Medium Specificity

No matter how much I wish I could, I cannot afford a new outfit for every day of life.  So, instead of switching up my wardrobe, I switch up the outfits.  What I believe defines fashion is the necessity of looking at something familiar, pairing it with something else familiar, and making something entirely original.  I love to get dressed in the morning . . . and afternoon . . . and evening. I have a tendency to change my outfit multiple times a day.  It’s just how I function.  I’ll be totally 100% behind my outfit in the morning, but by the afternoon I’ll think of one way or another to improve it.  In the evening I’m going to be doing something different from what I was doing in the day, so I better change up my dress for that as well.  As a result of my obsessive need to recreate myself, I have a whole heck of a lot of clothes.   As a result of the whole heck of a lot of clothes I have, I find myself recreating myself a lot. 

In Glamour magazine is a feature that shows how to mix and match the same few items of clothing over and over again into different outfits. The intent of this feature is usually to show how a person can pack light for an extended vacation.  On Pinterest in the past year, there’s been an explosion of the same topic—only done for sister missionaries.  Girls will share tips on what kind of blouses and shirts sisters should bring on their mission to keep their style exciting, even though it’s limited.  I recreated this idea, focused around one accessory—a pink bow belt.  The decision to focus on the bow belt was twofold: first I needed to do this assignment and second, the belt is a new purchase and I wanted to see how I could play with it.

Focusing on the medium of fashion and then refining that focus onto just the belt and how it can function in fashion definitely speaks about the resourcefulness available in fashion.  Not resourceful in the sense that I’m saving the planet, cause I’m not.  It’s resourceful in the sense that I can use the same clothing item over and over again for years and years, and still find a new way to wear it tomorrow.  

In Show and Tell by McCloud, he talks about how the idea of comics was first introduced in ancient times.  The same goes for fashion, in the sense that what was most practical was the most fashionable.  In modern times for lots of people, fashion has moved away from the practicality of living and more towards the practicality of what looks good.  But, thankfully people are creative and have the ability to rework an item of clothing into a different outfit and still remain enamored with their own personal style and clothing choices.  

Thanks to Ryan Running for the pictures.

Historical Story

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BzUgpQb_VDRiOENkd3hBUm9fMk0/preview

In a recent documentary done by Piers Morgan on Donny Osmond, Donny remembers his teeny-bopper days as some of his happiest.  But he also regrets them; and if he could, he would go back to when he was three years old, before his family was famous and would live a totally different life.  He remembers having a sandbox, toy cars, and a best friend name Scott when he was three, and it was all taken from him when his family moved to L.A. His story reminded me of Vivian, Fort Barnwell. In that story the man had completely rewritten the story of a photo he remembered and had gotten it wrong. Donny has these clear memories of what his life was like.  Was it really that way? Or is that what he’s created from his memories?

                I got the idea for centering our story around this historical event because I remember watching a documentary about the Osmonds, in which this event was featured.  I remember seeing a clip of Alan, Wayne, Merril, Jay, and Donny (The Osmond Brothers) walking down a street that was blocked off to traffi and had barricades up and down both sides.  Behind the barricades were tons of wild fans, screaming and crying.  The brothers were smiling and laughing, spread out across the street, waving at their fans.  Donny was wearing a brown corduroy suit.  This is what I remember from the documentary, and an event I think about a lot because I would have loved to have been there that day.

                All these memories are part of history.  History’s truths are dependent on the person telling the story.  We got the chance this week to write a different truth into history.  However, this truth wasn’t based on our memory.  Since that is the case, there was no right or wrong interpretation to this story.  Adding our own mark on a historical event, unlike Vivian, Fort Barnwell, couldn’t be anything but right. 

Process Piece

https://soundcloud.com/madison-huber/duck-pond-1-1

My process piece is designed to show the transition one person goes through when leaving the busy crowded people world, to the busy crowded nature world.  He basically exchanged one chaos for another, because he prefers the second.  At the beginning of the process he’s in a crowded building.  He then walks outside and is on a busy street.  Eventually he makes it to a very loud, and disordered duck pond.  You hear the bag opening, and he starts feeding them bread.  When he sighs, you know he’s reached a state of peace.

                Something that influenced my decision to move forward with this idea, was the elemental narrative that was just discussed in my TMA 114 class.  Instead of doing a man-v-nature theme though, it was a man in harmony and peace with the nature.  This idea appealed to me, because it’s not something I really feel.  Now, I love to observe nature, and to be in the middle of it.  But being in harmony with it is not my thing.  I am honestly kind of terrified of nature, and all the horrible things it can do.  If I was a character in an elemental narrative, the likely result would be man being destroyed by nature.  However, I wish I wasn’t that way.  Representing someone who was willing to escape the hub bub of everyday living, for the hub bub of nature seemed a little bit brave to me. 

                 I was influenced most heavily by “The Smokehouse” short film we watched.  This was an amazing example of a man being at harmony with nature.  Not only that, he had learned how to use nature for his benefit.  Also, the sounds being highlighted in the film, were distinct to his world, and easy to identify.  At the beginning you hear birds juxtaposed against the sound of a chain saw.  This man was living in between both worlds, and doing it beautifully.  The main person in my process piece has  to go somewhere to find his fix of nature, and has to separate the two worlds.