Presentation Video

Here's the final cut of the editing for the presentation. Hopefully the video showed what our inspiration was and all the hard work we have been doing recently to develop our ideas. 

We need to research further into silicone or perhaps a floral adhesive. But the most important development was the QR codes by adding videos, live streams and more music as we only have a basic prototype of it already.

Set a new record!

I just got thinking at home how malleable the vinyls were to work with today and wondered if anybody had took inspiration from the the usage of vinyl records in their work. I found Maison Martin Margiela has created a few stand-out pieces for a 'disco' collection and is, in my eyes, the best one I have found which looks very professional. I also found the pop star Katy Perry had turned up to the 2011 MTV awards in a similar 'record' dress and Rihanna's 'Rude Boy' video featured a similar get-up, which proves it is still very contemporary to be experimenting with this retro material!

QR code crazy and Boomkat Manchester

A great idea was suggested this morning about encourporating QR codes onto some of the vinyls for a musical 'timeline' effect. If we can get permission from new, up and coming bands and do our research further into the musical history of manchester over the past few decades. The general public will not only be able to enjoy the visuals of our work but take the music home with them from a smartphone and enjoy if forever, just how music should be! 

This link and others off 'google' were really easy to make QR codes from urls etc. 

http://qrcode.kaywa.com/ 

http://boomkat.com/

Elanor suggested the idea of collaborating with 'Boomkat' in Manchester, another record store, which has working musicians behind it. Tomorrow I need to start pestering these guys and Eastern Bloc to get some collaboration going or sponsorship!

Unit X - Monday 23rd April - Experimenting with our materials!

Today in tutorial we discussed the idea of music in a changing state. How music itself transforms from a non-physical to physical to non-physical again. This idea could be discussed in our installation instead of it being so static and objective. I feel we need to explore more ideas and create a huge mind map of our ideas tomorrow. Our installation worked really well

Without having a concept, the installation was a bit pointless apart from the ideas and inspiration behind it, it seemed pretty static and less interactive with the public. The evolution of QR codes in the media and promotions, inspired us to collaborate with up and coming artists in Manchester and the old classics the make Manchester famous for its music to create a barcode 'timeline'. This will include the oldest songs merging to the new and indie music scene in Manchester, benefitting musicians in the area too. Tomorrow we shall mind map some more ideas, but we're really on a role here!

Work with my 3rd year so far...

As part of being a 1st year on the BA(HONS)Fashion course at MMU we get the privilege to assist and show a 3rd year student on making their final collections. I remember when we were first told this, we all thought we had already got enough work to do, but i was far wrong in the amount they had and soon found it in my own favour as much as theirs to get stuck in and do what I can as I will learn a lot! My 3rd year has a fondness of knitting, which I have started to develop myself so I have learnt how to use the digital knit pattern machine, more domestic machine skills, pattern cutting for adaptation, making my own bias binding, felt weaving, embellishments, fabric shops in London, how to make bow ties and more! I love it, we get on well and her work is such an inspiration :)

Unit X - experimentation!

I got some vinyls to melt and mould today just to see how easy a medium it is to work with! Here goes nothing...

Unit X - pre-easter break presentation speech!

Here is what was said in order to sell our idea to our peers and tutors in our first idea presentation!

Since 1985, Eastern Bloc as been the hub of music trade in Manchester. Home of a large selection of drum & bass, jungle, dub step, house, techno and electronica, Eastern Bloc's success echoed the street's clear understanding and dedication to music in that period and the bands thats success was originally born of Manchester. Being a Massive part of the music scene in Manchester, eastern Bloc on Stevenson square is still shown in tourist guides and reviews alike as a 'hotspot' in Manchester's history, yet is a place renowned by the generation before ourselves and commemorated, but doesn’t quite get the attention that it truly deserves from the young generation today.

We first got really attached to Eastern Bloc on the art and architecture walks. After going to the Northern quarter for years, I was surprised at the amount of times I had walked past places of such firm music history and praise, my first thought was to tell others about the places they had seen there too.

