https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003 en-us 2022-01-28 12:42:24 UTC 2026-01-31 14:50:03 UTC hello@padlet.com achaudhry2016 https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2060352278 2022-02-22 11:07:29 UTC https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2060352278 achaudhry2016 https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2060361766 For this module, I didn't have much ideas at first in regards to the theme 'Future'. So I took a look at the padlet that was uploaded on Moodle and found a couple of articles that interested me.]]> 2022-02-22 11:15:03 UTC https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2060361766 achaudhry2016 https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2060366011 The second article I clicked on was about fashion and the future of AI. It talked about how virtual technology could be at the forefront of the fashion industry and explaining the benefits of this. Instead of creating clothes that would only be worn for a certain amount of time and then thrown away, we could create virtual reality glasses that could place an image of clothing on to a person. This would be more sustainable and would save over 80% of clothes going to landfill. I found the innovative ways of sustainability in the fashion industry to be interesting.]]> 2022-02-22 11:18:23 UTC https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2060366011 achaudhry2016 https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2060368600 2022-02-22 11:20:26 UTC https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2060368600 achaudhry2016 https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2060373828 The first article I clicked on talked about gender and gender abolition- this idea that there is no real need for gender roles. The article talked about how people shouldn't focus on whether someone's a man or a woman but rather focus on their qualities as a person. This idea that women are more sensitive and emotional and men are more dominant are simply stereotypes pushed by society to the point where men and women and forced into these roles at a very young age. It's a social construct in which we're conditioned to behave a certain way to fit our role within society. ]]> 2022-02-22 11:24:00 UTC https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2060373828 achaudhry2016 https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2060456632 Iris van Herpen is a dutch fashion designer known for her futuristic and fantastical aesthetic. Van Herpen’s designs are hypnotic garments based on multilayered kinetic sculptures.]]> 2022-02-22 12:29:24 UTC https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2060456632 achaudhry2016 https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2111600787 I thought this was perfect for what I was going to do since the whole point of Boro is to combat fast fashion. So with the help of my tutor, I came up with the idea to buy second-hand clothes from a charity shop, cut them up and make something new, specifically a gender-neutral clothing piece.]]> 2022-03-24 10:55:40 UTC https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2111600787 achaudhry2016 https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2127395698 At this point, I definitely knew I wanted to do something on the topic of gender but I decided to integrate fashion and sustainability in to it. I came up with the idea to make clothing/apparel that was gender-neutral and questioned the ideas of masculinity and femininity but also upcycling it by using thrifted clothing to make it.]]> 2022-04-03 18:20:05 UTC https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2127395698 achaudhry2016 https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2127408561 An interesting example of this would be the differences in girls toys and boys toys. Girls are given baby dolls to take care of and mother while boys are given aggressive toys such as guns and wrestlers. I came across this article which discussed research that was conducted in regards to gender-typed toys. The research showed that neutral-typed toys were the most educational for children and ones that were strongly gender-typed weren't benficial for cognitive development.]]> 2022-04-03 18:37:50 UTC https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2127408561 achaudhry2016 https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2127415177 Doing further research into gender abolition, I came across this article written by Iseult de Mallet Burgess in which she argues that the concept of gender must first be deconstructed in order to then deconstruct the patriarchal system. I personally enjoyed reading her article as it perfectly summed up many points I tried to make. As she states, "There is nothing inherently masculine about the colour blue – yet since we have a concept of gender, we assign cultural significance to that colour. Similarly, we assign arbitrary roles to biological sex. Males are expected to fulfill a masculine gender role just as females are expected to fulfill a feminine gender role. People who deviate from these culturally enforced norms are subjugated. Transgender and non-binary people, for example, are subject to unjust levels of violence and abuse for 'violating' the dominant gender ideology." 
We've created this idea of masculine and feminine and tied it to specific groups of people. This is not only restricting to cis gendered people but also greatly harmful to trans and non-binary individuals as they're not given the freedom to express themselves and when they do, they're scorned at. 


