an inconvenient truth: when my hair starts to fall out during a shampoo, i know it is time for another trim

i am dissapointed in how much i blatantly ripped off this idea.




i threw this on in an illogical state of mind (the cool / floaty vibes are an absolute illusion - it was stiflingly hot) the other day to go out for lunch.
Staple dress with sheer sleeves + second-hand knit, draped via safety pin


a small project with no other purpose other than to elongate 2 x pairs of my denim nappy too-short shorts (terribly unflattering, unsure why i even own more than zero pairs). though i do like that i accidentally attached the lace too tightly, it appears as if i am wearing cycle pants underneath.




this was part of a handout in History at school in grade 10 or 11. i am still affected by it each time i read it.
my scrawl reads: 'the single dot in the centre represents 3 million tons of explosive power; the amount used in World War II. the other 5000 dots equal that of 15 billion tons; the total of both the US + Soviet nuclear arsenals in the nuclear arms race of the Cold War. the box in the upper right hand corner represents 100 million tons; the amount necessary to extinguish the entire world.


i recently attended a local joint album / EP launch at a loft along the river. there were cushions set up, open rafters in the ceiling decorated with hanging light bulbs and tied scarves as well as incense burning and tea light candles set up along one table. the table in front of my two friends and i was covered in scattered buttons. it was all set up so inexpensively, and made me ask myself why my friends / myself had never thought to set up our parties and social events with as much thought during high school, and even during 2010. it doesn't take much to set a scene.
the first artist to sing / play sang a short setlist that made me feel strange. one of my friends noted, at the same time as i did, that every single song / cover made her feel nostalgic for completely different reasons.
the second act was a seven-piece band, it was so much fun. i immediately craved the days of my own jazz band experiences as well as Sunday sessions watching local conservatorium of music jazz bands play at the Botanic Gardens, incl. byo wine + cheese.
the fifty or so people that were there were encouraged to sing along during one song. i noticed a group of young girls dancing off to the side during the rest.
i didn't have much time to get ready before it, and found this sheer, unhemmed, floor-length skirt left over from one of my Mackay Student Festival of Fashion stints. it is too long for me, but i folded it over a couple of times and wore two belts to cinch in the waist. i wore a short black slip underneath.
i hadn't wanted to jump on the sheer maxi skirt bandwagon if i could help it, i suppose slightly out of principle (though i hate to admit that). but on this night, i think i was converted. it is such a simple + comfortable outfit, and the temperature was so perfect for Summer. the raw bottom edge made me feel better about dragging it along the dusty road on the way inside.

i have moved !

..to a slightly less nostalgic URL of
rachelofcharles.com

(though still keeping the old one also, for ease of access).

regardless of the inherent selfishness, localised text/s often seem the most interesting

