Paper problems

My little moleskine journals are ripping because the paper isn't thick enough... so i think i may try digital printing. Most of my work is digital & image based so I guess it makes sense. I'm also a painfully slow writer/annotator so hopefully it'll be ok. Hope it isn't too late in the day for such a decision...


This looks cool and in reality it was probably caused by a bug walking across the screen of the camera

Ouija - Spirits and demons fill shotglasses.

Left: Collection of antique boards Right: Internet Parody by Jeffry Rowland
This first video is especially interesting. Mentions 'serious' paranormal societies. (This isn't the first I've heard of this, I know folks who'll actually wince if you slip up and mention terms like 'new-age') Anyway, I especially like the mention of the term 'high end' divination tools as opposed to these Boards that can actually be purchased at Toys R Us. "Sorry, your Ouija Board™ is from the diffusion line and I only purchase mainline". But really, I'm fascinated by the prevalence of paranormal/divination services and products in modern-day society. One of the guys interviewed below is 'the lead investigator at Big Bend Ghost Trackers'. Yes, a ghost tracker. Presumedly a bit like Bill Murray in Ghost Busters. I hope.

To be honest, I don't think these beliefs are founded on anything less concrete than those of other religions.

Great graphic sensibilities: The mystery of basic editing software:

What interests me here is how the spirit fills or enters the pointer/glass. I remember a family friend who claimed she had caught an evil spirit living in her house and she had managed to trap it in a golden box sealed with masking tape. Needless to say this person isn't a family friend anymore. Attempting to rip off Drop Dead Fred is disingenuous to say the least:

The 'mud pie' reminds me a little bit of my 'spontaneous alternatives' method :P

I remember using an Ouija board as a kid but I don't really remember much except that you're not meant to think about when you're going to die. Naturally everyone thinks about when they're going to die. Reminds me of 'the game' or maybe some kind of thinking on the ocd spectrum? haha

Christian man terrified about Ouija boards after reading a book about them. In the book spiritualists encourage a christian to use the board. The main character in this book sounds like he suffering from schizophrenia, er, sorry, I mean demonic possession.

There are many weird parts about this...

but the weirdest part is probably where one of the 'models' attacks a tree with a guitar and then bust out Bowie's Jean Genie. (???)
I should warn you that you wont get these 5 minutes back.

Example of post-production/photoshopping

I just thought I should post an example of the kind of post-production I am using on images - just some simple photoshopping. On this one i could have been a bit more careful regarding the shadow on the bottom left hand side but oh well. I can be more careful on my finals. I just sort of worked out how to do this myself, I'm not sure if there's an easier way, but it doesn't seem to take very long which is a plus. And hopefully it's going to be useful for editing out fishing-wire on installation photos. I'm no 'tech wiz' but i sure love puters + cameras.

People as spaces

I like this -something that can not be seen (ie. immaterial?) as a space:



Does this contrast to creating a space for the immaterial?

Embroidery by Iviva Olenick

Influences/ Capturing inbetween bits.

Continuing with the task of tracking influences for the folio. I'm looking at people who capture spaces in garments - 'the in-between bits'. Because documentation and presentation interests me most at this stage - especially photography and styling - I am trying to included a range of photographers and stylists too.

Here is a small selection:

Phillip Toledano (Photographer)


Victor & Rolf (Designers)


Jatine Van Peski (Designer) Structures and space.


Mariel Manuel (Designer) - via. Mr.Linde


Tim Walker (photographer)


Tim Walker (again) Are these garments like a trap? I can imagine them filling up with moths.

Or ghosts. I wonder if they are easy to trap?
Do you think I can trap some?



For anyone struggling to source images, I recommend the reverse image-search engine Tin Eye. It isn't all perfect, but it often works.

It's like like like

I'LL LET YOU JOIN THE DOTS

I often notice how so many people -especially from my generation - say 'like'.
If you stop and listen to a conversation you will actually feel yourself going crazy hearing
"it's like a it's like b it's like c it's like d it's like e".

I'm interested in something that is, like, what we know, but, like, not exactly.
Here's my absolute favourite video:

KM: body? legend? ghost?

KM represents an interesting dialogue between the material and the immaterial. She is the 'ideal' - a corporeal canvas. As a model she is also used to promote and display garments and other material objects. Yet the legend surrounding her celebrity strikes me as something akin to mythology. Her presence is no longer contained to a single body. She is shy and avoids interviews, leading some to fill in the blanks. She is often used to represent the ethereal and immaterial.

'look at us but do not touch'

An issue here is that women are often cast under these representations - hence the prevalence and popularity of 'it' girls, beauty icons and so forth. These representations are not entirely developed - they are not exactly a person - they are not always given a voice - they are mostly prevalent as an image - they are deliberately incomplete. The 'other' is often cast in this way. It is perhaps the main reason I struggle with reading the mainstream fashion press or hearing designers talk muses (ie, every video on style.com). It seems shallow, misleading, deceptive.