]]> 2022-04-03 18:47:00 UTC https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2127415177 achaudhry2016 https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2127416080
But what are the masculine and feminine traits? For masculinity, we've assigned leadership, confidence and outgoing behaviour as key traits. This contrasts the traits we've assigned femininity: nurturing, empathetic and softness. This ties in with the idea that men and women are both polar opposites and complete each other when it comes to compatibility in relationships. This idea, however, completely disregards queer relationships and people who identify outside of typical gender norms. 

]]> 2022-04-03 18:48:18 UTC https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2127416080 achaudhry2016 https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2128425239 In fact, the gender stereotypes and roles we have within the western world were all simply products of colonialism. If we take a look at pre-colonial countries, their definition of gender roles and stereotypes are completely different to what we have today. If we look at the Philippines before being colonised, women actually had the same status men had. In the Philippines, society valued offspring regardless of gender. Female children were as valuable as male ones, mainly because they recognized that women are as important as men. Parents provided equal opportunities to their children. Filipino daughters could also go to school, inherit property, and even become village chiefs like Filipino sons. Compare this to the Spanish colonial idea of gender roles, we can see a clear contrast (mainly due to the influence of religion). What was seen as masculine (power, wealth etc.) in the eyes of colonisers was actually seen as completely gender neutral in the eyes of the Filipinos. 
Looking at the Native Americans, what's interesting about their culture was that they didn't have any concept of gender. What they had instead were something called 'energies' and 'spirits'.

]]> 2022-04-04 11:19:20 UTC https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2128425239 achaudhry2016 https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174781064 And it doesn't just stop at gender roles. How we dress also depends on what culture we're from if we're going to be assigning masculinity and femininity. The nomadic African Wodaabe tribe have an interesting annual festival where the tribesmen dress up and have tribeswomen pick them as husbands. This completely differs to the usual western/colonial idea of gender where the emphasis of beauty is usually placed on women and men take their pick. We may see these tribesmen as 'feminine' for dressing up and winning the admiration of female judges but this is completely 'masculine' them. Ergo, what's masculine and what's feminine differs from culture to culture. 
Another example would be North Africa, Middle east and South Asia. In these regions, it's part of cultural practice to apply something called Kohl. Kohl is an ancient eye cosmetic placed in the water line or around the eye. It's a completely gender-neutral practice and what a lot of westerners mistake as makeup, specifically eyeliner. While it may be makeup to us, to them it's been around for centuries ever since the ancient Egyptians where it is believed to have first started. To them it's not for beautification but rather for religion and spirituality.

]]> 2022-05-09 00:01:49 UTC https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174781064 achaudhry2016 https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174784376 Knowing that the gender stereotypes and roles we have today are simply a product of colonialism and do more harm than good, it seems that there are benefits to the future of gender abolition.]]> 2022-05-09 00:06:06 UTC https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174784376 achaudhry2016 https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174785499 So far, the topic of the future of gender was interesting and I wanted to do more on this. However, I was still not sure on what to actually make so I decided to go back to the padlet provided to us and look at another article.]]> 2022-05-09 00:07:41 UTC https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174785499 achaudhry2016 https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174791099 Here I just created a rough mind map on the ideas I had so far. ]]> 2022-05-09 00:15:22 UTC https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174791099 achaudhry2016 https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174795636 After talking with my tutor, it was suggested to look into boro textiles. Boro is essentially the practice of stitching together discarded pieces of fabric to create a new textile item. It is a practice that grew out of necessity in medieval Japan, and has evolved, four centuries later, into a distinctively gorgeous textile art form. ]]> 2022-05-09 00:20:25 UTC https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174795636 achaudhry2016 https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174822068 2022-05-09 00:48:09 UTC https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174822068 achaudhry2016 https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174822069 2022-05-09 00:48:09 UTC https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174822069 achaudhry2016 https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174822071 2022-05-09 00:48:09 UTC https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174822071 achaudhry2016 https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174822072 2022-05-09 00:48:09 UTC https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174822072 achaudhry2016 https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174822073 2022-05-09 00:48:09 UTC https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174822073 achaudhry2016 https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174822074 2022-05-09 00:48:09 UTC https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174822074 achaudhry2016 https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174822075 2022-05-09 00:48:09 UTC https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174822075 achaudhry2016 https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174824894 Here are just a few clothes that I cut up. I wasn't too sure on how to put it together yet so I researched a few designers to look at their work and see if I can get any inspiration from that.]]