(the below is obviously segmented, and all is via Five Fashion Musings):
'threads of tension'
fashion design is a practice that by its very nature is in a constant state of flux. what is new today will, almost without fail, be passe tomorrow. in the words of Coco Chanel, 'fashion is made to become unfashionable.' in addition to this natural context of flux, fashion practice has been largely absent from academic texts, and fashion theory has only begun to emerge as a subject worthy of serious study since the 1980s, so as fashion lecturers and students we deal daily with an unknown future as well as in inconsistently documented past. historically within this discipline, Australia has been situated on the periphery of academic activity, with Brisbane playing a very minor role compared to the more established Australian fashion centres of Sydney and Melbourne. while cities such as London and New York have a long tradition of art school and university fashion education, the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) was, in 2002, the first university in Queensland to offer a degree-level program in fashion and the first, in 2005, to extend its specialist fashion training to postgraduate research degrees.
learning to become a fashion designer in Queensland, Australia, presents an entirely different set of opportunities and challenges from those encountered by fashion students in the major European, North American, or Asian cities. while there have been phenomenal changes in Brisbane over the last five years, there are still limited opportunities for fashion students to study the work of contemporary international designers firsthand or to view such costume collections as those housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, or the Musee de la Mode et du Textile, Paris. to some, such shortcomings might appear considerable; however, there can also be an exhilaration in knowing that you are not walking in the footsteps of generations of renowned designers, liberation in finding your own style or in having a blank sheet of paper to draw on.
this paper examines some of the obstacles encountered by first year QUT fashion students as well as some of the innovative teaching methodologies being employed by the QUT fashion team, with particular focus on an introductory first year project titled 'sox'.
the decision to study fashion at university seems for many students to be less of a choice than a compulsion. evidence shows that students are usually drawn to study fashion because they have a 'passion for fashion' - often developed from a much-loved hobby - that sees design less as a form of income generation and more as a fulfilling pastime. this can result in an approach to fashion which is initially focused less on realising a sustainable career than on fulfilling a need to create and to make. whiel this passion is admirable and often produces highly motivated students, it does not, in itself, prepare them for the nature of university study where creative practice is just one part of the whole experience.
despite the growing economic and cultural role that fashion plays within the creative industries, employing millions of people across the glove and contributing to the wealth of many nations, choosing to study fashion at university can still be seen as a foolish education choice by parents and school careers counselors alike. bright girls are regularly talked out of the idea and boys are encouraged to consider other more 'serious' design disciplines such as architecture or industrial design. although fashion has spawned a truly international industry, extending far beyond the discrete role of the fashion designer and incorporating a multitude of associated areas of employment, from pattern cutting to product development, journalism to PR, styilng to event management, it still struggles to attain acceptance as a serious discipline of study. even within the traditional British art school evironment, fashion design degrees are sometimes referred to derogatively as 'Capuccino Courses' - all foam and little real substance.
fashion departments at universities and art schools have also been largely dominated by female staff and, despite the fact that many of the most celebrated fashion designers are male, fashion students are overwhelmingly female.
gaining a place in any reputable fashion degree program is highly competitive. at QUT, just one in ten applicants receives an offer each year. successful candidates are required to prepare a portfolio of work strong enough to ensure that they make it to the interview stage, at which time they will be tested on their commitment, knowledge, and potential by a panel of fashion lecturers. while aspring art and design students in the UK are encouraged to develop relevant skills in secondary-level education, which can be built upon in year-long foundation courses, in Australia, and especially in Queensland where university-lvel study in fasion is new, few applicants have any depth in training in design prior to tertiary study. unlike disciplines such as Dance, Visual Art, or Drama, where lecturers can anticipate a good level of skill upon entry to a degree program, we have to look for the potential evidenced in an applicant's portfolio, much of which is often totally untutored work that they have generated themselves in preparation for application. this means that many first year fashion students at QUT, while very passionate about the idea of fashion design, are often very naive about the practice of fashion design, with limited knowledge of the history or cultural context of fashion, and few of the technical skills needed to translate their ideas into three-dimensional products.
all students bring with them individual learning styles and expectations, influenced by their prior experiences of learning and of life; some have excelled at school, others have come to fashion seeking something in which to excel for the first time, some have traveled extensively, while others have never left the state.
fashion design edcuation revolves around a series of tensions: between the head and the hands, the expressive and the analytical; between abstract concepts and three-dimensionsl outcomes; between risk (novelty) and safety (a supportive learning environment). the capability and understanding required to become a successful creative practitioner within the fashion industry is a complex blend of conceptual, technical, and business skills.
- Suzi Vaughan & Wendy Armstrong, p9

