Yaad.....

The presentation for fianl in class can be seen at :

itp.nyu.edu/~rjs425/Yaad.ppt



Above, is the representation of the malenge of technology and traditional artwork

below shown are the conductive threads extensions that connected to the conductive fabric to complete the circuit.

Yaad, my blouse is hand embroidered by me and is a part of a very traditional exercise of creating things for one’s trousseau. It brings out the Rabari Tribal handwork from a place where color is synonymous to life- the states of Gujarat and Rajasthan in India.
The garment is a fascinating patchwork, with a glistening array of floral patterns a fascinating patchwork composition that is sewn by hand and embroidered with shiny sequins and beads. The cloth is first soaked in salt water for a day and then dried in the sun. The patterns are then traced out onto the cloth and spaced out keeping in mind the required space for the stitching. The embroidery is usually a collage of different patterns such that the based cloth is never visible. I selected to keep it simple and tried not to make it flashy as it is usually the case. I chose floral patterns with a row of peacocks. Usually most animal or animate figures come at the base of the garment while the lighter elements are arranged or dispersed all over the garment. The colors used are bright, joyous and seemingly random and an elegant fusion of magenta, red green and blue hues is maintained so that the garment is not just a piece of art but instead a blouse that can be worn occasionally. To differentiate from the traditional blouse, I have completely left out the use of mirrors and have sparingly used sequins. Mirrors are usually used to reflect off evil spirits. The light reflected would bring out the color of the thread used by reflecting light off them. To this traditional piece I wanted to add my touch of technology without really destroying its traditional appeal. In place of the mirrors, I used LEDs to do the same purpose.

Introduction:

Traditional art and crafts have always intrigued me and having talked to creators of this type of art work and my personal experiences with working in traditional art forms, I have observed that most of these art forms have their patterns inspired from nature and its elements. Whether it’s the making of a garment or art work that uses natural dies or the design patterns that are usually prints of birds, animals and plants; every single element is an expression derived from the environment around them. Using this as a basis, I wanted to create a garment that would be a traditional work of embroidery with inherent presence of technology in it.

Reading - The Fingerprint of the Second Skin

Having grown up reading and watching Sherlock Holmes solve almost impossible mysteries through logic and traces, I almost believed that Sherlock Holmes had special powers. Its funny how those non-living traces and marks on bodies and clothing actually become the basis of solving a problem. Moreover as observed in the reading, altered properties due to wear and tear of the clothes worn become great input for forensic studies. The reading thus, gave a realistic aspect to the kind of investigation done by Sherlock Holmes.
Till date often footwear and footprints were used for investigation along with clothes that were stained or had anything foreign on it. But the interpretation of patterns on jeans that define unique characteristics, come out of usage patterns and inherent properties of the material itself.
Clothes are mostly taken for granted and rarely the unique formation of barcode like patterns created out of the patterns of usages goes onto becoming a major differentiation factor among jeans apart from the make or brand.
Clothes define a language that is almost like the DNA of a garment that remains inherent and individual to each person or wearer. It will be interesting to watch how this language translates into proof and leads to gives justice and define the way forensic studies are carried out. This becomes the basis of new language, new representation, and after reading the Talking Knots article, it almost feels like on a daily basis through the wear and tear of our clothes we are creating a new language unknown to ourselves.

Senses

The gift of senses that we have has always added an element of magic to the human body and rather than considering the body as a machine (like in the Some Simple Reflections on the Body article by Paul Valery), it accentuates feelings and thought and adds an element of life to it. I loved the topic and feel that though I did get to create a wearable for it; I did not do justice to the topic since it has so much scope to ideate for.
Sense of touch was something that I wanted to explore. The touch defines a degree of closeness and touching something is always reassuring rather than just seeing it. Taking thing forward to the idea of how touch is used as an identification and assurance of the correct, I wanted to apply it to the humans and the ways we connect to each other. Any new connection between humans has some kind of touch associated with it. Whether it is the introduction of somebody new or reassurance touch is always there. This got me thinking about the ways of greeting and connecting through a handshake; that happens to be the most common form of greeting and is also a touch. A lot has been written about defining a person’s personality based on his handshake. This was interesting since shaking hands is something that we do so often that we don’t even have to think before thrusting the hand forward to greet somebody. I wanted to add an element of difference to my handshake and that’s when I came up with the idea of the funny handshake.

I created a hand gear that when worn, creates a little vibrating feeling in the hand of the person who is shaking hands with the wearer. The person who is shaking his hand with the wearer does not realize that he is actually initiating that action by closing the circuit when he shakes hands with the wearer.

Readings - Talking Knots

Civilizations , lifestyles in the past and lost cultures have always been one of my favorite topics. And this reading was specially interesting since I visited the Museum for Natural History in the spring break and loved the artifact uncovered from South America. The article defined a new communication medium that was drawn out of things that are so ordinary in the lives of people. This remined me about a folkart that i learnt, it is called Madhubani or Mithila painting and is named after the place of its origin. It was done on handmade paper, walls of houses, silk and saries too. This art carried out by women to kill time and very often depicted stories, folklores, Gods and Goddesses and their own family propsperities. But like the khipu knots the real meanings of most of these works of art is unknown. Each color used, each image depicted seems to have a significance in itself and inassociation to the other images around it in the painting. While this defines a traditional way of representation very much like any other written script, the Khipu defines a new way of communication and representation where the sense of touch and sight. Its surprising how knots become manuscripts and chronicles of events through intricate weaving. It would be even more interesting to see how the entire system would work in case of adding an element of electronics to it.