Our first instinct was to look at album artwork, but without plagiarism we couldn’t re-create these without taking their concepts out to an unrecognizable piece of work. Then we looked into involving the public to re-create popular bands/musicians photos such as Noel Gallagher and The Smiths by hosting a gallery of then and now photos. As we aren’t musicians ourselves and don’t wish to exhibit the work in the city a ‘busking’, we realized that we could use music itself as the medium in the form of vinyls, CDs and cassettes. Using Eastern Bloc as the platform for our work, vinyls will emerge from the shop/café with spontaneous ease, wrapping themselves around naturally occurring city marks such as bins, benches, lampposts and drains. Some are even to ‘explode’ from the store to be found ‘wedged’ in the wall of an opposing shop and shattered on a window, giving the installation a sense of movement. These vinyl’s will change and melt around the outdoor seating area of eastern bloc by ourselves and melted to unusual shapes, places and grooves in the natural cityscape.

After vinyl’s what came next? Cassettes of course! And that’s the direction we’ll go. Pulling the tapes from them, melting them into the vinyl’s and having them installed in bulk will really show a key transition of what the industry went to in its own revolution. Then to CDs from the cassettes with the same idea and concept as before. These Cds in the two weeks of installation will then be asked upon by the public for them to write what their belief of ‘Music in Manchester’ means to them. This could be as simple as ‘buskers’ or ‘nothing’ to ‘I bought my first record at Eastern Bloc!’ hopefully we can use these to write around the top of Eastern bloc’s interiors as a reminder of modern day’s approach to music here and it new found respect.

The medium we use will also explore the political issue of how illegal downloads and mass legal downloads kills the idea of have music and a hard copy, enjoying and spending time purchasing music and keeping it treasured, plus our waste to having it all ‘in the air’ as such. In order to set our idea to the public in the best way, we aim to flyer, self promote and event the installation by making it Viral on the Internet and making as many people aware and to visit the artwork and get such a variety of people involved!This is after our feedback and final idea arrangements today! If you think I have missed anything from today and our whole concept then please comment below :)

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Since 1985, Eastern Bloc as been the hub of music trade in Manchester. Home of a large selection of drum & bass, jungle, dub step, house, techno and electronica, Eastern Bloc's success echoed the street's clear understanding and dedication to music in that period and the bands thats success was originally born of Manchester. Being a Massive part of the music scene in Manchester, eastern Bloc on Stevenson square is still shown in tourist guides and reviews alike as a 'hotspot' in Manchester's history, yet is a place renowned by the generation before ourselves and commemorated, but doesn’t quite get the attention that it truly deserves from the young generation today.

We first got really attached to Eastern Bloc on the art and architecture walks. After going to the Northern quarter for years, I was surprised at the amount of times I had walked past places of such firm music history and praise, my first thought was to tell others about the places they had seen there too.

Our first instinct was to look at album artwork, but without plagiarism we couldn’t re-create these without taking their concepts out to an unrecognizable piece of work. Then we looked into involving the public to re-create popular bands/musicians photos such as Noel Gallagher and The Smiths by hosting a gallery of then and now photos. As we aren’t musicians ourselves and don’t wish to exhibit the work in the city a ‘busking’, we realized that we could use music itself as the medium in the form of vinyls, CDs and cassettes. Using Eastern Bloc as the platform for our work, vinyls will emerge from the shop/café with spontaneous ease, wrapping themselves around naturally occurring city marks such as bins, benches, lampposts and drains. Some are even to ‘explode’ from the store to be found ‘wedged’ in the wall of an opposing shop and shattered on a window, giving the installation a sense of movement. These vinyl’s will change and melt around the outdoor seating area of eastern bloc by ourselves and melted to unusual shapes, places and grooves in the natural cityscape.

