P R O P O S A L

Key Questions:

1. Why participate in the first place?
2. Are we only truly naked when we are unable to see the reactions of the individuals we are seen by?
3. If an individual is naked are they not still dressed in their 'self'?

What is your project about/ what are you researching?

"Fashion and clothing are in the business of dressing something up as something else, they take the body and disguise it or present it as something that it is not. Fashion and clothing may be used to mislead to make people respond in ways that they would not or should not"

It is this claim; that fashion and clothing impose meanings on a raw material that either does not originally have any meaning or which has a sort of natural meaning and that through the act of dress we are in a way engaging in a form of participatory or performance art that i aim to explore.

Participation - from the Latin participare (to participate), derived from pars (part) and the root capere (to take).

Participatory art is described as 'situations created by the artist that involve members of the audience as participants or even partners inthe art-making process. Whilst taking into consideration the social systems within which the public engage with art. In a sense, a designer is an artist creating a product in response to a social system or community. And in essence the consumer or target market the audience invited to participate by wearing and get involved and alter through styling or accessorising.

'Artists must recognise that people, as an entity, are the only true artists: "Not ye wise men, therefore, are the true inventors, but the Folk; for want it was that drove it to invention. All great inventions are the People's deed; Whereas the devisings of the intellect are but the exploitations, the derivatives, nay, the splinterings and disfigurements of the great inventions of the Folk." Richard Wagner

Is clothing an aesthetic object separate from the body it encases or does it protect and enhance the human form? A central concern is not only the clothes that cover our bodies but the bodies we recover under our clothes?

If an individual is naked are they not still dressed in them selves - the language they use, the posture they assume, their belongings, their shell.
Our skin - we tan, cover, expose, make-up, tattoo, pierce.
Our hair - we grow, cut, style or colour.
Our nails - we grow, cut, paint and decorate.If one was to be undressed, but still 'wearing' these extensions of self are we not still packaging ourselves in the same way as we do when we wear clothes?

Goffman says "Clothing comes to share in the work of ambivalence management as much as does any other self-communicative device at our disposal: our voices, body postures, and facial expressions and the material objects we surround ourselves with" (1959)

The psychological theory of The Looking Glass Self, a notion brought to light by sociologist Charles Horton Cooley examines the idea that an individual and society or environment do not exist as two separate entities, but rather one is the product of the other. There are three parts to the concept;

• How the individual thinks others perceive them
• How the individual thinks others judge that perception
• and The reaction of the individual to those perceptions and judgements.

The theory points out that we are simply products of our cultures, our physical surroundings and the human beings with which we associate and interact with.

Are we then only truly naked when we are unable to see the reactions of the individuals we are seen by?

The practice of participatory are cannot be discussed within today's society without taking into consideration the free sharing of content epitomised by online communities such as Wikipedia, Facebook, Youtube and Blogging. All such forms of social networking have radically altered the ways in which we relate to each other - not only online, but also as a society.

These online forums also act as mediums through which we can 'dress' or express ourselves without feeling or viewing the perceptions of others.

Another branch of participatory art i wish to explore is the inclination toward collaborative practice, in order to achieve my outcomes with the highest possible standard i will be working alongside individuals possessing skills in areas i wish to use and don't feel i could execute effectively on my own.

P O S T M O D E R N M I C H A E L

"Michael Jackson was the penultimate post-modern artist; the permanent impression of a person being able to transform race, gender, age, and identity with the use of mass media is an artform. Like a human collage Michael had a tiny doll nose, pretty pink lips, fawn eyes, opalescent skin, Liz Taylor hair and Kirk Douglas jaw line. Only in our futuristic present are people able to transform their physical being to match their internal identity, anyone can change their look, even in the slums of Brazil breast augmentation is big business. Michael Jackson was a true visionary who understood the synergy of image, performance and marketing to penetrate the minds of people even to the farthest corners of Earth."

B O D Y P A R T S

It is clear to me now that the feeling of being dressed transends any fabric construction made to interact with particular parts of the human form. It's just as much mental as physical and the way in which we express this feeling through physical things is in the environments we inhabit and the things with which we surround ourselves with.

