Can't get in to Uni as I am ill and I am desperately trying to get my proposal together.
Online access to the library is patchy at best and I am soooo over thinking!! Everything sounds pretentious or stupid....
Thursday 22 October 2009
Monday 19 October 2009
Light........?
Today was an interesting day (I use the term interesting more and more....like Alice down the rabbit hole).
Second meeting with Julie and I think I have isolated a research question...."How can designer led innovation effect the the development and use of knitting machine technology?" It seems to sum up the questions that bug me, and the issue that brought me here. It also lends itself to a suck it and see methodology which is how fabric development works. So that is good as I am facing forward now.
The other thing that happened was less comforting in many ways. It was a lecture with Carole Gray, and it left me with a few questions. Primarily, is it possible that Art and Design has allowed the Academic Establishment to define research in a way that legitimises it in the establishments terms leaving the Designer Practitioner explaining their contribution within a framework that is not natural to the context of their work? I guess this possibly derives from the vocabulary that surrounds research but looking around the room I would guess there were a lot of students asking a similar question, or with some reservations. It could be we are just worried our ability to do what we do will disappear if we take it apart, which is superstitious at best!
Tried to thrash it out with Dr. Buglear on my return and he seemed amused at my unease pointing out that the argument I was setting forth demonstrated I was using the methods of research (posing a specific question and then reacting to the answer in a way that allowed me to re-frame my initial proposition) I was questioning. Seeing it written down makes it seem silly that I am uncomfortable with the idea but I am. I have decided to make a decision in the light of this discussion and follow it through. I will accept the idea it is of value (as I have to research to pass...), throw myself into the reflective process and will see what tools it gives me. After all you have nothing to fear but fear itself and suck it and see is the way I have learnt so far.........wish me luck!!
Second meeting with Julie and I think I have isolated a research question...."How can designer led innovation effect the the development and use of knitting machine technology?" It seems to sum up the questions that bug me, and the issue that brought me here. It also lends itself to a suck it and see methodology which is how fabric development works. So that is good as I am facing forward now.
The other thing that happened was less comforting in many ways. It was a lecture with Carole Gray, and it left me with a few questions. Primarily, is it possible that Art and Design has allowed the Academic Establishment to define research in a way that legitimises it in the establishments terms leaving the Designer Practitioner explaining their contribution within a framework that is not natural to the context of their work? I guess this possibly derives from the vocabulary that surrounds research but looking around the room I would guess there were a lot of students asking a similar question, or with some reservations. It could be we are just worried our ability to do what we do will disappear if we take it apart, which is superstitious at best!
Tried to thrash it out with Dr. Buglear on my return and he seemed amused at my unease pointing out that the argument I was setting forth demonstrated I was using the methods of research (posing a specific question and then reacting to the answer in a way that allowed me to re-frame my initial proposition) I was questioning. Seeing it written down makes it seem silly that I am uncomfortable with the idea but I am. I have decided to make a decision in the light of this discussion and follow it through. I will accept the idea it is of value (as I have to research to pass...), throw myself into the reflective process and will see what tools it gives me. After all you have nothing to fear but fear itself and suck it and see is the way I have learnt so far.........wish me luck!!
Wednesday 14 October 2009
Where is the time going....
It has been almost two weeks since I have even had time to think about doing this Blog.......scary busy.
The good news, I have had a full health and safety induction therefore indemnifying the Uni against legal action stemming from my own stupidity. The better news is I have had a power machine induction and been in the hand flat room (the bad news is what I knitted is shit but I bent no needles and remembered what everything did so there is hope).
I now also have sketchbook work, and a lead on what I want to produce. However until I see Julie next week I won't be able to get the knot out of my gut. It is (I think) the funny thing about the nature of study in A&D that regardless of whether any feedback is good or bad you need it to plot your path, markers on the road if you like......I make the point about it being a particular notion to A&D as it really is so personal. Sorry if that sounds pretentious but it is like having your kids judged by super nanny.....if she likes them you are a good parent, if she doesn't ....well let's not go there!
Useful meeting with Cary and the rest of the RPT.PT in the pub....much more relaxing than talking things through in a studio. Also had a brilliant lecture last Monday ( would almost go as far to say the lecture programme alone makes it worth the fee).
Sooooo I think I know what I want and more or less how it will look (well.....less, but it is starting to be more than a musing) now I have to wrap it in a research context.......back to the books then.
Oh and the kids are eating better......
The good news, I have had a full health and safety induction therefore indemnifying the Uni against legal action stemming from my own stupidity. The better news is I have had a power machine induction and been in the hand flat room (the bad news is what I knitted is shit but I bent no needles and remembered what everything did so there is hope).
