The F.A.T was a collaborative project based within the site of the marina/quayside district of Poole. We had to work with members from Fashion, Architecture and Textiles to craft, discover, understand and present our work as a group. This short study was all about collaboration and we learnt some of the methods of working with people from different disciplines that will occur in your future professional careers.
We had to bring group ideas together to craft a cohesive piece of work that relates to the site by aligning, expanding and developing culture, skills and other perspectives from your subject area with those from another course.
We were assigned into one of ten groups and then given a word as a starting point to discover what can be created in an intense, short period of time to be presented as a group at the end of the development.
The word my group was given was texture and after brainstorming and mind mapping ideas we were thinking about creating abstract art pieces and montage maps including textures from around Poole and using the old and new architectural buildings, we decided to explore Poole and see what textures we could find. The most intriguing textures were found by Poole quayside, exploring the aged boats and the fishing crates and nets. On the boats we found textures such as barnacles, rusting from the water and general weathering. After collating our imagery we thought of the idea of putting together an abstract art piece that was made up of a timeline, which began at the old town of Poole and made its way to the current town. It would include individual textures on wooden boards placed cohesively onto a wooden plank found in Poole. Each texture would represent a specific place in Poole, for example the barnacles found at the quay or brick found in old and new buildings. The timeline would be called ‘The Evolution of Texture’.
The following process was to create our texture boards; I based mine on the rusting of the boats, the aging effects on the buildings and old ropes. Whilst brainstorming what I could use to create these textures I thought of using puff binder to create the 3D effect you find on old buildings and boats. Another texture would be weaving and plaiting together materials to represent the aging ropes found in Poole, also using net with puff binder on to create this aged effect a bit further. My final texture would represent the rust found on boats, I would create this using layers of fabric stitched together then ripped open so you can see the layers underneath, again combining this with puff binder for more aged definition. After creating these textures I was content with the outcome of each piece. Every texture linked directly to my found imagery and concept.
Once each group member completed every texture we started to cohesively lay out our texture boards into the timeline and began attaching them with nails, screws and wood glue. Using the screws would create an abstract effect and make it tie into the textures and imagery found in Poole. Once completed I was overall pleased with the outcome and felt it corresponded with the first concept idea, it was an extremely abstract piece of artwork but I can imagine the piece in a quirky arts bar along the sea front.
Overall I felt our group had a strong connection, setting up a Facebook page so each team member could write down ideas before our meetings and generally most of the time each team member turned up to each meeting we held. There was certain confusion to start with as to what we were essentially crafting but after a meeting was held the confusion was put to rest and an abstract art piece was made. With a bit more time we could have added on thick strong rope to hang up the piece but it could still be attached now onto a wall. In a whole I felt this was a productive successful week with connections and contacts in Textiles and Architecture made.
misscatherinethompson 