> 2022-05-09 00:51:03 UTC https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174824894 achaudhry2016 https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174835709 2022-05-09 01:02:07 UTC https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174835709 achaudhry2016 https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174836451 2022-05-09 01:02:58 UTC https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174836451 achaudhry2016 https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174837163 2022-05-09 01:03:47 UTC https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174837163 achaudhry2016 https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174841533 Harris Reed is a british-american designer whose sole purpose is to blur the preconceived fault-lines people have about gender and sexuality through fashion. His design process takes inspiration from the current social and political issues that he feels most connected to and the work is built from assessing the responsibility that fashion has to spark conversation in relation to the injustices that are happening within society today, while staying true to the brand’s ethos that strives for a vision of gender fluidity and inclusivity. The main reason why I wanted to research into him was because his whole brand is about the beauty of non-binary which I thought was pivotal for my research.]]> 2022-05-09 01:08:36 UTC https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174841533 achaudhry2016 https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174842286 2022-05-09 01:09:31 UTC https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174842286 achaudhry2016 https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174842981 2022-05-09 01:10:17 UTC https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174842981 achaudhry2016 https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174844042 2022-05-09 01:11:32 UTC https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174844042 achaudhry2016 https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174846414 Obviously, I wasn't going to be able to do something so elaborate but I did want to try something sculptural like van Herpen or maybe create something with a textured pattern.]]> 2022-05-09 01:13:30 UTC https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174846414 achaudhry2016 https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174851343 I tried to think of ideas, however, what was holding me back was the idea that I had to create something that looked like a piece of clothing. I really wasn't sure on how to go about it or where to start. So my tutor suggested to simply forget about making it look like something wearable and rather just sew the fabrics together in perhaps something sculptural. This honestly helped my mindset a lot more since I felt less restricted. ]]> 2022-05-09 01:18:05 UTC https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174851343 achaudhry2016 https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174855178 I was also told to focus more on the textures, patterns and colours of the pieces of fabrics and question them throughout the making process. For example, can you make a piece of leather that's seen as masculine more feminine and how can you go about doing that? What would happen if you put two contrasting colours together? Would it make it more gender-neutral? I tried cutting out a floral pattern (something feminine) from a shirt and putting it on a leather piece (something masculine). ]]> 2022-05-09 01:21:31 UTC https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174855178 achaudhry2016 https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174856912 I then developed on this. I tried putting in a ruffle on a masculine shirt and putting contrasting colours next to each other.]]> 2022-05-09 01:23:03 UTC https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174856912 achaudhry2016 https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174859525 I kept doing this and eventually I reached a point where I was satisfied with the size. ]]> 2022-05-09 01:25:21 UTC https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174859525 achaudhry2016 https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174861084 Here I tried twisting certain points of the fabrics and sewing it together to see what it would look like or if it would create any depth since it was just a flat piece of fabric at this point.]]> 2022-05-09 01:26:40 UTC https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174861084 achaudhry2016 https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174866296 Here I was just playing around the fabric and seeing what I could come up with, again wanting to do something a bit sculptural.]]> 2022-05-09 01:31:18 UTC https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174866296 achaudhry2016 https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174871974 My tutor then suggested that I place it on top of a fabric and after moving it around, we got this shape. I quite liked it so I sewed it together. After, we planned to cut around it.]]> 2022-05-09 01:36:23 UTC https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174871974 achaudhry2016 https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174874769 However, I then decided to use the fabric around it and sew it together to create ruching. I tried to tighten it all together by sewing it together a bit more. Eventually I got this crescent shape which I quite liked.]]> 2022-05-09 01:39:08 UTC https://padlet.com/achaudhry2016/vis3003/wish/2174874769