Making Sense
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| www.betterlivingthroughdesign.com |
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| design-milk.com |
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| designcrack.com |
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| kylie-3sheets.blogspot.com |
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| kylie-3sheets.blogspot.com |
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| thebigears.com |
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| thebigears.com |
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| marierouillon.com |
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| ecosalon.com |
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| ecosalon.com |
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| ashleykime.blogspot.com |
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| lydiat.onsugar.com |
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| rossafi.blogspot.com |
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| www.tsai-yoshikawa.com |
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| cheekycicak.blogspot.com |
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| 1072440437.blogspot.com
Making Sense: Do we design enough for our human
Senses?
Textiles is continuously
growing worldwide “simple textile forms
have carried us every step of the way, it has always held the promise of the
future”. Although the traditional techniques used when making textiles is
still being used today the up and coming innovative designers of our generation
and the next are transforming and pushing the many possibilities within
textiles. Technology is behind this, the advanced access and use of technology
has opened many doors for textiles designers such as technological interfaces,
programmable surfaces and architectonic capabilities. Designers are so
ambitious nowadays that they are not only focusing on a fabric’s surface but
also its structure combining the two boundaries of architecture and textiles
incorporating three-dimensional qualities.
It is generally the aesthetics of our
surroundings that catch our eyes whether that’s for fashion trends/clothing or
interior design or just everyday life, and as a result of this do we design
enough for our human senses?
The world we live in is
made enjoyable through the unique information a human being receives via the
sensory organs of your body. Touch, taste, sound, smell and sight are
fundamental factors within the physical world; it is our way of surviving with
the everyday activities of life.
Touch is one of the most important of
all senses because it is a physical experience. It influences and affects other
parts of our decision making because it allows us to judge the importance and
behavior of external properties and how we react to them. There are three kinds
of touch sensations that you can come into contact with: temperature, pressure
and pain of which they will determine your reactions, both instant and delayed
and this is what enables a human to respond to the environment in which we
live.
I’m sure a large number of people think
that our sight is the most important part of our sensory system because our
eyes are drawn to colours, contrasts and other tonal values making it easy for
our brain to process information. However our eyes are the most complicated
organs of the body, and there is a chance that your vision can become distorted
or unclear providing false information. This is when your hearing plays a vital
role and in some cases can be more reliable then sight. Your ear receives
sounds as audible wavelengths created by any movement allowing you to identify
what you are witnessing due to the fact that you can make out its distance and
speed.
Taste is more of a pleasurable
experience, as only you can decide whether you enjoy its many sensations such
as sweet, sour, salty or bitter. It is associated with personal choice rather
then the laws of physics. You could say that the smell of something may
determine whether you will like it or not however being able to smell effects
our human functions not only through food choices but your mood, memory and
emotional state. Scientists say that
more then half the brain is devoted to processing visual images and 80% of
learning is based on visual input. Sight is vital when designing however I am
particularly interested in exploring the outcomes and effects of what could
happen if we were to focus on all our human senses when designing?
Textile design is simply the transformation of a raw material into a finished product. It is away of providing people with individuality particularly through its use of colour providing the world with diversity. Textiles in some way or another surround us and therefore it plays an essential part of our lives, from the sheets and blankets we sleep on, the clothes we wear, the wallpaper, the towels we dry ourselves with to the furniture we sit on, the list could go on. This is because we are particularly drawn to the aesthetic qualities of the fabric. Yet designers need to take into consideration the industrial aspects of the fabric or clothing, for instance should it be flame-resistant, waterproof, or flexible as this contributes to the performance, durability and attraction of the finished fabric and the outcome expected.
Yes, textile design is everywhere, but
could it be more than the visual aesthetic? If textiles focused upon designing
for the senses would it change are views on textiles and would it engage us
more or in different ways? Imagine a world of textiles for all of the human
senses, you would visually understand what you are seeing however your
emotions, mood, and memory could be affected by the various senses possibly
increasing your appreciation, for example smells trigger memory’s both happy
and sad perhaps affecting are response to something and to touch could comfort
and relax you, reminding you of being at home in a safe place.
Are mood is controlled by what we are
feeling which affects the atmosphere of a place, room or what we think of
something yet we might not realize it but scents, textures and colours which
play a vital part within our sensory system are also elements of influence.
I am fascinated by the behavior of our
senses within our everyday life, we use them all the time. However I also find
it interesting that they not only provide us with information about our
surroundings and the way we live but the effect they have on us emotionally,
and this fascination has provided me with an interest to explore this
unpredictable behavior of our sensory experience, emotionally and physically.
Although my fascination for this subject matter did come about due to my questioning and general interests there are a few designers that have inspired me to explore this concept.
Marie
Rouillon who is a French material designer is particularly interested in the
role of materials and how they effect our everyday interactions between people
and things. She has inspired me because she is all about creating an
interactive experience and how this engagement is important. Like me her
interests are about the importance of our senses, particularly touch, she
wanted to inform people of the various senses available when touching, and the
materials she likes to use symbolize her fascination for touch such as latex,
wood, paper, cardboard, metal and so on. This hands on approach suggests that
she is purely a maker and she believes that “material designers have a key role to play in the development
of our future environment”. Like Rouillon, Nani Marquina also
adopts an interest in textures and touch within her designs; she takes
traditional rug designs to new tactile heights, her use of innovative materials
and rich textures create this inviting feeling and when touching her rugs, she
wants you to stay close to them and embrace it.
Clare Tough who is known as “the future of British fashion”
described by Vogue, is an exciting knit wear designer known for her oversized,
extravagant shapes presented in the form of city lines, in particular Manhattan
seen within her unusually inimitable spring/summer 2008 collection. For Clare
her “knitwear gets interesting when you find something unusual in it” and as a
result she has successfully up lifted a growing appreciation of knitwear
worldwide and made known the many possibilities available when working with
knit but has also made a memorable name for her collections often referred to
as “Urban Knitwear”. I particularly find her constructive textiles inspiring
because they have a three – dimensional quality to them but they are wearable
at the same time. “The contrast of a soft
structure and a piece of metal is unexpected, so its fun to wear” says
Clare. Like Marie Rouillon she sometimes uses hard materials because they add
more structure creating new and interesting shapes, it makes me want to touch
her designs.
Claudia Hill is thought of as a
designer who is not afraid to cross the art/fashion divide however her clothes
are still wearable, her view is that she is “a
fashion designer who finds fashion too commercial and an artist who finds art
to intellectual”. I personally find her interesting because she captures
the importance of emotion and expression within her designs; she likes to think
of her work is a one – off experience, a bit like the unpredictable behavior of
our sensory experiences. To add to the uniqueness of her design she often
scents her fabrics with herbs to capture this indefinable experience and her
use of found materials with new fabrics corresponds this.
I enjoy making and
constructing, both two-dimensional and three-dimensional. In order to push this
concept further I feel that the making would reflect this clearly. However I would quite like to combine elements of
drawing within the making and I feel that print would be the technique to use
creating exciting textural illustrative textiles. Still I
would like the viewer to think whilst engaging and to do so I feel that it is important
to create a one – off interactive experience as this is the behaviour of our
sensory system and after all I want you to make sense of whats being shown.
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