After vinyl’s what came next? Cassettes of course! And that’s the direction we’ll go. Pulling the tapes from them, melting them into the vinyl’s and having them installed in bulk will really show a key transition of what the industry went to in its own revolution. Then to CDs from the cassettes with the same idea and concept as before. These Cds in the two weeks of installation will then be asked upon by the public for them to write what their belief of ‘Music in Manchester’ means to them. This could be as simple as ‘buskers’ or ‘nothing’ to ‘I bought my first record at Eastern Bloc!’ hopefully we can use these to write around the top of Eastern bloc’s interiors as a reminder of modern day’s approach to music here and it new found respect.

The medium we use will also explore the political issue of how illegal downloads and mass legal downloads kills the idea of have music and a hard copy, enjoying and spending time purchasing music and keeping it treasured, plus our waste to having it all ‘in the air’ as such. In order to set our idea to the public in the best way, we aim to flyer, self promote and event the installation by making it Viral on the Internet and making as many people aware and to visit the artwork and get such a variety of people involved!

Unit X - piecing the idea together!

I've done a bit of a visual of what we have in mind

obviously it will be a LOT more condensed and busy, but its a vague idea.

Plus i was thinking how everything which gets success stems of social networks sadly nowadays, therefore we chould try and send our idea viral!!!

Unit X - Tuesday 13th March - Mad Lab Workshop!

Mad Lab came to us on Tuesday 13th March, throwing random objects, such as pipe cleaners, tape, LEDs, batteries and toothbrush heads it seemed very confusing at first, but exciting! 

We only got given the LEDs and batteries at first and I soon noticed that it only took the LED to touch the battery for the circuit to be made! A very easy, cheap yet effective option. We then got given a set of two wires, two toothbrush heads, a motor (for the vibrations the robot needs to move), cable ties and ink. it was really hard in the session upto lunchtime to really create something that not only functioned but had a unique way of moving to the others in the class, the brushbot kept falling apart or not working so took a lot of adaptations. I soon realised that the motor needed a weight in order for the bot to move more, this weight in turn would rotate rapidly, therefore adding the battery and LED made our robot look like a rotating beacon of light! 

After lunch we were able to reform our robots into a more successful one, working on what didnt work before. As my robot fell apart in the 'robot wars' before lunch it took so serious work. But this time round i was to concern with speed, just the athsetics of the model and thought of using the rotating motor to see if the brushbot had any ability to fly! By creating helicopter 'fans' out of a paper plate and carefully winding the circuit with tape to form a helicopter body, my brushbot really had the looks, but unfortunately wasnt able to fly in the air. This meant the speed of the robot needed to be assessed so by cutting the fans down the robot moved faster.

We took part in a robot race and then made a painting using the bristles attached to our robots. It came out with a lovely spontaneous effect!

Wednesday 14th March - Fashion Fringe!

Even though it doesnt have a direction relation to the Unit X project, some of the words that Matthew Williamson gave on the talk on Wednesday 14th March as part of the Fashion Fringe was very inspiring and I wanted to share it with you all for a little motivation!

Williamson went freelance straight away after graduating at Central Saint Martins in London, which proves that if you have it in you to work hard enough the options are yours. His mantra is to capitalise through new and old technologies in a single minded vision, which he says comes from his 'Northern Grit' as Matthew was born and raised in Manchester. Matthew knew he wanted his own label from the start and fought through the whole difficult journey with a strong body of work, but it was the help of the support of his friends and family which stayed with him for 7 years to lauch his brand. His work at Monsoon enabled him to travel to India cheaply as he made contacts with a flight attendant and pilot. Going into an art degree without a foundation, he knew it was a case where you either sink or swim, at the start it was hard to establish himself as a designer, to focus and find his design athsetic. 

In order to get a clear perspective of the industry, do atleast 6months with a designer that you admire on an internship to develop a business acriment. At his own internship in this final year, he was only a 'studio sweaper', but managed to collect scraps of fabric which made his final collection the success it was. Willamson quotes his work is turning 'poor into rich' and by 'having a fantastic belief ni what you do, positivity and truly believing in your own creativity will make you' 

Unit X - Monday 11th March Mad Lab talk

On Monday 11th March we had an 1,1/2hour lecture on what Mad Lab is and the work it does in Manchester. Based in the Norethern Quarter of Manchester, Mad Lab is the workshop of creativity for inventive, physics design involving electricity, space and sound. 

