I guess I can cover basics of what's going on with assessment work, and where things are looking and going and I'm actually blogging at the moment because I'm supposed to be writing an essay and my head isn't ordered enough.
TT.TT
That's a crying face, if you're not aware of emoticons. Like, anime-looking style crying face or whatever.
ANYWAY.
Hmm.
Monday began later than it should have - that's what happens when you stay up until 1 the night before trying to finish a blog post (funnily enough). I started work on one of my other projects, because it's really not fair that I'm spending the classtime of one class for work on another project. So I heated up some beeswax and spent the morning writing scripture passages onto a giant piece of calico. Working on a batik was meditative to a degree, and to a degree annoying, because I'd never done it before and it was fairly chilly, so the wax would cool before I could write more than two or three words.
So that's about three hours worth of work. And the flipping computer can't even orient it properly.
But, by the end of the class, I had a section from John 1 and one from Philippians 2 written with a degree of neatness. The idea at the moment is to make an artwork about Jesus, since the theme of the artwork is 'hardcore softly/softly threatening'
And I'm not trying to be ironic about anything. I am just aware that most of my art friends don't understand Jesus, and would probably find him threatening, since his call to drop everything and follow him is kind of treading on the cushy outlook of someone who has no immediate desire to know the Maker of the universe.
And, like, Jesus never wussed out of anything. Ever.
Suitable artwork subject matter located.
Um. Rest of the week.
Tuesday I finished the shoulders for the armour (dupion/pauldrons/whatever you call them). In a relatively short period of time. To my joy.
I mean, the things, when they're just worn over my clothes, look like something the eighties spit out but hey. I'm sure they'll make more sense when they're attached in conjunction with the rest of the armour. Something I've noticed (early on) is just how bulky Spartan armour is on the body. It's not something you realise until you see someone moving around in it, and get an idea of how smaller they are than the shell.
It's almost comical until the helmet goes on, and then you can't help but be in character. And then the theme music starts, and some part of comedy exists, because it's a guy dressed as Master Chief in someone's dining room and a small dog just ran past. It's like the moment that helm goes on, you cease to be you and the costume is complete. Fiction drawn into the real world. Fourth wall gone.
Bam.
My thoughts are more scattered than when you pick up a bag of rice from the wrong end. I've had a lot going on upstairs at the moment (figuratively speaking) really. None of which I will inflict on the world wide web, because this is not LiveJournal. Can we move on? Let's move on.
It feels like I'm getting a good pattern established with the armour in terms of...what? A repoire? A habit? There's something about the way I'm doing it now, that's just better than whatever I was doing before.
Plus, getting three pieces done in a week is pretty good for your headspace in terms of 'hey, I achieved something'. I finished the codpiece on the weekend.
No finished pictures as of yet.
...
I keep calling it a belt, because it does go around my waist, and that means I can name the armour with a straight face, because it's a piece of armour that's otherwise going to be called a buttplate or something. At the moment I'm tossing up whether or not to put a buckle on the inside of it so I can buckle it around my waist instead of wriggling the thing over my head and shoulders.
On Thursday, I met again with my supervisor, settled a date for assessment (19th June), talked about the possibility of borrowing an airbrush from the uni to paint the armour (because I'm not painting it until it's all done so everything is definitely the same colour), and the challenges involved with getting everything done when I'm still really hoping to get another costume done in time as well.
I haven't forgotten about you, Sheik.
I've just grossly underestimated the amount of time needed to get this flipping thing done. I've been working on it (conceptually) since semester started, and now I really just want it to be done so I don't have to worry about it any more.
I mean, having the thing done will be amazing. But it's just stressful at the moment. I am ready to have it finished, and when it is finished I will take it to every costume party ever, or at least until summer arrives, because even after vent panels go in to the wetsuit, I still think it'll be rather warm.
You know, after watching that video up there, I'm kind of wondering if maybe I should go about having the things attached a little differently. Initially, (and I'm still thinking like this) there is/was going to be velcro on the suit, and on the armour, and then the armour pieces would be directly attached to the suit.
Advantages: Segmented. Kind of simple. Armour would basically be rigid attached to the body.
Disadvatages: I need padding on the inside of some of the pieces to ensure a good surface...that thing...like, surface area! I need a lot of flush surface area for velcro. And it might be a little bit hard to make sure things are even.
The harness looking thing looks like it'd be a little bit more complex to set up, but might pay off. Oh, but you can see the straps that connect the pieces.
The other thing that worries me about the harness setup is that it would actually restrict your movement - like, if you were running or climbing, your stride length is immediately impeded by the straps holding up the thigh armour.
I know that either of those activities would be a lot harder in armour anyway, but I'm trying to think of things that would compound the problem.
So, harness-type for holding armour on:
Advantages: comprehensive. Doesn't require internal padding. Easier to have armour even on both sides.
Disadvantages: turns your gear into tangling nunchucks when not attached to the body. Complex. Probably okay for walking around and/or basic poses, but would impede more extreme movements. Possibility that armour would migrate during movement.
If my leg-hoster bag is anything to go by, migration of armour can be expected. This will actually get really annoying if I need to stop every twenty metres to straighten up leg armour because it moves when I walk.
You guys are great. You sit here and read, and I yabber, and all of the problems get fixed. Thanks :)
Velcro it is.
Okay. It's now week 12. Where am I up to?
I am going to die. Sooner or later.