I now also have sketchbook work, and a lead on what I want to produce. However until I see Julie next week I won't be able to get the knot out of my gut. It is (I think) the funny thing about the nature of study in A&D that regardless of whether any feedback is good or bad you need it to plot your path, markers on the road if you like......I make the point about it being a particular notion to A&D as it really is so personal. Sorry if that sounds pretentious but it is like having your kids judged by super nanny.....if she likes them you are a good parent, if she doesn't ....well let's not go there!
Useful meeting with Cary and the rest of the RPT.PT in the pub....much more relaxing than talking things through in a studio. Also had a brilliant lecture last Monday ( would almost go as far to say the lecture programme alone makes it worth the fee).
Sooooo I think I know what I want and more or less how it will look (well.....less, but it is starting to be more than a musing) now I have to wrap it in a research context.......back to the books then.
Oh and the kids are eating better......
Saturday 3 October 2009
Slept...
Best night sleep in a week, Him Indoors left me to sleep in....9.15am!!
Starting to get my head around what is going on with my 'PROJECT'. what I am trying to do is create a fabric that hasn't been created...so no pressure there then.
How to feel this, explain this, that's the issue. One word keeps bubbling to the surface Legacy. I need to have a grip on why we do what we do, the roots of the understood parameters of knitted fabrics and then subvert them to be able to use the techniques in a different way. I also know what is driving the project.........dissatisfaction. Knitting machines have not changed in 200 years they are recognisably and functionally the same. Computers are the big leap forward but they are simply used to find a quicker more efficient way of doing the same thing. I have a hunch (the bells, the bells) that the bed needs to change ......needles need to go in calibrated modules not in slots on the bed. The modules can then be changed for others that hold needles of a different gauge. Multi gauge knitting. Fabulous from a design perspective!!
Soooo first I need to produce beautiful fabrics that can't be produced because the machines don't exist then I need to get Shima (of similar) to talk to me about the feasibility of how you make a machine to knit them...HA!
This is interesting as it is not just about the product it's about the process and the machinery....but it does leave me with an empty feeling in the pit of my stomach. But it is my MA and my idea has to have room and potential to develop even if the developments hit dead ends.
More worryingly (and pressing) I am musing about what the kid's will eat for lunch. Mustn't make the mistake I made last night and present them with a selection of random food items (I am crap at being a mother when distracted). Having said that I liked it, although their distress at being given chicken drumsticks, gnocchi,squid and corn on the cob was obvious!
Starting to get my head around what is going on with my 'PROJECT'. what I am trying to do is create a fabric that hasn't been created...so no pressure there then.
How to feel this, explain this, that's the issue. One word keeps bubbling to the surface Legacy. I need to have a grip on why we do what we do, the roots of the understood parameters of knitted fabrics and then subvert them to be able to use the techniques in a different way. I also know what is driving the project.........dissatisfaction. Knitting machines have not changed in 200 years they are recognisably and functionally the same. Computers are the big leap forward but they are simply used to find a quicker more efficient way of doing the same thing. I have a hunch (the bells, the bells) that the bed needs to change ......needles need to go in calibrated modules not in slots on the bed. The modules can then be changed for others that hold needles of a different gauge. Multi gauge knitting. Fabulous from a design perspective!!
Soooo first I need to produce beautiful fabrics that can't be produced because the machines don't exist then I need to get Shima (of similar) to talk to me about the feasibility of how you make a machine to knit them...HA!
This is interesting as it is not just about the product it's about the process and the machinery....but it does leave me with an empty feeling in the pit of my stomach. But it is my MA and my idea has to have room and potential to develop even if the developments hit dead ends.
More worryingly (and pressing) I am musing about what the kid's will eat for lunch. Mustn't make the mistake I made last night and present them with a selection of random food items (I am crap at being a mother when distracted). Having said that I liked it, although their distress at being given chicken drumsticks, gnocchi,squid and corn on the cob was obvious!
Friday 2 October 2009
after the crit is over...
Well here we are one crit into an MA. what do we know......?
- the young (ooh my hip aches today) designers and creative practitioners (to be known in future as DCP's) on this course are good...
- people can be lovely.
- the lack of criticism is not a criticism in itself .....but it might be....
- I really want to work by myself, I love other people but I also care too much about them...sometimes you have to let people feed themselves (metaphorically speaking) it is so difficult to try to feed the world.
- ....and too tiring....
Oh and always make a film...(bet you knew that Louis B. Mayer!!)!
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