Dissertation Proposal- (?)

After meeting with our semenar group I'm starting to become slightly, ever so slightly more confident in finding a topic which suits me for my dissertation. I discovered half way into our last essay that maybe the subject "Culture & Design" was a tad vague to discuss in depth and to explore the reationship between the two.
However I'm still keen on considering this as a basis to begin my research for my final idea.
I'm interested in the way that cultures have been manipulated and expanded, particulary in the past centuary. I thought it could be interesting to discuss what triggered these changes and consider the key events in history that have become a catalyst for social change.
Pro-active !

GvE Sketchbook work

Botanic Gardens

More research for our GvE project.
Batchy-P and myself took a trip to the Botanic Gardens in Dundee for some source drawings and photography.
I was hoping it might get some ideas flowing for our studio project. I'm fully aware that the main attracting of the Botanic Gardens is generally the mass of flowers it holds, however, I am determined not to go down the "textile students love flowers and doilys" route, and instead of using pretty pictures of flowers, maybe use the images for colour references and consider the shapes and ways of considering them as abstacted forms.

GvE Studio Project

We recently attendted a talk hosted by the textile designer, Georgina Von Etzdorf.
It was an interesting insight into the workings of the design industry and the ways of approaching the business.
She showed us a selection of her work and spoke of her experiences as a designer.
http://www.gve.co.uk/

This is one of her many many scarfs. She does alot of work in fashion which i find really interesting, another aspects of her work which appeals to me is the ways most of her fabrics are hand painted, which is what i tend to do in my studio work. By hand painting fabrics i think gives more character to the piece.
Most recently in studio, Georgina Von Etzdorf has created a brief for usIts the exporation of journey and senses.
As posted on the VLE...

"Consider the KEY words - 5 senses / Journey / Interpretation.
Thinks visual, think meaning, think surface. You can interpret or translate through ANY medium or combinations of media.
Without wishing to repeat ourselves – this project is centered around your “interpretation” and sense of “journey” aligned to on of “the 5 senses”.
NB: although “sketchbooks” were mentioned as not being a fundamental requirement you will obviously need some form of ‘depository’ for your research, thoughts, development and outcomes – whatever that may be !!"

Rocky start to this brief as its very vague. In every aspect of like we embark on various journeys and everything in its own way has a sensory value.
SO, after much brain-storming i decided to interpret the brief as simply as possible. After all simple is what i do best...
I want to continue painting landscapes and create quite pictorial silks, as i'm still trying to ween myself off the last studio project i decided, why not let this project be a continuation of the last?

I've decided to document the last few months of my life in photo/ painting form; the jouney's i've been on. Where i've been and where i am now. When looking through my camera i found loads of landscapes of Crieff (my home town), the Lake District and ofcourse here, in Dundee.


Got a new camera for my 21st so thought i'd go for a wander around creiff and take the badboy for a test-drive. Not entirely sure how to use it but gave it a bash, being from Crieff, not gonna lie its not the most hip-happening of places but its got some beautiful landscapes...
(Crieff)





Still getting used to the camera but when i went to the lake discrict at the beginning of the summer i took hundreds of photos, the landscapes were amazing, and i definately think could be used as ideas for creating fabrics.
(Lake District)






Lastly, i'll be using images i've collected from being in Dundee. These are some photos i took at the waterfront...


(Dundee Botanic Gardens....)




so we'll see what happens with the project...