In the meantime, I have two weeks after this where my studio is accessible. I have two Fibres projects to finish/polish, and the studio folder for that to get in order. I have the armour to finish (Thighs, Breastplate, Helm, undersuit, boot bases, gloves, paint), Sheik to finish (I'm fairly sure I can knock that over in two weeks), a seventy percent essay due next week that I haven't started, and the blog to make shiny and print up. There'll probably be supplementing documents for Directed Studies as well, because I don't include absolutely everything about DS on the blog (because it's all the kind of bonus material that is justified in leaving in the 'bonus content' part of the DVD, rather than being in the middle of the movie and then hearing the director butt in and give their spin on what's going on right now.)
But yeah. Bonus content is always good, because it's getting to explain to non-costumers why I'm doing what I'm doing, but at the same time, the blog is really following the narrative, so if I stop and tell you about every little detail, things will get boring really quickly.
Apologies in advance. Time has been running away from me and I haven't updated the blog in a while. So, this post will cover the adventures of week 9, 10, and something interesting I discovered last week and thought that it would be interesting to write about. Anyway. Read on.
WEEK 9
So. This week's update. Or something.
Yesterday, I finished (at long last) the paper patterns for the Halo armour.
Things kind of went on hold for the last week and a half, since I had assessments coming out my ears and I don't even know what else. Oh yeah. I was sick.
And now it feels like my body is trying to figure out what else it can debilitate me with while I head on. Seriously. I think this week's meals will be a combination of Bonjela and jelly and custard this week. Wisdom teeth.
This weekend just past, I didn't achieve an iota of work, since my family was moving house and there was no way I was going to not help my family move. There was a lot of heavy lifting, cleaning of ick things and juggling of stuff and people. And the fun of handling a figurative bomb for all of Saturday. Let's not talk about that.
So, there was a cubic metre of dirt, and Mum and Dad finally threw out the fridge double that they'd had for ages and I painted. It was a project I undertook in 2006, and the fridges were old as buckleys when I painted them. They'd just started to rust through and had failing seals and smelled funny. But they were actually my first big art project, so it was interesting and a little sad seeing them go.
<I have a progress shot of it at the beginning...somewhere...>
Shortly before the tip
Mum said that when they can, her and Dad want to get another fridge for the garage though. And she wants me to paint exactly the same artwork on it. Because it carries a lot of feels and she liked it.
My mother is absolutely ruthless when throwing things out during moving season. It means a lot for her to say 'please do this one again because I like the artwork, even if the functional item it is on isn't useful anymore'
Not bad for a transferred piece of promo art for a GBA game.
And yeah, you have to be ruthless when throwing things out during moving season. This does mean that I end up a little stressed, because a lot of my stuff which is still kind of important gets thrown out as well, and if I'm not home to make sure that doesn't happen, then all kinds of things go.
I'm pretty sure my quarterstaff got chucked, since I can't find it.
I guess this is one of the challenges of having just moved out of home (I've been out for a couple years, but hey). I don't have anywhere to put my books, for example. I have a shelf and a half of the landlord's bookcase, and that's it. Please don't throw out my TAFE work, Mum. I'll move it when I have space.
Anyway. I've probably just told you a bunch of stuff that isn't that interesting. Except maybe for the fridge.
Where am I up to with the everything else?
The armour went on hold. I will regret this soon enough - for reasons beyond my comprehension, it's now week 9. I've still got another costume for Directed Studies due, which I'm fairly sure I can knock over in a week or two, provided I don't have anything else to do.
Provided I don't have anything else to do.
Sorry. Got things to do right now.
Lo and behold. Things were done.
WEEK 10
So. What happened in the week just past?
I finished the forearms in foam, and managed to gain a better grasp of how long things take, or at least, be able to break up the tasks and therefore time for each armour piece.
So, the forearm (Vambrace from here on. The right one.) took about five hours to assemble in paper (because it was the first one, and I wasn't entirely sure what I was doing)
And then I disassembled it, and it took two hours to trace out the larger pieces onto foam (tracing each piece out twice, so I had a pair of them)
It took an hour and a half to cut these pieces out.
And another two hours to shape them.
At this stage, I'll explain what I mean by that. Rather than folding the foam to give it shape, I have to score into it, as it's too bulky for simply folding. I cut a small groove on one side and then score a line on the opposing side of the foam. If it's a mountain fold, the score is on the face side and the groove is on the underside - a valley fold is just this reversed.
I'll also take this time to bevel edges of pieces if they need it, or cut details into them, like rivet holes or indents. I started doing all of this with my large box cutter, and then realised that detailing was much easier with a smaller one. So I have two knives going on this. And you notice when the blades become blunt.
And then I kind of crease those shaping cuts in, and glue the bad boy together. It took two hours to glue together the vambraces - an hour each.
Featuring hot glue and burnt fingers
And the assembling time for the paper was only an estimate. So, just on this one section of armour, I've spent at least ten hours to get from paper to foam. Haven't painted them yet either.
It's now more than ever I realise the enormity of this task. Like, I've been realising it all through semester, but it's now that I am sitting in the camp of 'I'm wasting so much time on this armour' and 'this is just really time consuming stuff'
I'll get it done in time. I'm just worried because I also have another three practical things to finish, plus paper and an assessment for a theory subject that's worth 70%.
I'm gonna die.
But.
Tonight, as I try to prolong the effects of downing two coffees at church so allow for blogging, which I haven't done in ages, I also take in what has been achieved. Because I went and actually tried what I had on, in conjunction with the wetsuit I bought for the task, and felt a little better about everything. Maybe not about about the wetsuit currently (Op shop find. It's about a size too small. I'm cutting vent panels in it to allow it to stretch/breathe/not kill me), but about seeing progress. I really, really need to get this done.
