research images cont

research evaluation and design proposals

looking at my research images they all centre around a feeling of fragility, isolation and restriction. With reguards to design ideas i would like to experiment with designs involving restriction, and also i like the idea of hoods as a form of hiding and isolating the wearer from the outside world.

research images

These images all possess a sense of fragility and a disconnection or blurring of emotion due to either a lack of eye contact or something blocking the face. This links to the lack of communication skills a feral child has, as by not being presented with the relevant stimulus to develop language, communication and therefore emotions during the critical period they can never truly make themselves understood.

my thoughts

having watched the film and thought about my concept i am interested in looking at how the simplicity of a feral child's communication (meaning lack of it) becomes such a complexity. As humans our language and communication abilities have evolved from grunts and simple hand gestures to the complex vocabulary and vast range of languages and "native like" accents we know and speak today. Technological advances and cultural changes still help to evolve our current language with words such as computer and airplane that never existed thousands of years ago. Also slang words such as minger and chillax, which have been invented by youth cultures. This evolution of our vocabulary has brought us so far removed from the communication skills we possessed as primitive man that when presented with it in the form of a feral child we no longer understand their simplicity. Also with the fact that our current communication skills are so advanced it makes it impossible for a person who has been isolated from it during the 'critical period' to ever fully learn, therefore leaving them unable to ever fully communicate with other people. This i feel would create a great sense of loneliness, isolation and fragility in anyone in this position.

Mockingbird don't sing

I watched a film titled mockingbird don't sing which is based on the true story of a girl named genie who was locked away by her father when she was a child and never spoken to until she was found by the police when she was 13. Her case has been a crucial piece of evidence to support the crytical period hypothesis, as she has never fully been able to learn language.

So little is fully known about this as obviously it would be highly unethical to experiment on and feral children have no way of communicating what they have been through and what they know.

Initial concept research

This video is the introduction to a documentary on feral children it shows children who have been isolated from human contact during this critical stage and how it has a profound affect on their behaviour and communication skills.

Initial concept ideas

After the initial briefing i began to think about the different ways in which we use language and the different forma of communication we use. i did a brainstorm which noting down all the forms of language and communication that i could think of. I started thinking about people that might not be able to fully communicate, in the same way that we deem 'normal'. For example i started to look at feral children. I was interested in the study of feral children and the thought that in child development there was such thing as a critical period by where if a child was isolated from human contact or not spoken to before a certain time they would never be able to fully learn a grammatically correct language.

Subtraction cutting workskop

images from http://www.julianand.com/school/THEBANANAMILKSHAKE.htm

Yesterday we did a subtraction cutting workshop, a method developed by designer Julian Roberts. Prior to the workshop i decided to read up on the method, Initially i was a bit confused and thought that it was going to be an over-complicated form of pattern cutting that would achieve the same or a similar result as more traditional cutting techniques so went into the workshop feeling a bit skeptical. Once the method was explained a bit more it became clearer that it was a completley different way of working but i was however still unsure of how it actually worked and what the benefits would be. It wasnt until i watched the demonstration and actually gave the method a go myself that i realised how different it was. I found it to be a very quick method. I liked the freedom involved as this gave it a more creative feeling. It also allows for a great deal of experimentation as you never really know what the final outcome will be. I really enjoyed the workshop and felt that it really helped to give me an insight into this way of cutting. It has also inspired me to consider thinking about using more creative cutting methods for my project which i will try to include in my design work.