Some of the amazing things Mad Lab have done in thier workshop include: using soil and lemons to create electricity; changing pigeon poo to soap; and making yogurt an anit-depressant for breakfast. I loved all thse concepts as they took an everyday object and gave it a new fascination that the public can interact and find humour in, which I would love to see in our work. 

We were told to see electronics as a new commodity medium, in an age of mass technology and gadgets, we are forever having more access to cheap and effective circuit systems such as LEDs etc and this needs to be celebrated. This involves physical computing - where spaces or devices that are easy to work with are made to be modified. We where shown a few examples of the way artists use technology in thier art, sculptures and installations. One of the pieces was Daniel Rozin's round wooden mirror, a work of genius that changed colour to mimic the face of the 'viewer'. The work of Moritz Waldemeyer held particular interest to my work in fashion as he has previously been known for collaborating with famous Avant Garde designer Hussein Chalayan with lighting installed in the clothes. The You Tube video from Daito Manabe was amazing too, it took a stroke of genius and some willing co-operators from the public to join the experiment which gave tiny electric shocks to four people which fit in time with a piece of music made by the artist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLAma-lrJRM 

The easiest eway to construct a circuit and made a beautiful unqiue sound with old pieces of sound and electronic equipment is a thing called "Circuit Bending". This is where you adapt the ready made circuit and tweak it to get a new response. Also the idea of "LED throwies" sounded appealling, simply made by attaching a battery to a cluster of LEDs and a magnet and throwing them on magnetic conductors to create a beautiful city 'starry scene'. 

After this talk i was really excited to see what we were going to get up to on the workshop on Tuesday 13th! Bring it on...

Unit X - Street Stickers

Walking around the city I'm sure you've encountered 'street stickers' these are a growing trend for inner city events/businesses/organisations to constantly remind the public of thier movement and ideas. We could think of creating one which combines the music history to remind people of its work alongside our main work.

Unit X - Then and Now Photos

We were also thinking of looking at iconic band images and interact with the public to re-create these images with old and new bands. Either in a contrasting 'modern' way or a full re-creation. This will help to make the current generation of Manchester appreciate the historic music industry as well as bringing it up to date. From these images we could use the 'Eastern Bloc' as a gallery space and invite the public back to see the images whilst experiencing the music too.

Unit X - Melting vinyl inspiration

In particular we like the idea of 'Melting Vinyl' especially as we need a 'prototype' next week. Its a really cheap medium which is readily available which moulds really quickly with heat to whatever we wish to finally make! Here is also a picture of a "soundwave" and painted vinyls for a little taster of what we could work with?

Street Objects:

As we want to encourporate the public and our work, we thought that creating a small area of street objects. These include a street lamp, benches, tables, bins etc that we could host outside eastern bloc for thier cafe area and move it around Stevenson square. It will a great way to make a sculpture whilst it being useful for the public to interact with. These will all be created/coated in vinyl and fully functioning. This idea has also been approved by one of the tutors so we are confident to work with it. 

Unit X - Ideas Brainstorm!

Working round the ideas of Music history in Manchester, Emma and me brainstormed through the morning to come up with some ideas for a piece of work the group could develop. All of which involve the brief and the inspiration without being too cliche.

Unit X - Thurs 8th March - Colour workshop with Hermes designer Leigh Cooke

Leigh was a burst of energy for an early start! He went into a long and interesting history of how colour was revelant to hs job and how he always like art and experimentation with colour, through to how it pays the bills in industry. 

He said that at school and college he barely paid any attention, yet when it came to art, his teacher would allow him to overlap lessons so he could finish his work. This landed Leigh a place at Man Met for his degree, of which he says for us to "dont worry about marks and just pass! its ideas they want, need and pay you for industry, take risks now, as long as it fits the breif as otherwise your work wont be creatively challenged. my ideas are interesting and thats why i'm here". 