Any minions wishing to volunteer themselves for assistance will be given baked treats. I can make a mean mudcake.
What else happened over the course of this week?
Evangelion.
The Japan Foundation is an organisation based in Sydney that promotes cross-cultural stuff and shenanigans. Earlier this year, or late last year (I can't remember which), there was notice of a travelling exhibition of stuff related to the Rebuild of Evangelion, which is a series of films happening at the moment, retelling the story arc of Neon Genesis Evangelion, a mind-blowing mecha anime from the mid-90s, orchestrated by Hideaki Anno.
The show was only in Sydney for a week, so I caught the train down on Friday and checked it out.
If you want to see the thing I am yabbering about, hit that link there.
The works presented were mostly stills/storyboards from the first two movies (You are (not) alone, and You can (not) advance), presented in a vertical diptych. So, the drawing was framed up, and then beneath it was the corresponding frame from the relevant scene in the anime printed on foamcore, so you could see what the original frame looked like.
I'd show you a picture if I had taken any. There was a strict 'no photos' thing going on, so you'll just have to bear with me on it.
I was amazed at the quality of work, and intrigued as well, because..well, I guess the essence of anime-compared-to-real-life, aside from the odd proportioning, is how simple the lines are and how complex an area they cover. I don't know how to explain that otherwise. Um.
Oh. Hey, Shinji.
This is Shinji Hirako, of Bleach (Which is of Tite Kubo). As he appears in the manga, because the manga goes in for all these little details that you don't notice in the anime adaptions because they're either forgotten or taken up by shading so your eyes don't register them.
Look at his shirt. Look at it. There's like, a couple of tiny lines thrown in here and there, and suddenly it looks like the flipping thing is busy being fabric.
The Evangelion exhibition allowed me to appreciate in detail one of the more subtle things about anime and manga; basically, you can use small and simple lines to delineate something, and the mind fills in the rest. It's brilliant.
Seeing frames from the animation also let me notice a few other things. They were rarely on white paper (unless it was a closeup of a face or something), and were usually on a light green or brown or blue. I think white paper scares artists a little, so that makes sense. It would have also had something to do with colour scanning and photocopying, I think, owing to how the frames were shaded.
There was no finished colour added to them, so there were lines put in that basically meant 'cel shade here and here and here. Fill this area with black, and this area with white'. And then some rough hatching to cover the shaded area. It looked odd, because it was obvious that so much more time had been spent getting the lines right and the colour stuff looked like an afterthought. But it wasn't. It's just that this wasn't the stage when the colour needed to be added, so placement was a little rough.
Ack. Sorry. I'm going small picture with this. Bear with me.
There was also a video display showing scenes from the second movie in a split screen format, which allowed the viewer to simultaneously see how things in the scene looked at story board level, rough lines, rough colour, full colour, and finished movie. There must have been some things in there I missed, because the number of split screens going ranged at times from four to twelve. Which freaked your head out, because you were trying to process a lot of information at the same time, but was really cool to see the evolution of the film at the same time. I mean, that's not something you actually get to see with live-action films, because most of the stuff is there when the camera is rolling (unless you're shooting something that's got a buttload of green screen or something).
But when an anime gets made, the whole film gets made in several renditions, so you can view those renditions side-by-side and appreciate them and the finished product a whole lot more.
Look, if I go out and actually get :01 and :02 sometime in the future, I'll try and make you watch them, and then the special features. Pretty sure you'd get to see some of what I'm yabbering incoherently about.
Actually, have a scene of EVA 00, 01 and 02 against a falling-from-space alien/the 8th Angel. I apologise for the English dub - would have used a subbed version if it was there. This really just lets you see how enormous the EVA are and thusly cool. And I got to see stacks of clips from this scene at the exhibition.
Okay. It was cool. Next thing.
I was aspiring to maybe visit White Rabbit gallery too, until I got back to Central station and realised that I had an hour before my train left, and in that time would have to walk to the gallery, tour the gallery, and walk back. I instead wandered the train station and speed-drew people I saw while walking, deciding that maybe it would be more constructive than running around like a chicken with its head cut off.
Soon. I will do White Rabbit soon.
Ack.
What else happened this week? Hmm.
#thingsovershadowedbyJo'shaircut
I had a mate turn 21, and attended his 'disguise'-themed party as an elf-kind-of-thing. Because it's actually really confusing when you tell a cosplayer to come in disguise.
'But this is what I do all the time. How the heck am I supposed to be disguised?'
I kind of just threw together a whole bunch of things and it worked. And I got my hair under a wig. With only two hairpins, since I'd misplaced my box of the flipping things.
Appreciate that wigging it up is difficult when you have hair that you frequently and accidentally sit on, okay?
The birthday boy cut his hair, which is just...ack...yahhhhh what the heck?
Evidently, I still need to adjust. But he went from shoulder-length super-curly plus beard to a number 4 and no beard. It worked as a disguise though - he and one of his housemates wore full-face masks and each others clothing and rings, and it was only when I looked at the hands I went 'they're wrong.' and then there was the hair missing too.
Hopefully, this will only take a couple of weeks to get used to. There's another lad at unichurch who just shaved his long hair off too. I don't cope well with change. But haircuts are not something I get to dictate for other people. Okay. Let's talk about the next thing. SOMETHING I NOTICED ABOUT ARTISTS EARLIER THIS WEEK
Now, if you read this post, you'll get to see a bit of where I'm coming from with this bit of the post.
