesting new material I have worked with yesterday; It is colourful, responds to heat , its surprisingly easy to use, and its very tactile. I basically experimented with materials which are sensitive to heat, bubble up, change shape, and it provided me with lots of information about possible use. So much so, that my head is full of ideas, how I would be able to apply this in my work. Today, I added hand stitching to the marking i made with heat sensitive powder, and i thought it was very effective.
Why then is it that I feel it is cheating to use an already excisting design (a stamp). I feel it is to easy, but the results I like,Would there be a way I could incorporate my own design, then I would be really happy, For now I have framed my little golden tree, with a red letter T, in a beautiful wooden frame I found in a charity shop.O, talking about charity shop, I also bought an old suit case , which I will place underneath my display , which I will put up on monday, In the suitcase I will place the questionaire about touch. I will think of questions relating to the piece, but also enquire about early touch memories.
Another wonderful thing I have done this week, was visiting the embroidery workshop.Apart from being delighted to be with my own tribe, It also showed me that there is a market for textile workshops. And there is always the bonus of meeting nice and interesting people. There might be a possibility that we will continue with a small group of women.
In preperation for the display, i still have to do machinestitching for probably eight panels. When I finished of the hand sttiching today, I let go of the rigid counting of the stitching (panel one , one , panel two, two, etc. and as a result my stitching became looser, and more interesting.
I start to see potential,
I also read about an interesting eighteenth century technique, called 'knotting'. It was an occupation , usually for well to do ladies, who sat in the drawing room knotting thread, because it created an elegant movement of the wrist. Once the thread was knotted, it could be used for couching, a technique which means that the thread is applied on top of the material, and not through it.
Is this usuable ? Must exercise my wrist in elegant manner, and start knotting some diffrent threads.
I feel that the social contacts this week in relation to my work were hugely beneficial. and great fun as well!
Why then is it that I feel it is cheating to use an already excisting design (a stamp). I feel it is to easy, but the results I like,Would there be a way I could incorporate my own design, then I would be really happy, For now I have framed my little golden tree, with a red letter T, in a beautiful wooden frame I found in a charity shop.O, talking about charity shop, I also bought an old suit case , which I will place underneath my display , which I will put up on monday, In the suitcase I will place the questionaire about touch. I will think of questions relating to the piece, but also enquire about early touch memories.
Another wonderful thing I have done this week, was visiting the embroidery workshop.Apart from being delighted to be with my own tribe, It also showed me that there is a market for textile workshops. And there is always the bonus of meeting nice and interesting people. There might be a possibility that we will continue with a small group of women.
In preperation for the display, i still have to do machinestitching for probably eight panels. When I finished of the hand sttiching today, I let go of the rigid counting of the stitching (panel one , one , panel two, two, etc. and as a result my stitching became looser, and more interesting.
I start to see potential,
I also read about an interesting eighteenth century technique, called 'knotting'. It was an occupation , usually for well to do ladies, who sat in the drawing room knotting thread, because it created an elegant movement of the wrist. Once the thread was knotted, it could be used for couching, a technique which means that the thread is applied on top of the material, and not through it.
Is this usuable ? Must exercise my wrist in elegant manner, and start knotting some diffrent threads.
I feel that the social contacts this week in relation to my work were hugely beneficial. and great fun as well!
Sunday, 13 February 2011
Hands on
Working on my small exhib. for next week, and I bloody hate it ! first discussed with C., I was excited, and very quickly after I imagined an image how I would like it to look. I feel now that my heart is not in it. I must persevere. I know from previous experiences, especially with drawings, one reaches a dead point, and , in stead of starting all over again, it is better and more satisfying to continue. The idea is a sequence of twelve red squares
titiled 'DUODECAD', meaning ten plus two. I started with creating a series of little white cameos, adding one ,ore to each piece., so I ended up with twelve. There are some ideas floating around; Like touch in human life and living. From being continiously touched when you are a baby and a child, (and is it not sad that one can't write this without thinking about inappropiate behaviour!) and explore the world around you through touch, to not being able to touch at all, and very often not being touched.Thinking about the harsh environments of big school institutions, or old peoples homes, but also being the full exoerience of Aestetic touch denied.
I started with one , very quiet,little stitch, and let the number and thickness grow according to the number, so like a musical composition, it starts to get louder and louder, until there is a Halleluja from Handel feeling with the last piece, wich has to be the first piece, if one starts chronologically. Well, perhaps not quite the Handel Chorus, but that is the general idea. It has to fizzle out, ofcourse.While working on it, I decided that I will also add machine stitch with the same principle in mind, to add more interest, and I love building up with stitches. Then I immedeately start to wonder; Will my idea still be clear, if I machine stitch on top of the handstitch ?
I have also used textiledye to intensify the colours, starting with no colour, , then a faint peach colour, a brighter pink, to end up on the twelfth piece with bright red. All the hand stitching is in red, I will talk about the significance of that later, afraid that I will side track too much.
