my assesment

The feedback I had was not very good, the tutors weren't pleased.
But comparing to the progress I did within 3 the last 3-4 weeks, I was quiet satisfied that I could at least, build my concept, even though I know there are still plenty to develop.

So, during the preparation of my summative, this is what I thought:
1. Make up MY MIND of what I want to visualize my concept...mind you, I have been having so many "unwise" decision on how to deliver my concept in terms of visualisation. The Big Idea is: puppet show, to promote Indonesian art....but How? I first thought of making this extravagant piece of having an animated shadow puppet show on the garment...which is, NOT POSSIBLE.... because i just don't have the technical ability to approach it... (how unwise of Rinda Salmun...) then, I tried to incorporate my art background to my fashion garment....but How????? hmm, let see......tried to make a a cubism drawings with the theme of shadow puppet.....which i think, its a bit way too far from my original idea of projecting shadow puppet image on the garment.....

2. So, with the help from many friends and re-considering and thinking about the title "SHADOW PUPPET"....i tried to play around with that word.... "shadow...shadow....puppet.....shadow...." So i started to cut out some shapes of the shadow puppet and using my camera, a dark room, a projector and anything that I have, i took pictures on the shadow puppet shapes, experimenting on how I could capture the image, by projecting it on the wall, turning it upside down, reflecting it, etc..........

3. After this excercise, I thought, why not cut the shapes and stick it on a garment and to make a 3D effect, use a fabric with a thick texture...so I chose neoprene, because I like the texture and thickness, its soft, not rough like felt...

The next step:

I want to focus on the garment silhouette....I've made up my mind of what the fabric would look like, now its time to develop the garment silhouette which I AM SURE I could finish by September...I'm SURE of that...
I just need some help from the pattern cutting tutor, to help me with the making of the flat pattern, NOT THE DESIGN (of course no designers/artists/anyone in the creative world would want anyone to design for them) ....at the moment, I have the designs, but do not know how to transfer it into a pattern to be constructed as a garment...that's what I'm lacking...but I know that I could be able to do that, with a little help and hints and guidance from someone who knows about it...
and that is why I only presented my summative assesment in the shapes of basic pattern, apart from the fact that the fabric are quiet expensive that I made them in small scales..

silhouettes that inspires me..

I wanted to project a geometric silhouette through the garment, taken from parts of the shadow puppet shapes, though still keeping a simplicity in the garment

concept

For this MA project, I am exploring on the aesthetic part of the Wayang art. Although, I tried to observe the meaning and idea behind its philosophy and the meaning of shadow.

In my own understanding, I believe that a shadow represents the object, in the case of Wayang show, it represents the “soul” of the puppet. Indonesian believes that the Shadow Puppet (Wayang) has a soul, usually possessed by spirits of ancestors. It is believe that in order for the puppet master to create the dynamic movement of the puppet during the show, they need the help from the spirits within. Usually the puppet master would do many rituals before each show, such a fasting and praying, this shows how mysticism are closely related with this art.

WHY 3D CUTOUTS?
Shadows are the extension of the silhouette of the shapes. Therefore, I wanted to show a concept of bringing the shadow forward, as the front part of the garment. I wanted to bring out the “Soul” of the garment.
Shadows are in the form of 2D, but in this interpretation of mine, in order to bring out the “soul”, I made it 3D to make it rather “alive”. So the idea is to bring a 2D shape of the shadow forward to give a 3D effect.

THE SHAPES OF THE CUTOUTS:
The shapes of the cutouts are the expression of the shadow puppet from 2D to 3D. Shadow puppets shapes of different characteristics and sizes put together, stretched out, flipped horizontally and vertically, rotated and reflected.

The objective of this project is to show how I could still use something that may seem traditional and out-dated and develop it to something that could look modern and edgy without wanting to change the image drastically. I wanted to show how a diffusion of traditional art and culture with the modern western feel doesn’t always have to be about delivering an ethnic look, but make it look fashionable. The colour pallete that I am using consists of black, white and off-white, with the use of Neoprene, Organza, Taffeta and I am considering jersey as well for the fabric of the garment. Meanwhile, the silhouette I would want to show is the form of simplicity, edgy and geometric shapes taken from elements of shapes in the Wayang figure.

the influence of shadow puppet

During the research tutorial with Mark and Jeremy, Mark suggested that maybe, shadow puppet show has influence the making of films, maybe it is the original film, the concept of seeing a moving object behind the screen. And as I was talking to a friend who happens to live in Torino, Italy, she told me that there is a museum of cinema that says film makings, in fact, were inspired from the shadow puppet show.

Larry Kagan

Here is an artist whose works are arranged objects in 3D space to create recognizable 2D shadows.

He uses steel, light and the resulting shadows to make pieces of art. Except rather than just cutting a single solid 2D shape out of metal and projecting a light onto it, he creates abstract lighty & airy, 3D sculptures that only reveal what they are once the light is turned on. http://www.arts.rpi.edu/~kagan/

Shadow and Reflection Images

Theory of Morning, Day and Night Shadow

b = Morning sun c = Morning shadow
b1 = Noon sun c1 = Noon shadow
b2 = Afternoon sun c2 = Afternoon shadow



In the moment of the noon, the shortest shadow is produced and that shadow invariably points to the geographical North in that hemisphere (see fig. 2) - with the exception of a post that intersectes the ecliptic, where at noon there will be no shadow at all.