'the mail fashion bias'
since the establishment of the first European fashion houses in the nineteenth century, the male wardrobe has been continually appropriated by the fashion industry to the extent that every masculine garment has made its appearance in the female wardrobe. for the womenswear designer, menswear's generic shapes are easily refitted and restyled to suit the prevailing fashionable silhouette.
yet despite the wealth of inspiration and technique across both male and female clothing, the bias has largely been against menswear, with limited reciprocal benefit. therefore, while womenswear has been continually re-invigorated through a process which appropriates traditional male attire, men's fashion of the modern period has rarely drawn on the techniques and silhouettes of women's fashion.
traditional male clothing culture promotes innovation within its systems of manufacture and the fabric and construction technologies these systems produce.
taking this dichotomy as a starting point, my practice applies techniques traditionally associated with the production of female fashion to the production of contemporary menswear as a meamsn of examining the connections between issues of design, gender, and technique.
through an exploration of these concepts in my work, i propose to answer the question: how can i use womenswear patternmaking and construction techniques to implement change in menswear design? i endeavour to make work which can provide a new way of thinking about how garments relate to the male body and how these techniques in turn could be utilised to challenge strict binary gender codes perpetuated by menswear and womenswear traditions.
this simplistic concept, which has brought us such cliches as skirts for men, would limit my practice to garments that have no life beyond the theatricality of the catwalk environment.
opposed to this process of menswear design being based within the systems of manufacture that produce it, innovative womenswear designers instinctively develop possibilities of clothing creation through a connection between the hand and the eye, often offering concepts of design inspiration without direct regard for manufacturing. these including: design through draping on live model / dummy; design through sketching; design through styling / remodelling; design through deconstruction / reconstruction.
menswear designers' and manufacturers' determination to 'stick with what they know' up to this point has meant that, despite a two hundred year history, innovation in the way fabric relates to the male body is still in its infancy. by rethinking the basic elements of menswear - the component blocks - and by implementing womenswear techniques within the traditions of the masculine 'system', i am providing a catalyst for a shift in the way designers approach the future of menswear.
- Mark Neighbour, p19

'looking, fashion media & risk culture'
so profoundly has our age invested in the concept of design, in fact, that it is also the latest euphanism for the entity previously known as God. the existence of a deity is claimed to be evidenced by 'intelligent design'. indeed, while many of us are skeptical about the religious godhead, we nevertheless remain 'creationists' in relation to design. we attribute fabulous powers to designers, including the god-like ability to 'create'.
but no garment is designed ab initio. just as life on earth - and each individual life form - is more convincingly explained by the theory of evolution than by 'intelligent design', so fashion in general and each individual garment is evolutionary, and cannot be explained by the idea of 'design', which in this context is a mystification. thus, garments evolve; they do not spring into the world fully formed as a result of 'creative design.'
- John Hartley, p55

'what is in the name of a fashion designer'
..for Forcault, the author-name functions as a means of classification, grouping together texts, and differentiating them from others. while this seems once more a heavy investment in Romantic ideas of the self, Forcault rejects the individual as the origin of creation and instead argues that the individual is an effect of a variety of discourses that pre-exist them: language; ideology; ethical systems, and so on.
Forcault intentionally aims at undermining some of the major assumptions that circulate about authorship, particularly the assumption that the simplest way to understand a text is to relate it to the biography of the author and that the author is the guiding inspiration, the 'genius' whose consciousness manipulates his or her material to make it a great work of art.
Forcault establishes four feature of the author as a function of discourse that makes the condition of the author possible, but the most intersting, as it has a relevant application to the fashion discourse, is that authors are objects of appropriation.
- Dr. Tiziana Ferrero-Regis, p75

'Gail Sorronda - New York, Paris, London, Sydney..what's next for Gail Reid?'
..so what advice does she have for the next five years of fashion graduate?
'work in any capacity in the industry as it may open a door. be resourceful with what you do know. be brave and willing to feel uncomfortable. be honest and discriplined with your work creatively.'
- Kay McMahon, p87

in order to publicise some of the countless sticky-noted / dog-eared pages of my acquired magazines