Leigh has won awards in Shanghai, has worked a lot for Hermes and Ferragamo where he finds that his one design has appeared in up to 10/15 colourways and 8/10 fabrics depending on the source and country of retail. For instance, I found it very interesting that Germany likes muted colours plus creams and browns, whilst India prides bold bright colours to covert up the society issues and religious rituals. He is also currently working on a 2013 V&A collection which will hopefully open up a collaboration with the famous designer Paul Smith. 

From looking at his work after the session, i foudn it beautifully intricate like he explained. He said throughout his practise at university he remained quite an abstract designer, but this only made his work tighter and tighter with more detail. After just finishing a menswear and womenswear collection, he says that "designing is easy, its just the designers that make it hard work".

In the session, Leigh got us creating a colour swatch page to mimic how the industry would take your design (photo image we took) and take all the colours from it in order to create a screen print. High street stores would limit to about 5 colours whilst one of his scarves took 46 men with screens to create! It really showed me how industry takes a lot of care into manufacturing colour and how so many shades are in one piece. I really liked the exercise and ended up using the oclourways I created to produce my own print to possibly go onto a scarf!

Unit X! Wednesday 7th March - Walk around the Northern quarter

This morning at 10pm, we met outside Fred Alders in the northern quarter for a insight to the art history of the nothern quarter.

In the Stephenson Square, we were shown the current artwork painted onto the old underground toilets, which has been constantly changed within the past 20years, allowing Manchester's creative comununity to contribute to its surroundings. One of the local businesses that is avaliable for collaboration is 'Eastern Bloc' a record shop (one of many in the area) where the history of Manchester's global music industry could be re-dispersed onto the streets or shop windows near the store. As the hubb of creative media, office blocks, studios, galleries (such as Kraak gallery), unique shops and coffee houses all collide to create a beautiful inspiring surrounding. 

It was hard to not feel distracted in the talk as there was so much detail to look at in the streets, from engraved footpaths, mosaics, installations, street/wall art and small works of art like stickers or signs on buildings. 

To see the instant history of the place entangled with the modern was the most beautiful bit about the northern quarter. The old craft market is one of the oldest standing Victorian markets still exsisting and is a beautiful building where aspiring artists and crafters can start to emerge a business from thier talent. Local store sell one-off vitange items that hold heratige to how Manchester prides itself on being a ver 'British' city, lively, musical, unique and full of homage to the past. 

r owned by factory records. This label kick-started the careers of The Happy Mondays, Joy Divison and New Order, and is still a music venue for up and coming artists. 

It as amazing to realise that Mark Kennedy's work of beautiful mosaics was exhibited hidden through the northern qualter, almost like a trail of surprise. I saw his 'imagine' tribute to John Lennon in New York and was unaware that Manchester had been graced by the same talent. In Manchester's past attempts to pay homage to the great city of New York, the 'Dry Bar' on Oldham Road, was a tribute to the bar in New York, full of musician history, formally the 'Hacienda' of Manchester owned by factory records. This label kick-started the careers of The Happy Mondays, Joy Divison and New Order, and is still a music venue for up and coming artists. 

As we explored the Northern Quarter more i found that even though it seems like quite a run-down area of the city, the vibrancy of rare spurts of colour, spontaneous installations and art with a sense of humour really makes it Manchester's finest atribute. Now I've explored the area more I feel that many things could be taken from the area and put into my own thoughts. 

MOSI Catwalk Event

The day of the fashion show was really exciting! The make-up team of Rosie, Chrissie and me spent the majority of the afternoon sorting out the models and making them into the silver army look we desired. As we practised the look so much on each other it was easy to transcend onto the models quickly and easily, once the models were all ready, we helped dress backstage with hair and make-up in-tow just incase of last minute touch ups right until the call for the show to start came! It was commotion backstage whilst the show went on, but all the models stayed professional and calm and the applause at the end and the roar backstage from all the year group made all our efforts worth it! The day was really fun and inspired us all to work even harder next unit!