But in essence, the lecture for one of my theory subjects this week was on 'breaking down boundaries' or something. The lecture talked heavily about an exhibition called 'dOCUMENTA', which is like a giant art exhibition done by people who are artists and people who are not artists.
And there's some mediation for the artworks presented by the non-artists, but not much. Basically, there were artworks installed that were working things built by engineers or physicists or garden designers that had a function outside of being art, and we spent about half of the tutorial following with my classmates and the argument 'is what they're doing art?'
To which I present my argument:
You cannot say that art is open-minded and encapsulating of everything, and then decide that by 'open-minded' you actually mean 'something you can hang on a wall or put in a gallery'. The gallery bit in particular gets me. It's something that kind of cropped up with the Street Art argument - that people would remove street art from its environment and stick it in a gallery and then it's definitely 'art'? Nope. It's a paradox. I think in part it stems from an understanding of the subject, and understood aesthetics. An artist will appreciate art because it conforms to a certain set of aesthetics, but an engineer will use a completely different set of aesthetics to determine whether or not something is beautiful or functional; whatever. I think this issue has more to do with understanding the rules of the artwork. The art world saw it happen in the nineteen-tens, when abstract art first popped up - we were used to things looking like things, from before Modernism to Impressionism to Post-Impressionism, especially in the painting world. There was all these artworks that popped up, and all these people in the art world going 'what the heck is this stuff?' and now that we're a few years down the track, there's an established set of rules that the art world has learned in order to appreciate abstract art, and every art movement that followed. It's something I reckon that is like a secret handshake, or that thing that the guys on the bus used to do when I was in year 7 - playing 'Snap is the name of the game'; some kind of special code that only artists understand and feel cool about because they know that the rest of the world doesn't get it. And then someone explains Blue Shift to them and because they don't understand astrophysics, they say 'this cannot be art. I don't understand it.'
I didn't say all of this in the tute, but it's kind of what I feel and think.
Art is busy claiming that it's open, but the work that people actually see - the stuff in galleries - in fact is dictated by whether or not it's made by a 'professional artist', which means 'someone who is paid to create art'.
Which is kind of like saying that only professional photographers can take good photos, or professional drivers can drive properly.
I have friends who create art, and it's good art, but they don't receive payment for their works.
I have friends who can take amazing photos, but it's not necessarily a living. It's actually pretty hard to eke a living purely from taking photos.
This, to a degree, is why I have a difficult time, even in my own head, of classifying what I do as art, because costume serves a physical purpose beyond hanging in a gallery, and therefore only borderlines as art.
Just get the paradox sorted out, is my call. Otherwise you end up with this asterisk sitting at the end of your sentence, and it might be attached to something vitally important down the track.*
...
...This is rather abrupt, and rough, and probably ruffling-of-the-feathers. Apologies. I'm rambling. Because it's late, and I'm coming off the butt end of the caffiene high, and my teeth hurt, and a billion other excuses that equate to Tomorrow is Monday of week 11.
Okay. Bring it on. I've got things to do. Just let me sleep enough to function.
*which might affect how you practice art or get paid at all.
Bear with me guys, I've got an assessment for Directed Studies due tomorrow, and I was going to write it this weekend.
And then I got sick on Sunday. My head feels like a Cadbury Cream Egg, and I have no real desire to go to class this afternoon. Time to get stuff done.
So this is kind of like getting the assessment straight. It's a recap of where Breaking Down the Fourth Wall has been and where it's going. And somehow I need to jam it all into a five-minute speech with a power point.
Actually, consider this the extended edition. Hopefully it makes sense.
Overview: Breaking Down the Fourth Wall is presented in studio brief format, with physical pieces and extensive documentation and research. It's an investigation into costume design; particularly the niche culture of Cosplay, and presents theoretical and physical results.
Translation: Uni project about Cosplay. Finished product is a few cosplays with extensive documentation on concepts, theory and techniques.
Things about costume and Cosplay in particular that are interesting:
The idea of assuming an identity already determined and presented by someone else. The theory and implications of assuming identities of these pre-existing characters and how that relates to the self. (e.g. My fascination with the Hollow because it reminds me of my own shortcomings)
Meeting complete strangers and becoming buddies because you don't need to introduce yourself.
Is the output of Cosplay original?
Meanwhile, Brooke fills up the web browser with Anchor & Braille YouTube tabs and sneezes again.
The original plan for Breaking Down the Fourth Wall:
Was nuts. I'll go over the things that have changed, and then what's left.
Initially, I had three projects in mind, that would have an output of four costumes done at a professional level, plus work experience.
I dropped one of the projects, changed some dates on the schedule for other stuff, and have decided to do work experience next semester.
Sorry, Aerith. Some other thirty seconds.
The projects that are left are:
The Sequel Machine (Parts A and B)
This project looks at the idea of creating something from an already-established design. I mean, that's kind of the point of Cosplay, but explaining this with movies or on an industrial scale with someone who doesn't know about cosplay means you have to take a different route. Comic-book hero movies are a prime example of this, as well as sequels and reboots - you have an established design for the character. The challenge actually lies in satisfying the look and feel of the character without traipsing into unrealistic outfits or upsetting the pre-existing fanbase too much.
Part A of The Sequel Machine was taking a pre-existing costume and making it better (The Hollow) - similar to how a sequel looks compared to the original movie. Part B is redesigning and creating an outfit that I've made before, but remaking it entirely and doing it better (Which will be Sheik from the Zelda franchise).
First rendition
Sequel Machine. Photo credit: Travis Lin
The Beta Experiment Beta is a look into how pretty much every costume I make is a one-off. With the exceptions of the Weeping Angels, I've never made more than one of a costume, and never sorted them out for wide-scale production, partly because cost, partly because time. I guess there's also a mindset in there that wants the work to be individual, and progressing, which is why I don't usually revisit stuff often.