what circumstances really irk you? dropping litter is the height of arrogance, i think. i do let people know if i think they have perhaps 'dropped something'. and i do tend to judge people by the absence or arrival of a thank-you card. i know they are perhaps considered rather quaint and out-moded, but i really do stand by the sending of a handwritten, rather than an emailed, thanks for a meal or a gift. we are so spoilt in this industry that we should acknowledge gratitude when fitting. i know it's pretty severe and i don't like myself for doing it, but my views on people definitely become tainted by the lack of thanks on paper.
..my manners are getting more exaggerated as i get older. i see myself getting annoyed at the most ridiculous things: sniffing, chewing gum, slow hand-claps, sour faces. it's definitely getting worse. i'm morphing into my parents.
- Julie Verhoeven, p28
i have so many friends that are single - really intelligent women that are attractive in every single way - who are unable to commit to men. i worry that women are becoming so independent and dominant that they are losing any sense of softness or acceptance. i sometimes have to ask myself: 'what do i want to be, right or happy?' our expectations of men are becoming supersonic. these women expect someone that looks like Brad Pitt, with the brains and creativity of Lucian Freud, and they think these qualities will merge together into someone who will love them and be totally accepting of all of their weaknesses. it's just not going to fucking happen! the one thing i learnt from my mother, who is lucky to still be with the love of her life, is just not to ask for too much.
- Phoebe Philo, p53
i picked works by artists that were influential to me, pieces that are radical, strong, scary and minimal. i love Minimalism, so Malevich is my man. and because there never are women in exhibitions, i chose two gian Giacometti females. these sculptures stand guard by the entrance to the exhibition. and i picked a crying Picasso woman and a raped Picasso woman, because rape always is around.
rape, and violence to women in general, is also one of your major subjects. where does that come from? from some personal history and from horrible general knowledge. people talk about rape, but little is done. rape as a weapon of war is routine, as is domestic criminal assault.
some of your Truisms were sadly prophetic. like PEOPLE ARE NUTS IF THEY THINK THEY ARE IMPORTANT. yes, funny, i wish more bloggers would remember it.
- Jenny Holzer, p109
via issue no.1 - Spring Summer 2010, The Gentlewoman magazine

'what is neo-camouflage?'
the camouflage hysteria of the 90s was intimately linked to the symbols of street culture. when the pattern shows up on the catwalks of the new decade, it serves quite another function. the camouflage at Prada's pre-autumn show was never threatening; it was more of a psychedleic pattern on skirts and 60s-influenced suits pared with knit jumpers. Junya Watanabe's autumn collection was full of boots and military references, balanced by the romanticism of tulle skirts, feminine dresses made of slinky materials and light, frizzy hair. Dries Van Noten put camouflage on smart pantsuits and coats, mixing it with leopard-skin patterns and sweatshirt material. take a closer look at his silk camouflage prints: they are made up of floewrs.
in much the same way as the conservative, suit-wearing woman who dominates this autumn's fashion is only apparently traditional, camouflage has shifted into new contexts and become something brand new.
camouflage patterns are said to have been inspired by artistic movements like Cubism and Vorticism. many artists, including Grant Wood, were put to work camouflaging military vehicles during World War 1. the pattern did not appear on uniforms until World War 2.
- p32
'is there sex in unisex?'
there's a sensualism in the clothes themselves which has nothing to do with the body of the person wearing them, says designer Rad Hourani. when i'm designing, i try to work around the class ready-to-wear rules that tell us men and women should have different approaches to clothes. ..Rad Hourani breathes new life into the concept of unisex: his clothes don't make men look feminine, nor is he trying to make boys out of women. he designs for people, not a specific gender. in his own words, a Rad Hourani person is someone who, like him, 'doesn't see themself as a man or a woman, and looks beyond all demographic categories.'
- p34
she has been a chambermaid who documented hotel guest's possessions. she was followed by a private detective, hired by her mother upon her request. Paul Auster immortalised her in a novel. most recently, she asked a variety of women to interpret a break-up email she received from her ex-lover. Sophie Calle personifies voyeurism; her practice for the past 30 years explores the traces we create in our daily lives. obsessed by relationships - the ones we have with others and with ourselves - Calle puts the social customs we develop over time under the microscope. blurring the line between truth and fiction, private and public, she presents her photographs and accompanying text formulaically, like criminal evidence for us, the jurors, to decipher.
i wanted a love letter, but he would not write one to me. one day, i saw the word 'Sophie' written at the top of a piece of stationery. this gave me hope. two months after our wedding, i noticed the edge of a piece of paper sticking out from under his typewriter. i pulled it toward me. the last line of the letter apeared: 'my confession is last night, i kissed the envelope with your letter and photo.' i continued to read, in reverse: 'you asked me once if i believed in love at first sight. did i ever answer you?' at the top of the page i noticed these words were not addressed to me but to a letter 'H'. i crossed out the 'H' and replaced it with an 'S'. this became the letter i had never received.
- 142
i was thirty, and my father thought i had bad breath. he made an appointment for me with a doctor whom he assured was a general practitioner. however, when i arrived at his office, i immediately realised that he was a psychoanalyst. given the hostility my father always expressed towards this profession, i was surprised.
'there must be some mistake,' i said. 'my father is convinced i have bad breath and he sent me to a GP.'
the man replied: 'do you always do what your father tells you to do?' and so i became his patient.
- p146
via issue no.18 - Autumn Winter 2010-11, Bon magazine

