Over the past three weeks I have learnt so much from research to drawing and my samples. It has been quite an overwhelming project but I am excited to amalgamate everything I have learnt as this will then hopefully improve the overall quality of my work. At the start of culture swap I wanted to do really broad research into my culture as before this project I did not really know what my culture was. It was really interesting to delve deep into what made me, me. From this week of intensive research I found that the food culture in particular inspired me and is something I want to take on further.

The next week consisted of swapping my culture with a Partner. I took inspiration from my partners relation to the Samish Tribe in Finland as it was a culture I had never heard of before; especially as I feel a key part of this project was to learn something new. The Mayfair tribe have a real community spirit with different colours representing each family. When I was given Mayfair as my location I wasn’t too sure how inspiringIwould find the area however I actually found it so interesting to learn about another more affluent world. Walking past million pound houses and brushing past thousand pound suits. Overall, I was happy with the link I found between Mayfair and the Samish Tribe: being the juxtaposition of the people as I feel like it was broad enough to get some interesting research from it. When collaging with my research images from the Samish Tribe and Mayfair my most successful composition was gluing down the traditional Samish tribe garments like the patterned skirts and ponchos to the Mayfair people adding some fun and colour to the area.This collage was really successful and inspired my theme of adding humour to the people of Mayfair inspired buy the Samish Tribes Traditional garments.

When creating my final samples I wanted to create something different to my normal, very small, detailed and sensitive samples. I think I have explored some new techniques and different ways of working however I still want to keep branching out further with bigger materials. I think working outside of my comfort zone will be a huge asset to my development over this foundation course. The way I think and my design process is very visual with shape and form always being considered in a sculptural way therefore this process of taking pictures of details was particularly engaging for me and successful in getting some physical ideas done quickly. I think my expanding foam sculpture was particularly successful as its really chunky and explores my culture swap theme of intertwining two cultures.

 Overall,I was pleased with how my design development went as my final samples still influenced my final garment a lot. To improve for the next project I want to do more drawing with a variety of media and more of my textile samples being related to the body with illustrations.

As I have a personal interest in performance art I wanted to do some type of performance art myself using this garment maybe walking through the streets of Mayfair allowing people to engage with the piece. This way I was physically adding colour to the grey suits of Mayfair. This talk was really inspiring to see how the extremities of performance art can show the true actions of humanity with no boundaries. 

My final garment was mostly created from draping using pins and hand stitch as it was quite a complicated garment therefore I did not want to do any pattern cutting or stitching properly until I tried my design out first. I am pleased with the overall effect of the garment especially when photographed as the silhouette I wanted has been re-created especially the structure going up above the head. The photographs where I increased the shutter speed interested me the most as all the colours and shapes were amalgamated together creating another form. To improve these photographs I would take them in my location of Mayfair or in a plainer background.

• I enjoyed putting my textile samples into context because this is where I see my samples on the body. It also allowed me to develop my theme and ideas for this project further. For example by drawing the textile sample on the first page I was initially intrigued by this curling shape around the Lino printing; instantly by adding a hand to the drawing element it has given me 20 design development ideas I could persue. Due to my excitement for this idea I think my pages in my sketchbook started to improve with more better drawing and more variety to each page however there is still lots of improvement to make.

Previous to the colour stories exercise I did some research on public art pieces which had effective use of the colour in hand and objects used. This balloon and wooden palette piece in particular feels like it is defying the materials properties as balloons get squished I cant keep my eyes off the piece; as if I’m waiting for it to pop out of the page. To me this has a very strong colour story as it travels up the wall with primary colours representing a naïve, child like playfulness.

Exploring colour theory here was really essential for me to discover how to get the right colour balance. For example, Different hues of greens mixed with complimentary red and clashing orange. A mixture I would like to include in my own final samples.

