December Monthly Summary

December has been a month fraught with political uproar and tension. With the inauguration of presidential candidate Donald Trump looming ever closer, I feel that the majority of what I've recorded in my critical journal this month demonstrates the beginnings of a battle against the system in the hearts and minds of the people.

There's been a general feeling of dissatisfaction about the events of 2016 and there's definitely been a general consensus on social media that there are bigger hopes for the next year than there have been for this one. It's this optimism which defined 'Fear & Love: Reactions to a Complex World', an exhibition which I visited this month at the Design Museum, London. The exhibition explored the way that humanity's fears - in the form of robots and technology, pollution, mental health, political upheaval and consumerism - are intertwined within our cultures. The exhibition provided an alternative way of thinking which provided optimism in anxious times. In addition, the Pantone colour of the year was announced in a shade of green said to represent new life, growth and revitalisation and a media post was shared around Twitter which displayed artwork that conveys the significance of child refugees in such hostile times. I took a lot of positivity from this month's posts which I think is a social response to the recurring uncertainty and anxiety about the future.

Amazon has been making seriously impressive headway in the field of e-commerce this month, introducing virtual reality, facial recognition and drone technology into their strategy. In consideration of what I saw at the Fear & Love exhibition, amongst fears of technology causing job loss and replacing humans, I feel that these advancements do offer some positive consequences in light of the 'Mimus' installation and meaning. The installation recognised the interactive relationship that technology could have with humanity.

Fear & Love: Reactions to a Complex World at the Design Museum

The Fear & Love exhibition at the Design Museum, Kensington, was one of the more memorable exhibitions I have visited. Linked only quite obscurely to fashion, it emphasised a more abstract relationship that humanity has with sociological and economically events around the world. The shell of the Design Museum itself was impressive: architecturally unique, bright and spacious. I really enjoyed browsing around the free admission gallery space in addition to the exhibition too, which had some interesting conceptual ideas and inventions.

There was a large-scale neon flashing sign as I entered, which immediately gave me the impression that the content of the exhibition would be largely based around technology, given what background knowledge I also had of it from my independent, prior research. In hindsight, it also reminds me of the connection between love and fear which ultimately epitomised the exhibition. The structure of the exhibition wasn't especially rigid - one large room was divided up into a number of different installations which meant that I was able to dart to and from the ones that particularly held my interest. I was immediately drawn to 'Mimus', a giant industrial robot, confined to a glass case with the ability to sense the audience's presence and follow them around the room. The descriptive text to support the installation reads: "Ordinarily, robots such as this one are used to do highly repetitive tasks on a production line. But [Madeleine] Gannon" - the installation curator - "has reprogrammed Mimus - named for its ability to mimic - so that it can seem somewhat sentient, and interact with us." The exhibition as a whole was extremely interactive but this installation in particular created a narrative around interaction which explored humanity's fears about robots and technology 'taking over' or becoming a danger to our race.

A second installation which really interested me was 'The Pan-European Living Room'. In the process of putting together the exhibition, the UK voted in a referendum to leave the EU and so the curators decided to make a statement in support of the Remain party with this installation. This imitation living room is furnished with 28 pieces from the 28 EU member states which combined, create a really meaningful and symbolic setting. It's interesting to be able to recognise the unity of the EU in such a visual dynamic and I found it really overwhelming to see the impact of the referendum vote demonstrated on each country and their cultures.

I enjoyed an installation which consisted of a dome-shaped passage, housing a number of screens all around the room playing a series of short films about different aspects of online love on gay dating app Grindr. The room was dark and lit only by the screens, which you could view by sharing a seat with others on a large, soft-furnished, circular stool. While sitting inside the installation, I noticed how many people were reluctant to fully immerse themselves in it so instead stood in the archway and thought about how this in itself really epitomised what the installation was trying to portray - the fear of love, the stigma, the danger - of love, of homosexuality in a world of volatility and of the online sphere. Another installation which caught my eye - being the most colourful in the room - was 'Fibre Market' which narrated a critique of our fast fashion consumption habits and a proposal for a more sustainable future. This demonstrates our conflict in western culture between the love of clothing and the ownership of masses of 'things' and the fear of destroying our world or running out of what we rely on. Again, the loud visual nature of the installation was quite emotionally striking. To see a room full of large mounds of wool was a clear reminder of what it really takes from the world's resources for us each to simply own and wear a jumper.

I found that the exhibition was incredibly ambitious and handled a variety of huge, thoughtful topics which made me stop and consider during my visit to and afterwards. The issues which the exhibition explored were all very current and I feel that it is important for the sake of history that they are recorded in art-form for us to reflect and consider for a long time to come - so that we may learn from our past anxieties and take inspiration from our optimism.

The exhibition will be housed at the Design Museum, Kensington High Street, London from 24th November 2016 - 23rd April 2017.

Justin McGuirk, 28th December 2016, Design Museum, London

Colour of the Year 2017

I was interested to hear about Pantone's announcement of the 'colour of 2017'. I'd never heard about this before so I did some research into previous colours as I was intrigued to see how the colour reflected the hopes, perceptions and trends of the year! I think the symbolism of green to represent new life, growth and revitalisation definitely represents the general consensus of the nation to take a positive approach to the next year ahead, given the political tensions and changes that have taken place this year.

After the UK economy crashed into recession in 2008, the colour of the year 2009 was declared to be 'Mimosa', a bright shade of yellow which was described as 'expressing hope and reassurance in a climate of change' which certainly suggests the importance of colour and in turn, fashion and the arts, in representing societal changes.