'the politics of the future and the transgressions of the past'
we had a lot of illusions about the possibilities for women in the Fifties and Sixtires, and although we couldn't possibly foresee the future, the fact that we had dreams and ideas to focus on was brilliant. i am still propelled by ideas, even though it's harder now because people have become so cynical about politics, but it's so important for young women to have dreams and aspirations. it focuses you.
..i have always been quite interested in clothes, coming from Leeds. i think some feminists believe that women shouldn't be interested in fashion, but i don't think that at all. i find conventions in fashion hilarious, though. particularly men in skirts - i don't see why it's such a big deal! what about kilts? and not to mention the fact that priests walk around in floor-length dresses all day long. one thing i do worry about with the fashion industry is the anorexic models - it seems like a pretty tortuous career. i'm not sure what the actual steps are to help combat it, but i find it quite frightening.
- Sheila Rowbotham, p8
via issue no.1 - Autumn Winter 2009-10, Twin magazine

it was at university studying politics that i had my feminist light bulb moment. i had gone to a state girls school, and as soon as i got to university sexism hit me like a brick wall. i realised there were these huge issues, but no one would talk about them because we are supposedly living in a post-feminist world. there are all these questions: why are eating disorders so prevalent? why are most politicians men? why are so many women in this country being raped? yet we're told that women and men are equal now.
there have been massive gains in feminism over the last 40 years, in the workplace and in terms of legal equality, but we have still got to unpick some parts of our culutre and attitudes. we must remember how new these advances are: women have been treated as second class citizens for millenia. for example, it's only since 1991 that it has been illegal for a husband to rape his wife. so we're very early on the process of undoing all this.
- Kat Banyard, p8
via issue no.2 - Spring Summer 2010, Twin magazine

better late than pregnant

'i love Philo, even though it can be a drab at times, but i guess i like origins of morality. because its philosophical like that. its nice to think about it.
during Philo, we were reminded of:

the story of the Elephant and the 6 Blind Men:
6 blind men were asked to find out what an elephant looked like.
blind man 1: touched the tail of the elephant and said the elephant was like a rope.
blind man 2: touched the trunk of the elephant and said the elephant was like a tree branch.
blind man 3: touched the tusks of the elephant and said the elephant was like a nail/pipe.
blind man 4: touched the body of the elephant and said the elephant was like a wall.
blind man 5: touched the legs of the elephant and said the elephant was like a pillar.
blind man 6: touched the ears of the elephant and said the elephant was like a fan.
they all disagreed on what the elephant looked like.
just because they disagreed, didn’t mean that the elephant didn’t exist. just because they touched the elephant, didn’t mean that only one was right. just because they disagreed, didn’t mean that no one was right or wrong. its true we all don’t have the complete picture. even if we try to fit the pieces of the jigsaw, we might not get the whole elephant.
we could all just be having different parts of the same story.
a bigger story.
an elephant.
a part for everyone.
a story we don’t understand.
yet, a story that exists.'
via

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'let's face it - emerging labels can be 'a dime a dozen', but we can only cope with so many strapless mini dresses with bows attached. give us something meaningful, lasting, design focussed.'
via

August 12, 2010 at 4:11 am
Alicia says:
'it’s something my friend told me when i was crying and complaining about my plans and ideas that never come to fruition. his response was simple: 'shut the ---- up and do it.' profound. no, really. it was at the time and i still use it for motiviation.

