Virgil Abloh / fashion culture

Virgil Abloh is a designer who has a background in design and architecture, he began as Kanye West’ stylist and then moved onto his own project which was a streetwear brand called Pyrex. Which has led him into being outside of the traditional establishment box, as he began his journey as a designer working on streetwear. The fashion industry question his validity constantly.

The Off-White founder told the guests at his Columbia University talk Monday night that: “You don’t have to be a designer to be a designer”. This supports his brand, as one of purposes is to push new ideals into the fashion industry. There’s a new era of designers now who don’t necessarily sit down and sew but rather are unconventional idea providers. “I have to prove that this is design. I have to prove that this is art. I have to prove that this is valid,” he said. That is the reason as to why he creates his products in the same factories as luxury firms like Louis Vuitton. That’s why he shows his collection in Paris.

I suppose that is why you could say that how he is governed by the fashion establishment. He has to produce his garments in the warehouses as high end brands in order to be taken serious. The fact that he also chooses to show his collection at Paris Fashion Week, might be seen as controversial because for some it might mean he is giving into the fashion industry’s critique. But then I guess it’s a debate whether it’s better to work from the inside of the fashion industry and change things, or being an outsider who doesn’t conform to anything.

I would probably carry out primary research around the debate of how the best way to change the fashion industry is. Based on Virgil Abloh decision on conforming to the establishments such as showing at Fashion Week at Paris. I would probably interview someone who would be an expert on the field or if I could Virgil Abloh himself. It is more of a qualitative research method, but I think that is the most relevant for what I want to investigate. As it is more to my specific needs and you sort of have more control over the quality due to the questions would be chosen very wisely. I guess the disadvantage in comparison to choosing a quantitative it would be mostly be some sort of numbers or percentage that make up for an answer and in that way you might not get a in depth answer.

 

Review of A Body Reduced to Brilliant Colour

Candice Lin exhibits at Gasworks from the 22^nd September to the 11^th December 2016, with “A Body Reduced to Brilliant Colour” which is the first UK solo exhibition by her. The exhibition itself consists of two rooms, when the visitor enters the main room they are facing an installation called “System for a Stain”. This artwork could be interpreted to be a resemblance of the human’s blood circulation. The installation is made out of tubes in which tea circulates through just like blood circulates through our veins. The tea ends up in the second room were it is all splattered across the floor. The connection between slavery and colonialism is evident here; tea was drunk by the British during colonial time and was associated with upper class that owned plantations and slaves. The symbolization of the tea could be the blood shed from white people killing and extorting their slaves. Also the use of porcelain within the exhibition could be another characteristic of the white upper class, hence porcelain is often thought of as being white and was considered to be expensive during colonial time. Materialist urges like owning tea and porcelain while being the root of the violence during colonial violence is what “A Body Reduced to Brilliant Colour” explores. Wether the exhibition solely wants to focus on the material urges from colonial time is hard to say, it’s difficult to know what feeling you should leave with once you understand the historical context these contemporary works are based on. While most works exhibited are focused on the white races doings and its materialistic tendencies, there is also one work shown from a servant’s point of view that is called Physiologus. The two different points of views on the matter leaves the visitor with ambivalent feelings.

CTS 14/10/16

 

Author: wider than we thought, every work has an author

How much authorship does the work have?

Authorship:

Are they alive or dead? Etc.

What are the influences of work, what is it trying to tell us? Who is the audience? What formed is it produced and presented in?

WHAT? WHEN? WHO? Contextual information about the work.

Helps us deciding whether the resource is useful.

Is it useful?

Thinking critically; What do you think the work is about? How is it effective?

Today more than everyone are authors. All textual work has authors.

 

Referencing:

To help other people get interested in topic, and makes them follow it up themselves.

Expect to do credit correctly and reference, quotation of the source.

Image content needed credit as well. Creators = authors of work.

 

I agree with my group’s order of the lists.

 

Pussy Riot:

What do the things tell you about why the book was written and published?

To be informative about the creation of pussy riot, and raise attention about feminism and the fight against Vladimir Putin and historical events around pussy riot.

 

What is the balance between the text and images?

The front page tells us what the book is about.

3 girls in a church wearing balaclavas rioting, telling us what the content is about.

There are almost no images except the cover.

 

Is the tone positive, negative or neutral? Formal or informal?

It is formal but has an obvious of the pussy riots case, since it’s written by them and written third first person. But looking at the author it might another underlying tone.

 

What is the writer’s background?

Published by the feminist press and a lot of other artists who have contributed to it.

The writers do have a known bias in the sense that it’s the feminist press and therefore supports their own case.

 

Library service: Course librarian, you book session

Library search

Libsearch.arts.ac.uk

Cite them right online, UAL, and citethemrightonline.com

Design for Art Direction word press

Box of Broadcasts

CTS 7/10/16

Today I met Andrew and Miranda. We talked about the following:

CTS
Contextual. Theoretical. Studies.

John Berger: “seeing comes before words”
He was against elitist and sexism within the art industry.

Walter Benjamin’s 1936 essay “The Work of Art“

Bourgeoisie: learned assumptions -> obscuring rather than clarifying the past

Question yourself:
Art museums or any art communicational place -> Who do they serve and who are they for? Art ? Commercial? How are different works of art valued?

Graphic designers->formgivers
Writers->content givers

TO DO LIST: 
# download assignment and handbook element 2 brief
# email signature both places, mail & moodle

Portfolio writing:
# 5 selected blog posts in which one is a review
# a harvard reference essay