Sculpture pictured by Marino De Caro

Caro prefers the more " human side of sculpture; its vulnerable, fragile and empheral nature". This sculpture definitely has an aura of vulnerability about it. The white spurs release fringing of neutral colours as if its slowly revealing something coming from inside. This sculpture I have found particularly inspirational as the fringing also links to the Samish Tribes traditional garments but is something which can be added to my plastic waste sculptures.

I was first drawn to Ai Wei Wei’s work due to the intensely coloured pots which have been left to drip dry. I also selected this work because it explores ideas of cultural identity as ancient Chinese vases which represent the artists culture have been covered up maybe to play on the idea of authenticity; we will never know how real the vases are. This tells me that your horizontal identity e.g things which have been passed down to you can always be covered up and changed by vertical identity traits. Personally I don’t think I have seen anything like this with such vivid colours on pottery; again playing with the ideas that the viewer cant really tell what its been made out of; for all I know they could just be plastic. This research has opened my eyes to the use and importance of balancing colour on a sample; I would like to improve this in my work from now on by analysing everything about that colour before using it.

Image Resource:https://discover.stqry.com/v/ai-wei-wei:--colored-vases/s/89931eed1358823760d0ebb6b98f6ad2

Looking back at my research a paper weave would have been appropriate to link with the Samish Tribes ponchos however I felt that this was too generic and a manipulation technique I know already. So I decided to do some research and found this concertina design in Folding Techniques for Designers from sheet to form By Paul Jackson. I loved how you can expand and curve the paper but structure is still present from sharp edges and corners creating a juxtaposition using the same material.

Kehinde Wiley’s work takes inspiration from his home town in New York City looking at the colours and textiles of markets contrasting against portraits of African Americans painted in a renaissance style. I selected this work becauseI love this idea of replacing images of historical high status white men with modern day black men who copy the poses. It relates directly to my project as here Khinde represents and mixes two different cultures very well through one painting; I want to do the same mixing the Samish tribe and the people of Mayfair through one image, collage or print etc.

Image Resource: 

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kehinde-Wiley

• Mayfair felt like a bubble where everyone keeps to themselves with no community spirit and is just a bit boring! All the colours were very monotone and inspiration felt limited. I want to in a way "pop the Mayfair bubble" adding some humour and fun to the location inspired by my Partners Culture with the Samish Tribe.

• After a conversation with peers on Monday and struggling with research on Sunday I decided to change the direction of my project slightly going back to my original idea of the "Tribe Of Mayfair" looking at the comparison of the people in the Samish tribe and the people of Mayfair from the builders sitting on the floor to the affluent businessmen and woman. 
• I know this would be a better and more natural direction for me to go with my research looking further into the people of these two contrasting 'tribes' and how they represent their culture with what they wear, eat, do and where they live.

• I noticed how the Food all around Mayfair was very sumptuous and looked very flavourful. When neatly packaged and dressed up as a consumer you are instantly disconnected from how this food is collected, prepared and processed. To me its like living in a bubble; maybe I could link this idea of a privileged bubble to my life living on a farm and seeing everything that happens before it gets to our dinner plate.

• This book gave a real perspective of the types of food and packaging currently portrayed to consumers I was astonished by the sheer scale of food and how different this is compared to the food the Samish people would eat.

• Mayfair is a very substantial and affluent area in London; when discussing culture with my partner we both agreed this neighbourhood is very different compared to where we were brought up.
• When exploring the depths of Mayfair and the less touristy areas we began to feel a bit more out of place; people dressed in designer would brush past us not even acknowledging that we were there. This explores ideas of aristocracy and judgement depending on looks.
• It was quite a noisy area as building works were taking place at every corner; scaffolding subverted the elegant dwellings. This also links to the contrast of upper and lower class as builders were scattered among the driveways of residents sitting on the floor smoking, laughing or eating lunch.

• The quote highlighted explores the social culture of the time where women were not allowed at a local tea shop alone with a gentlemen however it was different in Mayfair. It was interesting how in one area of London which has always been affluent hundreds of years ago these rules didn't apply for "Gunters" the local tea shop; maybe because the area was so well off, full of priviledged people that were treated differently with more respect and equality.