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Marie Hill – Womenswear:
describe your graduate collection: it’s about power women. it’s about the aim for physical perfection and luxurious self indulgence. basically modern decadence!
if you weren’t a fashion designer, who would you be?: i’d probably be a hardcore critic on aesthetics.

Dean Quinn – Womenswear:
describe your graduate collection: i worked for ThreeAsFour in New York and they find it hard to make it commercially, and then coming back to London, it's also really hard to be commercial because people make such crazy things but they don't care. for me, i wanted it to be a mix of both and create clothes that women would wear as opposed to a studenty collection.
where do you see yourself in ten years time?: i'd like to work for a major house like Christian Dior, where they have the embroidery people, the design people, the dyeing people and you have all these groups that can make something together in a day.

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'i shouldnt be too critical; perhaps cynicism has become my way of life. occupational hazard.'
- Bright Flows the River, Taylor Caldwell

'in an effort to get people to look into each other's eyes more, and also to appease the mutes, the government has decided to allot each person exactly one hundred and sixty-seven words, per day.
when the phone rings, i put it to my ear without saying hello. in the restaurant i point at chicken noodle soup. i am adjusting well to the new way.
late at night, i call my long distance lover, proudly say 'i only used fifty-nine today. i saved the rest for you.'
when she doesn't respond, i know she's used up all her words, so i slowly whisper 'i love you' thirty-two and a third times.
after that, we just sit on the line and listen to each other breathe.'
- The Quiet World, Jeffrey McDaniel

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notes:
pub rock, burnt cds, late night Rage, Indie / Showtunes / Japanese classic music / Mathcore / Math Rock

'Muddy Pop - affairs for the heart & groin' - Black Kids vocalist on his band's music
Saturday Night is the first solo single from Matt Van Schie (of the band Van She). Matt says: 'download it, spread it on your toast, but most of all - love and respect each other.'
‘funny how we’re so advanced now, we live in boxes’ – Horrorshow
'maybe the wolf is not the devil, he just plays him on tv' / 'they say a saint is just a dead prick with a good publicist' - The Matches

i'm glad marriage hasn't turned him into a soppy wuss like it seems to do for most songwriters.
piss off / TOO DARK / expected more / am sure it will grow / couldn't pick a hit
i love the original, but this cover still floors me. don't ever talk to me if this is playing.
i think this is the greatest duet ever. listen to how they trade places in their vocal roles. brilliant.
still get chills from this song. if you don't get chills, you certainly must not have a soul.

i miss 2007 for Minimal because it was less heavy and less heroine.
it sounds very Strokes..more electronic, less skinny jeans, more Casio.
the past coming in as 2:22 is the catchiest, yet most amazing, bit of a song ever. it just flows and sticks like a mantra. i love it.
i love the video and the song, but i cant do both at the same time, i already have my own picture in my head when i listen to it.
it annoys me that people thinks all this is based on religion. why even bother.
i have this on my ipod and listen to it when i'm treadmilling. keeps me moving! truly i hate exercise and i'm angry every second. somehow the overstimulation fuels me to keep agoin'.
saw them last Friday. it kinda ruined this song for me actually, just so epic live that this doesn't even compare.
definietly a desert island disc, if ever there was one.
don't forget The Machine. her band is what makes it happen.
this album is kinda like a Maps twin, experimental collage of sounds. it's at least worth a listen.
this is the first song i have heard that has made me question my values. truth has a way of doing that!
..what, because every song should have a beginning middle and end? it's music, not a sandwich.