The Beta Experiment is my more intense unit - it'll be Agent Texas from the series Red vs. Blue. Better explained to those unfamiliar as armour from the Halo games (although it erks me a little whenever I explain that and they immediately go 'oh, Master Chief.' I know it's the only identification that they might have, but Master Chief is Jim's planned set. Tex is way cooler.)
Waaaaaay cooler,
I had planned to finish Beta much earlier in term, but it took longer than expected to get the patterns together. I'm hoping to have it finished in the next couple of weeks. I know that I can probably knock over the Sheik outft in a week or two, if I forgo sleep.
I guess the plan is to blog all of this - the techniques and conceptual journey at least, as well. With photos and stuff to allow everyone else to see what I'm doing.
Did I mention how amazing foam smells when you unwrap it? Only when it's fresh. Heat-sealing it is super-smelly business.
So that's kind of the overview done.
Where am I up to now?
Well, if you've not been up to date,
I've finished the work with the Hollow, and took it to a convention about a month ago to see how it compared to the rest of the stuff being competed. Didn't win anything, but still looked mad. Got covered in paint an already have a few more ideas in place to make it better next time (Invest in a morph suit, do the nails better, glass eyes for the mask)
The paper patterns for the Halo armour are about 90% done - I've got to finish the handplate and belt. I chopped up the shin this weekend and transferred it over to high-density foam, and have nearly cut it all out. I plan to do some more shaping with a knife, heatgun and soldering iron, and otherwise have to glue it into a 3D form with hot glue.
And I'm blogging like crazy. And I got sick yesterday.
Okay, you're pretty much up to date.
I had originally planned to take the finished Halo armour to Ironfest (which was not the weekend just past, but the one before). Since this didn't happen, I'm planning on taking it to Sydney Supanova, and every costume party I go to forever afterwards. Provided it isn't too hot.
See, the black suit business I got to go under the armour is a wetsuit. I'm planning to cut big vent holes in it, but am still a little worried about heat exhaustion. Still, I wanted a wetsuit, or neoprene for this. Could have gone with tights/skivvy or a morphsuit, but I particularly wanted something that would have the visual texture and feel of something that was supposed to be worn with one-tonne-space-marine-armour. And a wetsuit is kind of the closest you can get. Plus, they suck your gut in for you.
ANYWAY.
What else do I need to fill you/the lecture room in on for tomorrow?
Ah.
Because this is Fine Art, it always strengthens your point to include actual fine artists in the thing.
This is the work of a guy called Ricky Swallow
There are a few things you should know about this piece. It's called Killing Time, was made in 2003-2004, entirely by the artist (as opposed to guys like Jeff Koons and Daniel Hirsch, who employ minions), is life size, and was carved from one piece of wood.
Pick your jaw up off the floor and have a look at a few of his other works:
I had Swallow introduced to me because he creates all his stuff himself, makes stuff that is life size/to scale, and creates things that look like they should be made out of something else.
Seriously, when I was shown this work:
Come Together, 2002
My first thought was pretty much 'I wish to jump in that beanbag.'
My second thought was 'That is made out of wood and will not be soft. It is a lie of softness, like every time you used to jump on the demo beds at Spotlight.'
I was a terror at Spotlight as a small child.
But yeah. That beanbag, regardless of the skull that looks casually thrown in, as opposed to carved from the wood, is pretty much the same size and shape as one we had when I was a kid at Hannem Vale. It was this big black vinyl thing that Dad had, and would get sticky when you sat in it in summer. I think it was the place I used to hide under when we played hide and seek since it was so enormous. I got sat on more than once.
So yeah. Things that look like they're made out of other things.
And then I found one of the earlier sets of works that Ricky Swallow had done.
YAHHHHHHHH The book's in at uni grherksgnhouhn[aofrkgh ...you can see it later.
Basically, one of the first things that Swallow did that got his name out were these tape decks and hi-fi systems from the 70s and 80s, reproduced perfectly in cardboard.
Sounds a little familiar...
So yeah. There is a fine artist, making stuff that looks like it's made out of other stuff.
Which is kind of what I do with the costume business, since it's not cost-effective, time-effective or comfortable to make full space-marine armour out of legit materials/metal/whatever the Mjolnir armour is supposed to be made from. Not to mention I do not possess the crafting skills.
So costume is a kind of halfway thing. We figure out how to make paper look like bone, and foam to look like metal. It's fitting, since the idea of a costume is playing pretend anyway.
And then there's this Korean sculptor named Lee Bul, who does these mad-gnarly cyborg things that look like they're from a cyberpunk anime. It's the shapes that are interesting here, I think.
Lee Bul, Vanish (Purple White Cyborg Torso), 2001
There are others, but they're troublesome to find. I'll scan a couple in from the books.
Yeah. Like, these are cool artworks, and they're about the body and the cyborg and perfection and imperfection and they really just remind me that one day I want to do an Appleseed cosplay. Or maybe just build Briarios' head and have it sitting somewhere.
That doesn't sound like a half bad idea actually, aside from how creepy a disembodied head would be with glowing eyes in someone's apartment. I could talk to it though.
So yeah.
Now you know what I had planned, and where I'm going now, and what I'm doing, and where I'm up to, and also that there's fine artists that have done stuff that's similar to what I do.
Brilliant.
I've now got about an hour fifteen minutes before I have to be somewhere. SLEEPCOMEHERE. PICTURES, WHY YOU TAKE SO LONG TO FIND?
