CULTURAL DIVERSITY P2
FLEUR DE KONING
0987111
DBKV VT2
INSPIRATION
EXPERIMENTS MENDING TECHNIQUES FABRIC (SELF STUDY WEEK)
PROJECT PROCES
THEORY
VISUALISATIONS THROUGH THE PROCESS
PROJECT RESEARCH
WHAT DOES BEING DUTCH MEAN? HOW DO PEOPLE LOOK UPON THE DUTCH CULTURE?
A difficult question since I do not have the feeling that I have a very strong connection with my culture.
This question can have so many different answers, all interesting.
I have asked multiple people what their relationship is with the Dutch culture in order to have a larger perspective what people think and have more information how other people look at this question.
In my opinion it would be very interesting to see for example how someone who grew up in a family with two or multiple cultures look upon this question in comparison to a person who only have one.
Here are the results of some people that participated.
CONCLUSION: It is really interesting to see that people who were fully raised with the Dutch culture also did not have a strong connection or even a connection at all. The same for the people who were raised with multiple cultures who have a stronger connection with the other culture than the Dutch. What is interesting though, is that people from an older generation who grew up in The Netherlands do have a strong connection with the Dutch culture, why the new generation not?
FINAL SKETCH
This is the final sketch of the manifesting blanket that I'm going to make. The opinions from the people that I've surveyed will be embroiled on the blanket to give a good overview of how people think about their connection with the dutch culture.
You may be interested in why some of the fabrics are connected while others are loosely holding each other by a thread. This is because the visions on the dutch culture that people have are mostly agreeing with one another. But some are more connected to one other than others. Some even overlap each other.
I choose to let some distance in between some of the fabrics because of that reason but also because
I want to physically connect those opinions and also show that there is still a disconnection between different people and a disconnection between Dutch culture. The connection or the disconnection can also be seen in the way the quote is stitched onto the fabric. So actually the idea is to show that still a part will be unmendable and disconnected, to show that still existing rupture.
PROJECT PROCES (WITH REAL FABRIC) & FINAL PSYCHICAL/METAPHORICAL MENDING PROJECT
KICK OFF WEEK 6 -11 APRIL
I hope to find a new way to connect different subjects and gain knowledge on new topics as they will help me in my future classes. As a teacher I want to gain knowledge on inclusivity, and I think this practice is a good way to start.
I also hope to learn new skills and learn how to think from another perspective.
QUESTIONS TO FOCUS ON:
– What am I going to focus on?
I want to focus on how to connect different kind of cultures, how do I make one work which includes a lot of draft, how can I make my work understandable and interesting looking for outsiders and myself?
Tell about disconnection and a possible new connection.
Physical or Metaphorical mending?
FIRST IDEAS/CONCEPTS
1. Make Illustrations (different cultures) on ‘broken’ pieces of textile and sew/ handsewn through it, applying different pieces of textile so that you have one big piece at the end with different kind of layers.
2. Making compositions with unmendable objects and photograph them. (as an experiment)
Maybe, add something with a needle and a thread.
3. Make different abstract figures that represents a specific culture on a piece of textile and sew al these pieces of textile together so that it is one big work.
4. Use old pieces of clothes/blankets, sew/mend this together so that you have a collection of personal memories.
5. Use one big piece of textile and mend different abstract figures on it that represents different kind of memories with that object.
6. Make a big tapestry with all different kind mending methods and different personal items.
SELF STUDY WEEK
12 – 16th April
I choose these images as inspiration because they all have the visual mending in common. The images that attract me the most are ones with the small different pieces of textile, I found the different layers very interesting as the mending technique as well. For my project I like to work with textile as well and connect a personal story to the object by mending it with different kind of another textile. I also find it very hard to come with a concrete plan what I want to connect again (using a personal story) I also feel a bit lost at this point, so hopefully the tutoring lessons will help me next week. The Rizvi text also really intrigued me with some sentences and will help me more understand the project.
EXPIRIMENTS WITH MENDING TEXTILE
Before I go to deeply into one specific subject, I like to experiment with textiles to create different kind of mending techniques in order to find out what my aesthetics are. So, I came up with a new plan in order to connect the mending with a personal story. The idea is to use a personal blanket or other old piece of clothing. I’m going to cut these into smaller parts so that I can put them on top of another piece of textile. At the end, I will have a kind of ‘tapestry’ with personal objects that er destroyed and yet again connected with each other. For the mending method, I will use simple yet elegant styles so that you still see the different kind of textile layers. I’m going to delve myself into concept number 6 because it is a good and interesting way to put a personal story (or even multiple) into one work and show all different kind of mending styles.
START DEVELOPING WEEK WITH TUTORING
19 April – Thoughts
Today we talked in groups, presented our ideas and work to each other. I was and still am a bit struggling with the question how I want to connect my culture with my work. A classmate had a wonderful idea to put besides the personal items also Dutch culture related things into the tapestry. So, this way I can connect myself through personal objects/memories to my culture. I have the feeling that those two are not very connected now, so this is going to be a challenge to ‘mend’ those two pieces of myself together. I am still a bit struggling with making a concrete plan what I want to do but trust the process :)
20 April – Thoughts
Today I want to make a start on making a couple of textiles with different kind of patterns. For example, I am going to make one piece that represents ‘delfsblauw’ with blue thread on a white piece of fabric. I also wanted to make a start on making the personal fabric pieces so that I can connect them in the end. It is the intention to make a tapestry that consist out of cultural and personal pieces of different kinds of fabric.