The thickness of the thread , the number of stitches, the itensity of colours, also the number of times I stitched around the cameos, and the size of the stitches, are all carefully thought out and excecuted,although I feel very much this is a piece which will lead to further work, and therefore merely samplers
I like to experiment with bleach on the red, the same metaphor of touch fading away in a visual manner.
I also like to add that I have a strong connectiong with appropriating old materials, because that adds to the narrative and the quality and history of touch .They make my enquiry in Aestetic touch a much more interesting experience.
titiled 'DUODECAD', meaning ten plus two. I started with creating a series of little white cameos, adding one ,ore to each piece., so I ended up with twelve. There are some ideas floating around; Like touch in human life and living. From being continiously touched when you are a baby and a child, (and is it not sad that one can't write this without thinking about inappropiate behaviour!) and explore the world around you through touch, to not being able to touch at all, and very often not being touched.Thinking about the harsh environments of big school institutions, or old peoples homes, but also being the full exoerience of Aestetic touch denied.
I started with one , very quiet,little stitch, and let the number and thickness grow according to the number, so like a musical composition, it starts to get louder and louder, until there is a Halleluja from Handel feeling with the last piece, wich has to be the first piece, if one starts chronologically. Well, perhaps not quite the Handel Chorus, but that is the general idea. It has to fizzle out, ofcourse.While working on it, I decided that I will also add machine stitch with the same principle in mind, to add more interest, and I love building up with stitches. Then I immedeately start to wonder; Will my idea still be clear, if I machine stitch on top of the handstitch ?
I have also used textiledye to intensify the colours, starting with no colour, , then a faint peach colour, a brighter pink, to end up on the twelfth piece with bright red. All the hand stitching is in red, I will talk about the significance of that later, afraid that I will side track too much.
The thickness of the thread , the number of stitches, the itensity of colours, also the number of times I stitched around the cameos, and the size of the stitches, are all carefully thought out and excecuted,although I feel very much this is a piece which will lead to further work, and therefore merely samplers
I like to experiment with bleach on the red, the same metaphor of touch fading away in a visual manner.
I also like to add that I have a strong connectiong with appropriating old materials, because that adds to the narrative and the quality and history of touch .They make my enquiry in Aestetic touch a much more interesting experience.
Wednesday, 9 February 2011
in touch
When I was looking at how to make cloth more tactile, I remembered old techniques, like Pleating, Controlled Crushing, Slashed Tucks, Flat Pleats . They were names I would have given my children !!!
I Love the language connected to stitch: What about Ravelled Fringed Tucks or Single Pointed Darts and the one which sound most tactile of all':Horizontal Pleats that Gradually Decrease In Depth'.I know I have to start experimenting and sampling and actually handling material, so that i literally get back in touch again with the process.So today I will be looking at disstressing materials. I do have an idea of a piece wich starts as a whole and then through time it changes, and finally diseapears.I have to give it a lot more thought, and that is the old dilemma: How to work intuitively, and how much does one allow the brain to take over !Enough writing !Time to gather materials and start! with burning, pleating ,bashing, rubbing and stabbing !
I Love the language connected to stitch: What about Ravelled Fringed Tucks or Single Pointed Darts and the one which sound most tactile of all':Horizontal Pleats that Gradually Decrease In Depth'.I know I have to start experimenting and sampling and actually handling material, so that i literally get back in touch again with the process.So today I will be looking at disstressing materials. I do have an idea of a piece wich starts as a whole and then through time it changes, and finally diseapears.I have to give it a lot more thought, and that is the old dilemma: How to work intuitively, and how much does one allow the brain to take over !Enough writing !Time to gather materials and start! with burning, pleating ,bashing, rubbing and stabbing !
Tuesday, 8 February 2011
getting back in touch again
One of the most interesting articles I have been reading in the last week is called 'may I Touch it ?'by Marilyn DeLong, Juanjuan Wu and Minxin Bao. They argue that 'The point of a full complemaent of touch awareness is to develop a vocabulary that includes all aspects. Ofcourse that is my line of research. But more and more I am convinced that the key for touch awareness, in particular in relation to cloth and material, is also linked with this very phenomena.I recorded a few phrases and words yesterday from this beautiful tactile book, covered in real printed textile, From the MOMA, one of my favourite museums in the world, related to Japanese Textiles. Like 'crimp' and 'bunch' ,pliable, moulded,sculpted, the thickness of cloth, shrivelling and crumpling textiles (would you describe a tactile experience as 'crumpling'?)or lustrous and smooth.Rich tactile experiences and sensual qualities. There is a beautiful example in the book about an cross over between a mechanical process which is interupted to include tiny organic elements, like feathers and snippets of paper into the material. The result is incredibly touching.Another artist , called Chiyoko Tanaka, 'grinds' her fabricFor the panel depicted in this book, she used a stone to burnish both the front and back so that 'previously concealed warp began to appear on the surface.The ochre color is a result of carefully rubbing soil into the surface. This then reminded me of the lecture yesterdaymorning, where an artist was mentioned who burried shoes, and dug them up after five or six years, having increased in quality of lustre. Tanaka has found a way to transfer the texture of the earth into her canvas.This insight, this information, really expands my way of thinking of how to use different ways, apart from stitch, or in combination with stitch one can make textile more tactile, enhance the qualities of the original cloth, like a coarse weave, for example, where it it would be interesting to remove threads by rubbing, or pulling.More about this tomorrow! The Memory of touch, for example
Thursday, 27 January 2011
touch
Aesthetic touch
Whatever I am writing, has to start with these two words;I need to get focused!!!! So how does one'think aggresively' about a subject? I did hurt my brain(that sounds rather morbid) and actually, I think I came up with some rather interesting ideas, if I may say so myself.