P.S. To my friends I see in everyday life. It means a lot when you mention that you read the blog. It says that you put time and effort into reading something I wrote, or that you found it engaging. This is not a note to remind people to say it more often, or to pressure people into feedback or whatever. It's just letting you know I appreciate it.
I was supposed to be working on Directed Studies last week, and blogging like a regular person, and then realised I had three assessments with a combined weighting of 100% due in five days. And had not really done any work on them. So the armour had the brakes applied, to my chagrin, and then it was a week later.
I guess one of the more exciting things I can say about this week is that I should be able to start with the foam soon. Like, next week soon. I may have been aiming to have the whole thing finished as of last week but hey. Better to do a good job than to do a quick-and-sloppy. Especially with the materials I'm using.
Just saying. Cutting corners is all very well, but if you're paying a stack for materials regardless, you may as well do a proper job of it.
So I have the belt and the handplate to finish, and then all of the paper is done. It's an exciting prospect.
See the breastplate? That's more than 12 hours worth of cutting, folding and gluing. I didn't actually believe the guide when it said it'd take about 300 hours to make.
I take that back. I'm fast with the construction, but not incredibly so.
What can I say to get back on topic?
Ironfest was last weekend, but I wasn't able to go. No time and no money, and 70% worth of assignments that I wasn't ready for on Monday. It bucketed rain in Newie, and my housemate was out, so I kind of shut myself in and worked. Jim got to go though, and enjoyed it.
But the 2013 program leaflet-booklet-thing had us in it. It was essentially this picture, taken by someone else, so it was from a different angle.
So yeah.
This week. And last week.
Wait, was it the weekend before?
Wibbly wobbly timey wimey.
I had to try and explain Cosplay to my Directed Studies supervisor, and we stumbled across a few different things that make a Costume Designer in Fine Arts make a little more sense.
See, most of my classmates make the standard kind of art. Photos, sculptures, paintings and drawings. Things that you can hang in an art gallery and actually sell. And there's stacks more to it than that, but it's the basics. They make stuff and it's good stuff and it's quantifiable and looks good and sells.
And I make costumes by shredding old pairs of pants and sewing them together differently.
Pictured: Watt Space's Open Show project 2012
I worked a straight week on this
and barely slept
Result: finished thing. Got nowhere in the comp though.
It's been an odd peeve, but in spite of my being in Fine Arts, I've not ever felt like the typified 'artist'.
Maybe it's because my outlook on life is different. Maybe it's because I cannot draw as well, or make typical art as well.
A note to the artists reading: I am aware that the art world is trying to gravitate towards non-traditional art. I am also aware that it's usually traditionally-presented art that actually generates an income, and accolades and awards and attention.
But yeah. Cosplay.
Miranda asked me if the Halo armour I was making was original.
But that's the odd thing about cosplay. It's something that is original and not at the same time. The design is established by someone else, and the idea is established by someone else, but you still have to figure out how to make the flipping thing work.
And what usually happens is you end up checking out how everyone else did it as well, or if anyone else has done what you plan to do. You find out from others whether or not things worked for them, and how to make things kind of work for you too. And then you contribute to the circle of life and tell the internet how you did it too.
I don't think cosplay would have worked as well in the world before social media or the internet. Manga and Anime and video games all existed, but less people would have thought about replication to the Nth degree and then going to a convention where everyone else was doing the same thing and interested in the same thing and been super friendly with complete strangers.
But I digress. Cosplay is odd because it's original and it's not.
And it's my art form, but it's not like traditional art.
I wouldn't naturally hang it in a gallery, as it's not traditional art. But the equivalent would be taking it to a convention - it gets to be seen and interacted with a bunch of people who are interested in it.
Will I actually put in in a gallery?
I'm planning to in first semester next year. And have a bunch of cosplays wandering around in the gallery space. Just because my art is not like that of my cohorts doesn't mean they shouldn't get to see it.
I'd be nice to actually have people from Fine Arts get to see my stuff as opposed to just being the shut in that I am.
..
What else can I cover in this post?
There was the last week. And my art is not like your art. Um.
I get to try and explain everything that I'm doing to the rest of my class next week. So this is kind of like a precursor to that. Biggest challenge with that is explaining everything that I'm doing forBreaking Down the Fourth Wall in five minutes.
Yeah, good luck.
It's actually my hope to have a timelapse of a paper pattern done before I'm finished with all of them. Can't tell yet whether that'll actually happen as I only have the handplate as something that isn't finished yet, and it's not the most amazing thing. Maybe we can have a timelapse of a transfer to foam?
Time will tell. I'm going to go get the next thing done.
I was going to title this blog post something intelligent, like 'progress for the Beta Experiement' or whatever, and then realised that there was a much more succinct way of expressing what was going on at the current time.
See, I'm still constructing the patterns for Tex, and Ironfest is not this weekend, but next.
I'm still to cut up the patterns, transfer them to foam, cut and shape the foam, construct the armour, paint the armour and modify the wetsuit I bought to wear under the armour.
I mean, last week it was all fine. I was on break, fighting the printer. Suddenly, I'm not sleeping properly and working entire days sticking paper together and hoping it will come together in time.
And my weekend's pretty much booked out.
Not sure what I'm doing at this stage. I think it's mostly just putting my head down and trying not to think about the deadline too much. Everything else is kind of on hold, and I really just want some sleep.
