Le Pavillon d’Amide jacket was the object which I found most easy to describe and engage with during our analogue and digital object-based learning task. There was a familiarity and a pleasure in the aesthetic as I deconstructed the fabrics and materials. I enjoyed this session and our group and cross cohort discussions.
Notably I believe it is important for textile Design students to have object-based learning with linked up visits to Art Galleries and Museums embedded within their course structure ensuring students have the opportunity to interrogate objects for information about composition, techniques and materials and position these within cultural and contemporary design contexts.
For example, I have previously taken textile design students to Museum archives for inspiration for a ‘disruptive pattern material’ project brief exploring examples of camouflage within the Museum archive ranging from natural camouflage ‘protective colouration’, often cited as evidence of the theory of evolution to tweed, the original hunting camouflage, produced in various colours and designs according to seasonal hues of the local countryside.
Significantly through textile focused critical studies semiotics seminars I was able to discuss the relationship of signs and symbols and their interpretation within disruptive patterns using examples such American designer Adelle Lutz’s unconventional materials and strategies exploring clothing as a communicative medium for the surreal “Urban Camouflage” costumes featured in David Byrne’s film True Stories (1986). Lutz has explored the idea of clothing as a simultaneous mechanism of concealment and revelation, beginning with the notion of dress as the most superficial construction and representation of identity.
Following our seminar on object-based learning in art and design, I became interested in Laird’s paper on experiential and object-based learning in nature. Laird states that nature “is the context for our original cultural heritage and offers infinite possibilities for object interaction and evocation” (Chaterjee, H, 2021, p. 166). I have previously explored foraged ‘waste’ materials in natural dye workshops with students. However, I am keen to revisit how to position different approaches to object-based learning within future taught sessions acknowledging that textile traditions “offer us a way to re-establish physical and cultural connections” (Hemmings 2006) with the natural world working towards improved sustainability.
Byrne, D. (1986) True Stories [Film]. Warner Bros. United States.
Chaterjee, H (editor). and Kador, T (editor). (2021) Object-based learning and well-being: exploring material connections. Routledge. London.
Hemmings, J. (2006) Sense of Identity: Contemporary Scottish Textiles. [Online] [Accessed 15 March 2022] Available at: http://www.jessicahemmings.com/sense-of-identity/