Charles Dana Gibson was seemingly aware of how limited constructions/archetypes are, his drawing above parodies his own work on the first American beauty ideal. What interests me here is that all fashion images are a) constructed and b)representative in some way. Sometimes these representations take on a non-material form or 'type', which seems to live within societal consciousness.

There is something unreal about fame - the famous are not entirely known or unknown to us. They are often crafted as material representations of something elusive and unobtainable. That something spurns obsession and desire among some, as mystery intrigues. As Karl Lagerfeld said "I don't want to be a reality in people's lives. I want to be like an apparition."

I might try the pepper's ghost method for displaying my work... will try that out soon.

Daniel Carlston - Acne Paper Invite

I've been building up a list of inspirations/influences for the folio and the presentation. I've used cardboard and paper for some of my samples, the use of paper here to represent the jacket (and shirt) is interesting.

Peggy Noland

Via A Shaded View on Fashion

Constructing the immaterial

I created this mask to test mesh over taped wire (as used in my 'no sew' experimental

toile). Mesh has been great to experiment with. Next I will be hanging beads and pom poms from mesh. The puppet below has been hanging around my house since I was a kid. It gave me the idea to hang the jacket from strings like a puppet. It also reminds me of an 'ectoplasm' - gangly necked, material, monster that I am here using to represent the unknown.

Many more interesting pics that I will add later. I had to edit parts out of photos and

so on....

Inspired by these ectoplasms - In these shots they have been created by cloth and dolls faces?




Ectoplasm is shapeless, it is "informe," a kind of primordial paste—and to show itself as this, it annexes semiotic markers that designate intermediate spirit worlds. When looking at these fluid, inchoate forms, sometimes imprinted with a face, it is worth recalling that the word larva, used in English for the early stage of a caterpillar, meant "ghost" or "specter" in Latin, but is also used by Horace to designate a mask, such as might frighten an observer, while the verb larvo meant "to bewitch" or "enchant." Ectoplasmic masks are indeed larval: they promise the emergence of forms, but don't deliver them.

-Issue 12 of cabinet magazine, via stinkoblotto

and...Another interesting and bizarre resource with great images

finally, this funny gif I found sums up my project (minus the cheesy text):

Wax Seals for Folio

^I've been trawling bizarre wedding invite sites for these. Those and websites called things
like 'pagandreamz'! Like the white seals pictured above and organic shapes they make...

I'm not aiming to actually recreate ye-olde design, more a fusion of different styles:
Going to investigate these seals in Degraves street later today... thought they might look nice
numbering my folios ie 1,2,3 in different bright colours. My folio is a series of handwritten,
burgundy, A5 moleskine journals.




^faux-seal?chewing gum on the ground? .....................^smileys 4eva :-)))))

This feed is a good resource for these seals ss many are not credited... Really like the minimal
layouts with seals or the ways that seals are used on modern stationary (ie sanrio stationary?)
to create a jarring effect...

Mac nerds really need to settle down.

Modern Tailoring

I lied...one last post!

One last post: this video is by Umbro and details how the utilised tailoring techniques to create

the english soccer uniform. Thought some of you might find it interesting. Watch it here...

Trials & Inspiration (;´ρ`)

Ambiguous Imagery - viewer fills in the blanks

Photograph of my hand covered in foam:

Ma in the 70s

Our cats

final post for the night ^-^

Layout Inspiration

Currently inspired by tiny books (with unusual dimensions), serif fonts, wax seals

& old artsider art. A departure from my usual preferred slick/kitshy style. We'll see what sticks...

Some illustrations I've liked:

Edward Gorey

John Kenn

Corporate Assmode reviews class readings, blog folio

Inspired by:

"My cans! My precious antique cans! Naw, Look what ya done to 'em!"

Original Communication Ideas

These are the images I created for my presentation. Bold simple shapes and characters always appeal to me. However, I think I have changed aesthetic direction since creating these...the images of my falling jacket will influence my new graphic direction. I will be using less superbrights and vector images...more photos, hand drawings - overall a less slick/ more handcrafted look, will post more soon....

Number systems, Tailoring Systems, Seductive Mysticism

Range of Alternative/Mystic systems for structured, numeric systems (ie. tailoring..)

Assmode has a name number & soul urge number of '3': Assmode is intelligent, communicative, social, learned, creative, diversified, dramatic, expressive

Assmode has a Personality & Destiny Number of '9', symbolising: completion, selflessness, compassion, genorosity, bebevolence, patience, endings, obligations, giving nature, and creative expression

Assmode and I are kindred spirits as all of numbers are either 3 or divisable by 3. holy ghost somethin somethin...mmm completely irrational pseudoscience

Glow...

some new materials to play with glow-in-the-dark beads and paint...