digital media

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project06 - justeclothes.com

Overall, I am really proud of the work that I did for the final project. I faced several challenges and there were times where I doubted my ability to get everything done. I started off with the idea of making doll clothes. With my change of focus to Western men's formal wear, I purchased a male doll. However, my experiences making dresses for my female dolls could not have even begin to prepare me for the horrors that I would experience. This really pushed me to get more familiar with photoshop. In the end, I think the heavily edited, collage quality of my images helped support my work. And I am really happy that I was able to communicate my idea through the piece.

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Dress shirt product, before and after photoshop

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Billy Porter, Black Tuxedo Gown, 2019

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the suit

The suit has always been a staple of Western men's formal wear...to the point where it has become invisible. In all the major events that occur each year, such the Grammys or the Oscars, there is instead, an obsession with the dress. Everyone's asking what she is wearing, because 9/10 that's where the "wow factor" is. Looking back on some of men's red carpet looks, I, of course, found Billy Porter's black tuxedo gown to the 2019 Oscars. That look had definitely had a "wow factor"--and I was particularly interested in the transformation of the tuxedo--which otherwise would have been a gender-conservative garment. This encouraged me to travel a bit back in time. I wanted to look at the evolution of the suit. In my opinion, I think the style of the suit lost personal touch overtime due to the adoption of industrial production methods. Its rigidity has become a trap for men in the form of gender performance, that doesn't allow reflection of individuality. These were the ideas that were running in my mind as I approached my final project.

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Browsing on big department store websites such as Macys and Brooks Brothers, I’ve started to play a spot-the-difference game. This process has inspired me to change my initial proposal. I want to try to recreate this experience through a website interface by making my own formal wear clothing brand for men.  

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The images are from an online clothing store known as “POEM” that is located in Bangkok, Thailand. While looking at different designs for fashion show inspiration, I happened on the menswear part of their site. I took screenshots from the women’s sections of the site and the shocking difference when I placed them side-by-side with the men’s selections...completely blew my mind.

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project06 - proposal

For the wild card final project, I am interested in doing a fashion presentation. I felt really inspired by the Moschino puppet fashion show. Although I am not confident in my ability to produce something on that scale, I do want to attempt to make several doll outfits and have a stop motion catwalk. Alternatively, I am also looking at the possibility of recreating the “moving images project” by producing a fashion photoshoot film from still images. 

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big takeaway: moving images project

My biggest takeaway from the moving images project and the review session with Sarita Khurana is the idea of "through-line". This was my first time hearing this technical film term, but as we went along with each presentation, I got a better sense of what it meant. My understanding of a through-line is that it is the thing (or maybe) multiple elements that creates cohesiveness in a film. With my own project, I intentionally broke my moving images film into two parts. However, having heard the feedback, I understand that even with this intention, there were other ways that I could have bridged the narrative more. I am proud of the work that I did, but I am really eager to improve with a similar project in the future.

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ho rui an

Ho Rui An is an artist and writer that engages in an interdisciplinary practice of lecture, essay, and film. His work primarily revolves around the politics of images within the context of globalism and governance. I was drawn by the discussion surrounding the contrast between his lectures and TED Talks. This was actually my first introduction to "lectures" as a type of artistic medium. On the surface, Ho Rui An's lectures and TED Talks appear relatively similar. However, unlike the latter, TED Talk speakers often frame an argument that they hope to convince their audience is true by the end of their presentation. In contrast, Ho Rui An's lectures are more like performances, during which he presents multiple angles of a subject and allows his audience to come to their own conclusions. That is not to say that his work is totally subjective. Instead, his skillful use of writing, imagery, and performance gives his audience more autonomy in formulating their own ideas. As an artist and writer myself, I found this multi-media approach to be very inspiring.

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