B R E A S T T O P

P A C K A G I N G T H E S E L F

Hannah Beth Raisin

When external environment is removed is clothing an aesthetic object separate from the body it encases or does it protect and enhance the human form? A central concern is not only the clothes that cover our bodies but the bodies we recover under our clothes? are we not still dressed in our bodies, In the way we speak, walk, hold ourselves, our hair, skin and nails. If one was to be undressed, but still 'wearing' these extensions of self are we not still packaging ourselves in the same way as we do when we wear clothes?

Phillip Toledano (2004)

Michael Burton

E X T E N T I O N O F S E L F

Nagi Noda, 'Hair Hats'

Julie Rrap 'Body Double' (2007)

If an individual is naked are they not still dressed in their body – the language they use, the posture they assume, their belongings, their skin – we tan, cover, expose, coat in make up, our hair – we grow, cut, style or colour, our nails we grow, cut, paint and decorate? If one was to wear only these extensions of self are we still not packaging ourselves in the same was as we do when we wear clothes?

C L O S I N G T H E G A P

By extending the reach of the body we get a little closer to the environment we inhabit

T I F F A N Y P A R B S

Tiffany Parbs’ cosmetic explores just such a gap utilising the medium of jewellery. This new body of work problematises the surgical processes that would purport to erase dermatological traces of time and history. Parbs uses her own body to stretch the boundaries of what we know and understand as ‘jewellery’ as well as ‘skin’.

This understanding of the skin as a complex enfolding of time and space is further reiterated in “bake”, where the word “RAW” has been burnt into the delicate region of the décolletage.(2) “bake” appropriates the body as if it were a flat surface, using the skin as a photographic membrane and deliberately exposing it to the stain of the sun.

Here adornment figures as a crafting of the self; ‘jewellery’ fashioned from the biological matter of the very skin which is its ground. Again it is the secondary mediation of the photograph (itself a type of ‘skin’ (3)), which so effectively re-marks the seamlessness of cosmetic processes. With “bake” we are forced to reconsider the permanency of surgery, the cultural impulse to nullify the complexity of time.

Rendered photographically, the work developed as part of cosmetic imbricates the conventions of jewellery with photography, marrying the material with the conceptual, the cultural with the political. Crucially, Parbs has developed a unique dialogue between craft methodologies, apt to amplify our relationship to the skin of our own bodies.

L E A T H E R H A I R A N D F E A T H E R S

As a result, I opted to create these ‘garments’ using alternative materials. I made lashes from horse hair, pubic hair from emu feathers and nipples out of leather and studs However, the tangible outcomes existed so separately from any of the psychology behind this ‘feeling’ of being dressed. When viewed separately from any individual they had little to no effect on the viewer, which then posed the question of; whether ‘wearing’ something was purely dependent on the distance it was positioned from the wearer.

T H E P E R F E C T H U M A N

M I C H A E L B U R T O N

Michael Burton 'The Race' (2006-2007)

Through 'The Race', Michael Burton explores the possible implications of the sterile world within which we now live. Through his pieces he suggests that possible new alterations to the human body - the process of mutation, natural selection and genetic engineering could one day lead to manipulations to the human body.

Fingernail growth could be engineered to increase the surface area where bacteria can thrive. Nail biting would be encouraged as a means of consumption in order to boost immunity and as a result; health and wellbeing.

O L I V I E R G O U L E T

Olivier Goulet, 'Skin Bag' (2008)

SkinBag creates seamless, realistic-looking yet fake, human skin that is worn like a catsuit. SkinBag is the creation of Olivier Goulet, a French artist who makes clothes, accessories, shoes and more out of the single pieces of organic, synthetic material that not only looks like skin, but feels like flesh too.

The clothes and accessories first draw attention for their unique, albeit creepy, look and then repulse when their intended resemblance to human skin is noted, then attract once again when it is realized that they are indeed crafted from synthetic materials.

And that is precisely the desired effect behind Goulet’s enterprise: to create a shock to the system and to make us question our relationship to ourselves.

