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Saturday 17th May Burrastow
House
Exploring new ideas - inputs,
interactions |
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CG: At breakfast with Gordon (Burnett),
Frankie (Geesin) and Heather (Delday). Frankie suggests the idea
of ‘cut outs’ – the
negative shape of a jumper through which all kinds of imagery can
be framed.
The first session is Frankie Geesin showing examples
of and demonstrating new fibres and metallising processes. This
is very exciting, especially
the fabric that can be ‘played’! Do different stitches
create different sounds? Everyone sees some possibilities. Frankie
is so modest and generous even though she has worked with some
of the world’s best. She is a real catalyst and everyone
is inspired.
SB: This
is a good session and Frankie inspires people but I am conscious
we don’t have the materials (or similar)
to follow up people’s enthusiasm to be able to work with
the industrial materials that Frankie has discovered. I can
think about how to
get round this for future developments when we see if anyone
is seriously interested. Some serious research on interactive
textiles
with the knitters and lace makers could well be done here in
future, perhaps in collaboration with an industry partner already
engaged
in the technical aspects of this kind of research.
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Session Talking about possible
ideas to explore |
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CG: Other ideas emerge concerning
seams, joining things, seamless-ness, stretching, flexibility,
non-functional knitting.
Most of us have only very tentative ideas and do not much
to say at this point.
SB: People
are getting used to the idea of not doing what they know
how to do, but being deprived
of knitting needles
(deliberate) is too much for Hazel (Hughson) who goes to
get some for her experiments. I like the range of tentative
ideas emerging and feel OK about the discomfort for some
about the lack of a didactic structure at this stage. I
wonder if I should have said more, however, at the beginning,
about
how uncomfortable the lack of ‘instruction’ can
be for some people. |
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Carole's informal discussions with
knitters |
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CG: Margaret
(Hamilton), who owns the knitwear shop, ‘Fibres’,
in Lerwick, and Hazel Hughson, who is the indigenous crafts
officer for Shetland, rarely have the opportunity to meet.
They live relatively close to each other but have different
work ⁄ life routines. The Lab has reinforced their
working relationships. They comment that the Lab is an opportunity
to take valuable time to think and experiment – rare
because of their business/employment and dispersed locations.
Mary
(Thomson) is really enjoying the Lab! She talks about being
creative, and about failures being valuable. She talks
about some people as being ‘mayflies’ who just
skate safely over the surface of things. She’s interested
in ‘diving in’, in “breaking through
the tensile surface of life”.
SB: Although everyone
is uncertain of what direction they will take they are
all ‘game’ for what this is
about and begin experimenting with the materials we have.
Ideas are beginning to shape groups and affinities between
people are beginning to happen. |
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Heather's informal discussions |
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Heather Delday (HD): I spoke
with Norma who is very knowledgeable technically i.e. explains
and sketches how
knitting machines work and how it might be possible to do ‘blisters’ (similar
to pockets). She strikes me as a quiet person.
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Activity Session |
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HD: Everyone
is making, capturing, collaborating. Everyone just gets stuck
in! Possible collaborations are
forming between Gordon,
Mary (T), Margaret and Steph; between myself and Susan, and between
Hazel and Carole.
Using Frankie’s idea of ‘jumper’ frame,
a space the shape of a jumper cut out in a piece of card, we make
a series
of texture studies. We try two different cut outs and take lots
of images around and about Burrastow and the Lab activities. |
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Luggage labels as Evaluation
tool |
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CG: Heather
has a great idea of eliciting some key feedback. She asks everyone
to write on a luggage
label each day about something
significant. We will attach these to Heather’s blanket – by
the end of the week we should have an 'evaluation sheet (or
blanket)'!
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Sharing practice session |
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CG: Christine's
(Arnold) work connects in some interesting ways with the
knitters e.g. Hazel and
her
work on the history of
Shetland textiles.
SB: People’s
tensions and uncertainties are subsumed by activities now.
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