Now that I've whinged to the internet about current standings, let me give you a diagnostic on how things are at the moment:
I've completed the patterns for the forearm, shoulder, thigh, shin and head. I'm halfway through the boot, and have been saving the hand for later, since it's the smallest piece. I haven't started the belt or the breastplate. Started that yesterday.
"Oh. Hey, Lopez. How'd you get there?"
Dunno man, the chest piece just freaks me out. I know that there's like six pages of struts in there, but it was still a thirty-one page document. I'm going to die.
Let me walk you through how I make the paper armour, before I lose all sense and reason and find a corner of the library to curl up and cry/sleep in.
Uh, yeah. I'm writing from the uni library at the moment. So this post is being constructed and designed for photos, but all of those are at home. I'll have them up shortly. (Better now).
The process actually starts with a software program called Pepakura. It's a Japanese-designed program and can be downloaded for free. It's for papercraft - folding paper into 3D forms. Well, Pepakura and the files for the armour.
http://www.tamasoft.co.jp/pepakura-en/ If you want to get it.
Pepakura has a freeware version, and then just has the ability to save/export files disabled. So, I load the files into Pepakura, rescale them and rearrange them for printing.
It's important to address how I scale things at this stage.
...
See, your standard Spartan from the game Halo is something like seven foot tall. I am not seven foot tall, and had to scale the patterns so they'd fit. To accomplish this, I started with a turnaround.
A turnaround is an image of a character in a neutral pose, viewed from the front, back and side. One of these is generally used when showing the basics of a character or their outfit. They're used in gaming and a bunch of other things. I make them occasionally to make sure that I know what I'm doing with a costume. In the fashion industry, they're comparable to technical flats, which are the final drawings given to a pattern maker before they get to designing the thing.
I measured (In cm) how tall the turnaround was when printed out onto an A4 page, and then worked out the scale needed to match it up to my height. Then I applied that scale to the armour pictured in the turnaround. This meant that I could figure out a rough estimate on the maximum length (y-axis) of the armour pieces. I checked this by grabbing a ruler occasionally and making sure that yes, having a forearm piece that was 26cm long was going to work for me, and then rescaled the pattern pieces with this in mind.
It's a technique that is difficult for me to explain, but is really simple in application and use. I figured it out back in year 8 so I could make tiny medieval weapons to scale for a school assignment.
Anyway.
So, the patterns were rescaled, and then reshuffled to allow for printing, and then I proceeded to have a fight with every printer I could come into contact with. I solved this problem when I went home for the Easter break, and printed out the whole lot.
Then I got to work on the 3D bit.
I kept the individual documents separate, to avoid mixing up pages from different patterns, and things kind of went like this:
1. Cut piece from pattern sheet
2. Fold all lines on piece
3. Glue down any tabs that stick to the single piece
4. Pick a couple numbers (usually ones next to each other) on the piece and go look through the document for ones that correspond. Or stick the piece to the main body, if it wasn't the first piece to be cut out.
5. Consult your sulking fish.
I learned a couple of things along the way that actually made things a lot more livable.
1. Only cut out a many pieces as you can manage at one time (One most of the time. Two if the second piece was also visible and immediately stuck to the first piece)
2. Try and just build the individual pieces onto one form. If you can help it, you want to avoid multiple pieces floating around that you have to work on.
3. Scan for a couple of numbers as opposed to just one. Don't focus too heavily on the individual numbers; speed read the pages. Two-digit numbers are actually the easiest as most of the patterns have at least a few hundred glue tabs (The breastplate, for the record, has over 1400. TT.TT )
So, I start sticking things together, and usually have headphones in. In spite of the tediousness of the folding, and the enormity of the project, it's actually kind of meditative to do it. Cut, fold, stick, press. Snicker at whatever is going on with the podcast I'm listening to and keep going.
Probably the most rewarding part of the process, aside from actually having a finished item in your hand, is the point where you suddenly recognise what part of the armour you're working on. So, you might have a vague idea of where you're starting from, but there comes a point further down the track where the spatial reasoning part of your brain remembers what it is you are constructing and you get to see it. And that is actually my favourite part of any costume-making process. Getting to see what the final thing will actually end up looking like while it's still in the process of being made. Progress and stuff.
Ugh. What was it? I had something in mind that was also about the process, and now I can't remember what it was. This is going to drive me nuts.
Well, at least for the next little bit. It's 1:22 AM because I got back from a bible study thing at 10:30 and had drive, so kept working on things.
GAH. COME ON, Brain. Get it together.
Oh. Do you know how satisfying it is to finish punching all the pieces of a pattern out of one sheet of the document? Because, like I mentioned earlier, the breastplate is 31 pages of document, and when I finish chopping out all the pieces in one page, it's an amazing feeling. That's one less page I do not have to scan when I'm looking for the next piece.
BOO YEAH!
THAT WAS WHAT I'D FORGOTTEN!
As you progress through a piece, eventually you get to be able to see what chunk you need next. The search field is able to be narrowed as you scan for something that's vaguely triangle-shaped and things become a lot easier to find.
...
I'm realising, as this is being written over three separate sessions, that there's a lot of things I type in that are often made redundant. I leave these in because it makes things more entertaining. I think? If it doesn't, you need to let me know.
This segue is kind of important, because I realised something important and a little sad over the last three days.
We had a crew of four coming to Ironfest. And then two of them had to drop out, because being a uni student with a job often means you have to work weekends. One of those folks is the spearhead of this trepidation. So, that's kind of put a lid on whether we can or can't go to Ironfest.
I'm a bit sad about this, since the costumes we took last year were popular enough to warrant bringing back this year, and fit the title perfectly. Plus, you know, I spent weeks at the beginning of the year telling everyone how I was going to make Halo armour to take to Ironfest (so I couldn't chicken out), and now I can't go.