21 April – Thoughts
After the session with Theana today I feel motivated to develop this project. I’m going to do research what other people think what being Dutch means for them. This information I’m going to use to make the tapestry/blanket. I’m going to change plans. From every answer that I am going to get I am going to make a piece of the blanket. Every piece represents a different way that people experience being dutch and what the dutch culture mean to them.
22 April – Thoughts
So today I am going to start collect different opinions on how people interpret dutch culture. I am going to use these answers to make the tapestry/blanket. The thought behind the blanket is to mend all the different opinions, everyone has different visions and thoughts. I want to make them whole, so that they are one, because there is no right or a wrong answer and not a correct vision. I specially choose to make a tapestry/blanket because I want to physically ‘mend’ the gap between all the different opinions. To make a new connection between all of them.
How am I going to do that? --> the plan is to make a more of an abstract piece per answer.
I’m kind of stuck right now, I think that my project is also sided with the metaphorical mending and I’m not sure anymore if the blanket/tapestry is a good idea.
Maybe another idea is to metaphorically/physically ‘mend’ the gap between people and the dutch culture so that people feel more connected to it. But the question is how?
First idea is to mend through a lesson that I am going to create. In this way I can connect this project to my major.
Read introduction gloria wekker --> white innocence.
23 April – Thoughts
So today the session with Amy really helped me further. The plan is again changed but I can only learn from all the things, and only make your project better. So now, the final plan! 😊 I’m going to use the different kind of opinions that I have collected from all different kind of people.
RESEARCH QUESTION
Why don’t feel people connected to the Dutch culture? Why is there a disconnection?
Explain your connection to the Dutch culture.
I’m going to make the blanket, stitch the different opinions and visions to manifest the connection people have with the Dutch culture. I choose specifically this way of mending because you can physically connect the different opinions and make them whole. Also use the fabric to show rupture and disconnection to still show that it can't be fully mended, so it still stays unmendable. Kind of a symbolic gesture.
START DEVELOPING ASSESSMENT WEEK
26 April - Thoughts
Today I started to work on the physical mending part. I'm busy sewing the different statements from the persons that I've surveyed and finding the right mending technique for it. The people who do not have a strong connection with the Dutch culture will be poorly stitched onto the fabric, while people who do feel connected, are going to be heavily stitched.
27 April - Thoughts
Today I finished the blanket and I want to finish my hot glue page. I have to decide to who I am going to write the letter to for theory. And also I am planning to make the video tomorrow for the assessment. (presentation)
28 April - Thoughts
Today I made the video for the assessment tomorrow and now I want to write my theory letter, but I still struggle with deciding who I am going to address the letter to. Hmmm, difficult. Unfortunately my final assessment video is suddenly a bit blurry and I do not know how to fix that so hopefully the photos on this page are helping.
29 April - Thoughts
Today is the big day! I finished all the work, the only thing that I have to do today is to give a second look at my theory (letter). I can say that I am happy with the result after all these weeks, even though it was hard to constantly feel motivated and I felt sad multiple times these past few weeks. Thank you tutors for this course!
Final Thoughts: This project really helped me to not only see things from one perspective, to listen to other people and to visualise the connections between the results from my research. This practice also learned me to have discipline, to keep going even though sometimes I had no motivation.
THOUGHTS DOCUMENTATION
FINAL PROJECT - MANIFESTING WORK
You can find pictures here from the final work that I've made. This work manifest and visualises the different opinions from a variety of different people on how they look at their connection with the Dutch culture based on my research. I specifically choose for this form because I want to combine the physical mending through literally connecting them, and the metaphorical mending through thinking about the deeper meaning and how I want to stitch them together. So this way I can make a visual new connection that wasn't there in the first place.
There are different layers in the work, you have the visual opinions as you can see, but the way that I have stitched the opinions, how they are connected and in what order they are placed all have different meanings.
The opinions on the top are the people who don't feel a connection at all or a little, I have stitched these with a thinner thread to each other to represent their weak connection. These opinions are also not severely stitched onto the fabric, and some even cut, to show that the connection is not there.
When you are looking the work from the top to the bottom, you may find that the opinions on the bottom are stitched very thoroughly on the fabric and to each other. This represents the strong bond with the Dutch culture and the similarity to each other.
This work is both physical and metaphorical, physical because the opinions are literally connected to each other and also metaphorical because there is a bigger meaning behind the way they are connected.
Here are the experiments that I have made in the self study week, I wanted to experiment with different kind of physical mending techniques. You can find the explanations on each different work in the video that I made, it is a summary of the whole week so you can get more understanding on what I did with these experiments. During this week I was searching which way I wanted to go with the project.