beginning on the right (well-shod) foot

this will be a quickie since i'm tired and have a full plate of work set out for me tomorrow, but just a summary of tonight's class, where we all introduced each other and presented the taxonomies we had prepared.

for thursday, there are three entertaining (i'm trusting chris on here) papers on clothing and gender to read, and our assignment for next tuesday is to create something wearable or somehow using the body to complicate or redirect gender. i suppose the papers will help, but definitely a tall order at first glance. there was a suggestion to look at particular situations, historical periods, or critical theory papers to narrow it down to a specific problem to address. it can be constructed out of any feasible material, and bring it to class to be modeled by some warm body. for some reason i started envisioning a candy necklace that morphed and grew into this ungodly pastel beard. sweet and icky at the same time.

anyway, i went first tonight on the taxonomy thing, and i guess my presentation was refreshing that it was (1) on real paper and (2) hand-drawn. this sort of exercise, since i ended up being so freeform with it, was a lot more enjoyable to me with pencil and paper. i messed around with the silhouette idea, got a little out of hand, and then really isolated the formal quality of clothing--pieces of fabric that rests on our body while also accomodating our strange extremities. hence, holes for our neck, arms, legs, feet, etc. my attempt was to group together garments on a purely physical basis, and sketched out things that were of common topologies. (jim would be proud, i think.) for instance, things with three holes include cardigans, shrugs, and pants. things with six holes include fingerless gloves. for some of the categories i attempted to think outside of the conventional western-style pieces and make up some of my own that had the requisite topology but a different construction, such as a one-armed sweater, a floor-length revealer, or a wetsuit that accomodates a cellphone. as chris pointed out, i defined a space, and then sought to fill in some of the more imaginative stuff that still can function as clothing that we know.

will scan and upload as soon as possible, tomorrow or thursday.

it was completely surprising and very interesting to see so many different takes on the assignment. even on something so simple, you could see some people's design styles or personal agendas so easy and so quickly.

i do have to find this japanese photographer who takes pictures of people and their amazingly extensive clothing collections. somehow that's what really makes any collection work--relating it back on how it truly defines the collector, the persistent lover.