CORE 1130: Collaboration Studio | Identity
Identity | Artist Statement
Throughout evaluation of how people have been expressing themselves through clothing over the years, we noticed that stereotypes in either Religion, Sex, Gender, Ethnicity and Diversity, has been taken into advantage by manufacturers in order to let the public believe that what they purchase will truly present them and what they are. With this being said, we developed a speculative concept that breaks the limits of all stereotypes and lets its owner be its own creation. This concept involves a unisex jumpsuit composed of a futuristic hexagonal print fabric which reacts to our external stimuli and this allows it to shift, bend, stretch, color and fit to how its owner wants it to be through a simple smartphone application that is given after purchase.
Due to the speculation of the amount of technology needed to recreate this concept, its lack of availability, time of production and hope of economic inflation, it is anticipated that the cost of the U jumpsuit will exceed 2,000$ and have generally inexpensive in-app purchases in order to keep financing its cost. U jumpsuit will also not be replacing day to day clothing due to its limited production, and expensive maintenance and the fact of not everybody and because of these reasons it is a designated product towards the high class and higher middle class.
The reason behind the speculative concept of the U jumpsuit relies on the hope of people being able to notice that they have their own self expression in whatever way the could possibly imagine, regardless of what others influence. It would only take technology and a simple press of buttons to put that expression in effect to their daily lives.
Identity | Response Statement
With the theme of identity we wanted to deal with something in the realm of fashion. We had a lot of prototypes and ideas that changed along the way such as focusing on gender identity to focusing on a clothing identity that doesn't have to look like clothing at all, and from designing a whole line of clothing with customizable patterns to a completely customizable suit that changes texture, shape, style, pattern, size, etc.
The project opened my eyes to a greater understanding of what identity is and what is acceptable in the eyes of society which will impact my future art in that I wont be so hesitant about abstraction of concepts, however I don’t think I’ll be voluntarily working on any more product designs in the future and fashion is decidedly not my area of interest.
The collaborative experience was very stressful at first. We didn’t know each other very well since school had just started, we didn’t know our strengths or weaknesses as well, we weren’t sure what our limitations were or how we should budget time or energy. The beginning was also stressful because we had trouble deciding on a concept that everyone liked. However after our concept was worked out and we started to work of the final products things got easier and eventually it became an enjoyable experience. It was overall a very beneficial preview to working collaboratively and I have a better understanding of how to compromise with peers who have conflicting ideas.