What happens when we abolish surfaces? The cosmetic industry represent the skin as something which has only two dimensions, it is a surface for inscription. What is the third dimension hidden beneath the smooth surface? What does the interface become, if we leave behind the traditional man-machine mechanisms?

D R E S S E D I N T H E S H A D O W S

‘Kiki posing nude among the ferns and grass, with the shadow of the fern against her arm like a bracelet above the elbow’

‘Entirely different in feeling is the image of Kiki posed in one of the frames for Retour a la raison, her bare torso striped with the refection from the curtain by the window’

‘what man ray created was more than style – it was a whole erotics of representation, in which the observer is involved in his associations, isolations and impositions, he not only iconises the subject, but refashions seeing itself.'

Benstock, S, Ferriss, S(ed.) 1994, On Fashion, Rutgers, USA.

S Y M B I O T I C A V I S I T

My initial thought was to create a series of garments, which functioned as an extension of self: long thick eyelashes, conventional garments made from skin and gloves and shoes from fingernails. I went to visit the team at Symbotica at the University of Western Australia to discuss my concept and it was made quite clear that in order to physically manufacture human tissue a sterile and fully equipped lab would be required.

S Y M B I O T I C A

We inhabit three containers: skin, clothing and buildings. We configure the design of our dress and shelter – we cut our coat to suit our cloth - but we are born in our skin.
In essence, skin grows and changes with the individual, deciding how the garment will ‘grow’ depending on the growth of the wearer.


“An artistic laboratory dedicated to the research, learning and critique of life sciences”

SymbioticA is an artistic laboratory within the School of Anatomy and Human Biology at The University of Western Australia. It is dedicated to the research, learning and critique of life sciences. It is the first research laboratory of its kind, in that it enables artists to engage in wet biology practices in a biological science department. SymbioticA hosts residents, runs workshops, produces exhibitions and organises symposiums as part of the core activities.

SymbioticA was established to provide a situation where interdisciplinary research and other knowledge and concept generating activities can take place. SymbioticA offers a new means of artistic inquiry, one in which artists actively use the tools and technologies of science - not just to comment about them - but also to explore their possibilities. It also provides an opportunity for researchers to pursue curiosity-based explorations free of the demands and constraints associated with the current culture of scientific research while still complying with regulations.

D E F I N E C L O T H I N G

‘It may not be possible to define a particular piece of clothing or a specific garment as an item of fashion, but it should be possible to ascertain whether a particular piece of clothing is functioning as fashion. In the same way as a bin liner, for example, is not an item of dress until someone wears it. So a garment is not an item of fashion until someone uses it to indicate their actual or ideal place in a social structure.’

Barnard, M 2002, Fashion As Communication, Second Edition, Routledge, London.

Erwin Wurm, Plastic Process

the general response to whether the shirt was being worn was "from some angles"






which garment is the model wearing - the more conservative, recognisable tailored jacket or the unconventional but 'worn' screen/mini dress?

at what point does this garment stop being considered ‘clothing’?
What makes a a piece of clothing a piece of clothing? At what point does a piece of
clothing no longer qualify as a piece of clothing? If the garment is constructed from
a material which is sheer, loosely woven or has holes in it, is it still clothing? if it is
an object/smell/substance not usually associated with the body but is interacting with
the human form is it clothing? is the act of ‘wearing’ something purely subjet to
proximity to self, or is it more dependent on the accepted manner or representation
of how a human would traditionally ‘wear’ something?
To paraphrase Magritte; if I say I’m wearing a garment, is it a garment?
I suggests that as long as the seams in a garment relate to particular anatomical
points on the body which allow the wearer to achieve freedom of movement then the garment is a functioning garment. The further the fabrication moves around the body from these particular points the more ‘decorative’ it becomes.
The façade, or face, of a building or dress, could be considered to be decorative. The foundations or structural devices on which the ‘face’ is supported is, however, intrinsic to the design’s purpose. For this reason, i regard the fabric between seams, darts and other construction devices to be ‘filler’ and therefore surplus to requirements.