A great inspiration was a paper I stumbled upon called'May I touch it'?, from Delong et al,who made some really helpful points like:The twenty -first century designer must have specific sensory understanding of colours, textures, lines and shapes, and then find a way to involve that information in the emotional and cultural experience of the user. That really excites me ! Because it means that there is a relevance to my reasearch in easthetic touch!
Another thought I had immideately after was;Is there anything I have to add to this ? What can be my contribution ?This is just a confirmation that designers have to look at touch, as well as other senses, in order to produce a rounded article.Is that the same for artists? I think of myself as an artist, for whom touch is important, because it is a much more memorable experience and the most sensual of the senses.'To understand the potential of touch in design, however, the design professional needs to be aware of touch from his or her own perspective'the article goes on to say. YES! YES!Then I read about MIT Touch Laboratory. Where ?What? Must get in touch with them ! Must book a ticket to the States, Im sure it is there!Mmmm, perhaps use the good old google first. Memory of touch is mentioned, which made me start to think about my own first'touch memory'.My grannies fur collar on her wintercoat (she always seems to pop up in anything I do !!)the soft skin of her underarms, which I could freely touch because that comes with childhood, although one of the warnings children get most is 'Do not touch!!!!,Such a shame!!!That usually relates to objects though, and sometimes children are asked to touch bodily parts they dont want to touch! The world is no longer an innocent place, but that is another story.I also stroked a lot of animals, lambs, I spotted some in a field yesterday, and I know exactly how they feel.I also remember a glass object blown by a glass artist at school, and how fragile it was, and how I instantly knew to handle it with care. I like very much what Tactile designer John Wippich explains: 'If haptics can cause us to reconsider the richness of an actual physical world for even a moment,then technology will have helped us to recall what it is to be human'.Now I have become very intersested in what children of this age have to say about touch!
Whatever I am writing, has to start with these two words;I need to get focused!!!! So how does one'think aggresively' about a subject? I did hurt my brain(that sounds rather morbid) and actually, I think I came up with some rather interesting ideas, if I may say so myself.
A great inspiration was a paper I stumbled upon called'May I touch it'?, from Delong et al,who made some really helpful points like:The twenty -first century designer must have specific sensory understanding of colours, textures, lines and shapes, and then find a way to involve that information in the emotional and cultural experience of the user. That really excites me ! Because it means that there is a relevance to my reasearch in easthetic touch!
Another thought I had immideately after was;Is there anything I have to add to this ? What can be my contribution ?This is just a confirmation that designers have to look at touch, as well as other senses, in order to produce a rounded article.Is that the same for artists? I think of myself as an artist, for whom touch is important, because it is a much more memorable experience and the most sensual of the senses.'To understand the potential of touch in design, however, the design professional needs to be aware of touch from his or her own perspective'the article goes on to say. YES! YES!Then I read about MIT Touch Laboratory. Where ?What? Must get in touch with them ! Must book a ticket to the States, Im sure it is there!Mmmm, perhaps use the good old google first. Memory of touch is mentioned, which made me start to think about my own first'touch memory'.My grannies fur collar on her wintercoat (she always seems to pop up in anything I do !!)the soft skin of her underarms, which I could freely touch because that comes with childhood, although one of the warnings children get most is 'Do not touch!!!!,Such a shame!!!That usually relates to objects though, and sometimes children are asked to touch bodily parts they dont want to touch! The world is no longer an innocent place, but that is another story.I also stroked a lot of animals, lambs, I spotted some in a field yesterday, and I know exactly how they feel.I also remember a glass object blown by a glass artist at school, and how fragile it was, and how I instantly knew to handle it with care. I like very much what Tactile designer John Wippich explains: 'If haptics can cause us to reconsider the richness of an actual physical world for even a moment,then technology will have helped us to recall what it is to be human'.Now I have become very intersested in what children of this age have to say about touch!
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