But in all honesty, it's probably a little bit helpful. The pace I'd have to get this sucker done at is faster than I can manage (and I usually make stuff at a pretty fast pace anyway), and I can't afford to go. Probably better to save time and money and sanity and take this to Supanova or something.
I dunno. Is it cold at Supanova? I'm going to be wearing a modified wetsuit under the armour and I don't want to get heat exhaustion.
And somehow, I know that this is all justification. Trying to make feel better about backing out of something I said I'd do, and I hate having to do that.
That said, I'm not going to be slowing down on the costume a whole lot. I still have one more for Directed Studies to make, and it's going to be a big procrastination tool otherwise. Generally, if I have a thing to do that will cause procrastination, the best outcome is to bury myself in it and get it over and done with.
It usually results in withdrawals, but hey. I need to get this project finished.
Group photo progress shot.
I guess one of the other, on-the-side advantages to giving myself a little more time to finish the Beta Experiment is that I won't be worn out when it's finished and at the convention. Being worn out can be a problem. The upside is that I might even have enough time to train a little, so I can at least partially sell the movements of the character.
Anyone feel like teaching me a bit of MMA before Supanova?
So last night I was keyboard punching away at the blog, and explaining to Mum about how I'd pretty much hijacked it for the purposes of Directed Studies, and then she advised that I 'make sure you're not alienating your original audience'.
I'm not too sure of the demographics of my original audience, but I do know that the last two months, the posts have pretty much been Costumes. This one is a little different, because I was then like 'what do I actually post about? Like, just adventures and stuff. Thoughts about things.
For reasons I can't fathom, the post with the most hits is the one I wrote at the start of 2011 about binary dates.
And then I thought of something else that an opinion can be given on, that can be presented in blog format.
No, it's not my argument about a second season of Firefly. It's the rise of the Hashtag.
I believe it started with Twitter. And then Tumblr, and then Instagram. So, a bunch of social-media websites where the amount of space for a post was limited somewhat.
And it does have a purpose with this I guess. They're useful to the rest of us in classifying the nature of the post.
So, I go looking for a gif of, say, Gavin Free's (from Rooster Teeth) reaction to having soggy bread slapped on his desk (running outside and falling over like a ragdoll). (It was part of an RTLife video they uploaded to youtube last week or something.) I search the tags for 'Gavin Free'.
Boom. Gif file found.
So, when used as a method of searching, tags are pretty useful. Provided your social media platform allows for that kind of filing.
And then Twitter and Instagram.
I mean, tags are useful for filing with these platforms as well, but they're also used to express emotion or thoughts. And this is kind of useful too. It can give context to something that otherwise would make no sense.
I mean, I could tweet something like
"Pleats, you are my joy and my pain."
And that, with no context, makes no sense. But you only get a limited amount of space for explaining what you're doing with your day.
So I add hashtags for relevance.
"Pleats, you are my joy and my pain. #cosplayerproblems #hakama"
Now you know that the box pleats have something to do with whatever kind of cosplay I'm making. because I've added the hashtag for hakama, you can probably guess that it has something to do with the giant pleated pants that are dated to Edo-period Japan and used for Kendo, Akido and various cosplays.
But seriously. I tend to make these things out of cotton drill, which is a medium-heavy weight fabric but creases like you wouldn't believe. And there's a lot of fabric in those pants. They totally are joy and pain.
So.
Hashtags when used for filing and searching are useful.
Hashtags for providing snippets of context are useful.
Why to a lot of people hate them then?
I have a couple of guesses.
For starters, they don't use the typical grammar conventions that we would otherwise use in everyday life. We don't use hashtags in speech (often. You can hear them sometimes when people sum things up really quickly). We don't use hashtags in prose.
It's something that has a time and a place to be, and that time and place is not always 'here' and 'now'.
Back in the days when phones had a keypad and could be kicked over buildings, reassembled, and suffer no harm, text message speech was a lot more common.
U instead of 'You'
R instead of 'Are'
And so on. Some made sense when read out loud. Some just made you sound silly. I will never, ever write 'sorry' as 'soz' ever again, for example.
Why is that?
Well, if I'm apologising for something, I need to mean it. Writing 'soz' isn't the best way to meaningfully apologise to anyone. 'Soz' says 'I need to say 'sorry' but it's too much time and effort to actually put in the two extra characters, so I'll leave it at that.'
Fair go, text message space was limited. But we don't use the language conventions as much now because we have access to fancy things like qwerty keyboards and autocorrect. I remember a time in school when we were lectured on needing to use proper English conventions in exams and essays and that's because there is a time and a place for text message speech.
And it is not on a place like the internet. Not any more. Comments box; facebook status; blog post. We're a culture and society that directly associates proper grammar conventions and spelling with the intelligence of a person.
This is a little unfair at times. But it's how things are.
So where does the hashtag belong then?
It's a useful device for short summations, context and filing.
It's less helpful when you have someone post a hashtag on a place that has no use for it.
e.g. Facebook.
I mean, we can still use it for conveying emotions or giving context. But the posting space isn't as limited. It's a little like using text message language in the world of qwerty keyboards, autocorrect and larger message sizes.
I can see the point of them, but I also have mixed feelings about them. About using them profusely on platforms that have little-to-no use for them, where they don't fit with the grammar conventions.
I mean, "#timeforabreak #timeforanintervention #justwaituntiltheyactuallyaddhashtagingtofacebooktheniwillbeunstoppable"?
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