My first thoughts about sustainable aesthetics:
When I think of aesthetics, the first thing in my mind is the appearance/look of something. For me this is a visual experience. Now when we connect aesthetics to sustainability, I understand that as a change in the way of creating a design for a certain product. Sustainability means working together with my environment - not against it. I take the items it is offering me and create something new out of it. I don't need everything to be "brand-new" - I can make it look like it is way more new.
I am highly interested in fashion and the sustainable way of creating/purchasing clothes. For me it can be a way of showing personality in a visual appearance. While I researched about this topic I stumbled upon a certain culture in the fashion industry - "thrifting". It is about reusing "old" or thrown-away clothes to make some new ones or even other things out of them. I would like to try this out and make a research/comparison with self-made vs. purchased/shipped/mass-producted clothing.
Why do I want to work with textile?
Fabric comes in all kind of forms, colours and textures. It is more durable than paper. It moves, flows and it offers a variety of possibilities on what to do with it. In the fashion industry textile is used to create aesthetics. The uniqueness of each fabric can be inspiration for an artist or designer to make something special out of it. Textile can have so many different characteristics - it can be light as a feather, almost completely transparent (Chiffon) or thick, heavy and strong like denim or leather. You can also use it for a beamer and project different images on it. (Textile is always around us.)
Step 1: Searching for fabric/clothes which could be used
Starting point: Which fabric can I find at home?
Step 2: Searching for inspiration on how to work with textile
Artists, General forms of art I could include
Of course making something fashion-related is kind of obvious when working with fabric...but why not approach it more like an artist and not a fashion-designer?
I need a topic
In my whole life music was always a huge topic especially in my family. I always made music and watched dancing-shows. I loved how the clothes moved with the dancers and how they were able to create a small world on their own for a few minutes. When I got older I entered dancing-classes and discovered how beautiful the world of dancing is - the steps, the emotions you can express, the fancy clothing, the music, the feeling of becoming a princess for once 😉,...
...but I also made the experience that not all people could understand that. Some would laugh at me for such an outdated hobby. "Only old people like dancing waltz or tango", "I would never be so silly to do this" they said. They would not even try it out before judging my interest in dancing.
So my challenge is to visualize what I feel when I dance so that those people may understand that even though they laughed at me it did not change my desire to dance and maybe they can finally see what dancing means to me.
Let's try it out
The Waltz
The chiffon-fabric flows like the dresses of dancers and it feels light and soft just like a shiver. That is also what I feel when I dance waltz - it is like flying, everything is easy and light and I always get goosebumps. The lighting can give the fabric something mysterious because it is a bit transparent. Maybe there is also a possibility to project images/videos of the Waltz wih a beamer on the fabric to give it more visual power for the audience next to feeling (the fabric) and hearing (the music).
The Tango
Dancing Tango feels intimate and romantic on one side and mysterious and powerful on the other side. Especially in the Argentinian Tango there are really slow and sensual steps but also strong and very fast moves which give kind of a kick in dancing. Tango feels expensive, glamorous and also flowy. You need a lot of strength and body-control but also a kind of softness and agility. The Satin looks expensive because of the shine and is also a strong fabric. It flows softly in the wind and is able to create beautiful figures too when throwing it.