2016, a year synonymous with controversy and political upheaval, was associated with the colours 'rose quartz and serenity'. The colours denote mindfulness and calmness which is definitely an interesting juxtaposition to the way that events unfolded in such a mass-media frenzy. It's interesting that trend forecasters likely anticipated the high-intensity of emotions due in 2016 and this factor may have lead to the selection of the colour.




http://www.pantone.com/color-of-the-year-2017
http://www.pantone.com/color-of-the-year-2016
http://www.pantone.com/color-of-the-year-2009

The Reason Art Exists

I came across a post shared on Twitter about the work of Karen Apps (karenapps.com) which attempts to quantify the number of child refugees known to be unaccompanied and missing in Europe. The post was captioned 'the reason art exists' which reminded me about my AS studies of Philosophy and a module I learnt about which investigated our primitive need and reasoning as human beings for art, cinema and literature.

instagram @artistkarenapps

You can view the post here:
https://twitter.com/HJJJohnson/status/810139305666547712

Fundamentally and intrinsically, we are said to value art because it "informs us of reality" in a factual, moral or spiritual way. This prompted me to think about the way that fashion as an art form can present us with different ideas about the world around us, making us question our attitudes towards things and how this simple fact makes fashion significantly important to the world around us.

Earlier this week, I saw a television news report about a recent study which may have discovered a connection between dementia and art. The study was carried out by psychologist Alex Forsythe and compared "more than two thousand works by seven famous artists", finding tiny changes in those patterns. The brushstrokes and fractal patterns of artists known or suspected to suffer with neurological diseases changed throughout their lifetime.

As a result, this lead me to consider the significance of fashion in our lives as an intrinsic value. Last year during my History and Contemporary Context module, I explored the idea of luxury fashion. If clothes are a necessity, 'fashion' could be considered a luxury. Fundamentally however, I would consider the foundations of fashion to be about art and artistic expression. The word 'art' can be defined as "the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form", which on a basic level, certainly characterises the notion of fashion.

• Baggini, J. & Southwell, G. (2002). Philosophy: Key Themes. UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Hughes, D. (2016, December 29). Art may reveal early signs of dementia. BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38414104.
• Oxford English Dictionary https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/art

Amazon's Ambitious Advancements

Amazon has had my attention for the past few weeks as they've been making exceptional headway in the advancements of technology and e-commerce. It intrigues me so much to see how these advancements will shape the way we shop and work and live in the not-so-distant-future. 

The most recent announcement has been of an entirely self-serve grocery store which charges payments to customer's account automatically. I searched back to find the first mention of the new system in an article from Mashable in March 2016 (http://mashable.com/2016/03/14/amazon-selfie-payment/#mnLJBBYcJmqn) which speculates about the release of a patent that describes using facial recognition to act as a more efficient password than key codes and series' of letters, digits and special characters. 

The Guardian has since covered the official release of this exciting new concept by first giving insight into the initial show-store near the Seattle Amazon headquarters, describing the sensors used which record what a customer has picked up to purchase and suggested from insider leaked reports that up to 2000 of the same 'Amazon Go' stores could open across America. A few days later, The Guardian released a more informed article of the Amazon Go systems - now serving to provide informed information rather than rushing to break the headline first. The second article informed that plans will be going ahead to introduce the stores to the UK and then presents a worrying argument about the potential job losses that this turn of events could bring. The idea of technology replacing humanity is an interesting concept which, from what I know of my research, will be a present theme in an upcoming exhibition which I intend to visit and document here in my critical journal.

Just yesterday, Amazon made their first commercial drone delivery to a customer in rural UK. Given recent news, the fuss and uproar over the use of drones in retail now seems quite unnecessary as Amazon are seemingly not slowing down in their plans to totally transform our shopping experiences. I wonder whether these technologies will branch out into fashion retail specifically? Will Asos soon be delivering our next-day deliveries via drone? Will we be making returns via drone collection? 

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Unbelievably, just a couple of weeks after writing this post, it has been announced that Amazon are also investigating the use of self-driving cars in competition with Tesla and Google. Again, this adds another interesting layer of development to the future of retail which I worry could be significantly detrimental in some instances.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/dec/05/amazon-go-store-seattle-checkouts-account
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/dec/09/amazon-go-stores-uk-trademark-us

http://mashable.com/2016/03/14/amazon-selfie-payment/#mnLJBBYcJmqn

https://inews.co.uk/essentials/news/technology/patent-reveals-amazons-self-driving-car-ambitions/

Finding 'Brand Me'

A large part of my 'Brand Me' portfolio for Fashion Industry 2 meant figuring out a personal style which could be cohesive across my work and representative of my personality. I headed first to Pinterest, the holy grail of inspiration, to get some ideas of my own personal 'aesthetic'. Charlie stressed that even 6 months from now, we could look back at our portfolios and feel like it no longer represents us so I tried not to be too daunted about the task by just choosing what fit naturally and instinctively with me. I really like cursive, modern calligraphy typography. I was drawn to interiors, reflected through what my eye was drawn to online and in my own bedroom. 

Here are some secondary images that influenced my 'brand':

 







Metallic
Bright
Inspiring 
Sparse
Pastel
Exposed
Spacious







I love my bedroom interior and I think it's a really good representation of my personality as I never really set out with a distinct theme - rather, I picked out what I liked and disliked. 

Here are some primary images which inspired me:

My final CV was clearly inspired by my development process and I'm glad that my personality/personal style shines through as this one page needs to communicate a lot to potential employers in a very small amount of time. This is what my final CV submission looks like and I'll be sending it out my dream  placement positions in the coming weeks/months:

https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/245375879673734683/
https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/AQHvskG5eox1gjsaq2EINNxNP-4Vk1ToBW5bBde9FlIf1a8JdsaV-0Q/
https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/557601997597152474/
https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/105060603783492539/