horoscopes / not only am i manly and rugged, but i also have mad browsing skills - don't laugh, most women would be ripping their clothes off in the presence of this kind of web savvy / as much as nature would applaud you

i have been thinking about this semi-topic for around half a year now. my conclusion hasn't really differed, nor have i thought about it in extensive depth, but the realisation has returned to me on a number of occasions.
i feel as if the existence of horoscopes / tarot card reading / fortune telling even..is not necessarily a negative thing, or something to be justifiably skeptical about. ..what would be the gain ?
while i don't think that i have the ability to truly believe in them at all myself, i place no judgement / cast no squinted eye in the direction of those who do follow the stars & the subsequent pre-positioning of ~fate.

i think that horoscopes - or at least the concept of their purpose - can be quite interesting. when people find out that something is going to happen to them, or that a certain opportunity may come their way, there is a fairly strong chance that they will tend to subconsciously (or perhaps wildly, consciously and potentially unapologetically) work toward making this certain event / person's presence a reality in their life - therefore the believer has been pushed toward a fate or emotion that they would regularly have ignored or feared.

& so the foretelling of one's future is often - especially the more pseudo versions - quite a positive thing. the local newspaper publishes the tellings of the stars on a highly regular basis - and even if these words are being pulled from thin air, they are nearly always optimistic. they push the reader to be a better / more optimistic / opportunistic person than they may have been before reading ..& where is the harm in that ?

why mock, insult or even ignore, what could be simply a list of optimistic affirmations ?

to document a change in self, post-May 2009 (note: image heavy)

to ~somewhat make up for the lack of original content on here over the last couple of..milleniums.., here is some work that is at last my own (albeit over a year old now).
well, the work within the photographs is my own, at least; not the photography itself.
in order to showcase an art assignment for assessment in the final year of highschool, i set out for a day trip with two of my best friends (one the photographer, the other similarly modelling her own artwork) to have some old-fashioned fun that was nearly completely void of technology and social interaction. that clean slate was perfect, refreshing and quite possibly necessary in order to achieve maximum creativity.

..although we did find ourselves being the herd-ees amidst a large number of cows at one point.

a number are not the most flattering of shots (evidently not the photographer's fault), but there are many, many worse images where these came from.

some of my more favoured twin shots:


some favourites of my wonderful friend:


some images of myself:


some fun from my Lomo fisheye camera (which is now collecting cobwebs..though perhaps this will change come excessive Brisbane galavanting in the near future):


the scene of the crime:


the scattered and at some points irrelevent / nonexisting symbolism behind my work has been outlined here (paragraph 9) and here (paragraph 5) before. in my portfolio for university entrance (+ may i arrogantly add; successful portfolio - i am one of only 13 to get into the course that was my first and - secretly lone - preference, yay !), i described my thought processes as the following:
'primarily, i tried to address the fact that i see the most beauty within raw materials and natural vessels. i feel that as a population, we continue to strive more and more to cover and surround ourselves with material objects to ‘improve’ our overall perceived beauty, while all along it is our raw selves that are the most beautiful. to depict this, i focused specifically on the anatomical structure of the human form as well as flora. for example, i illustrated a number of varying skeletal images and used twigs within my wearable art piece to represent a sense of organic rawness. in contrast, floral arrangements were put in place to illustrate a more superficial and visual appeal as well as to simply illustrate the blossoming beauty that can be found in excess.'

the design brief involved the following:
this unit explores Artists’ Expressions and how they can vary dramatically from excessive to restrained. your challenge is to examine where your personal expressive style lies and the messages perceived and reactions experienced by the viewer. thoughtfully consider information and ideas, media techniques and processes and finally, resolve a body of work.

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a musical retrospective of 2010:


Deerhunter - Helicopter


Surfer Blood - Twin Peaks


Daft Punk - Derezzed

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i finally got around to watching the Victoria's Secret 2010 show last night. i never seem to find myself watching it so much for the clothing - i watch it mostly for the immediate feeling that i get afterward. for some reason, as i'm sure is not often the case for female viewers, i never feel very intimidated or Bulimicly encouraged after watching the models. i just feel inspired, empowered. perhaps it is my past of dancing concert showgirl-esque and hip-hop-swagger get-ups and routines coming out in me..but i temporarily feel as long-limbed and confident as those women. strange - as this is quite far from what is actually the case, in reality.