I selected some editorial from the past magazines and regrouped them to make the following collage as part of the project’s moodboard.
collage of project
Moodboard of fire and water
The design of five elements
The corresponding change process of five elements. (from <the book of change>)
Metal – collect Wood – grow
Water – Infiltration Fire – destroy
Earth – fuse and pressure
primary design for this five characters
Metal’s model is a weird Asian boy
Metal styling: upper half body with gold powder
No dancing, studio shooting
Golden curtain background wall
Use light and shadow to show the feel of shine
Wood – fairies or sweet girls, China and Europe both ok
Shooting in a forest, the action is relatively relaxed
Refer to seeking for overall style
Water: Ji (model) , Chinese girl with pure felling
Grey-blue screen
The props will use transparent plastic paper and beautiful water cups
Fire – Chinese tough boys
Red as basic colour
Water and fire will be photographed together, indoors in London
With dancing, may use real fire and water
Two people will have a simple modern dance for two
There are solo dances
Earth – contour girl
Indoor shooting in the same day as metal
Abstinence and reveals a monk’s feeling
Mainly black and brown
More details about initial idea!
•A famous ancient Chinese book called <the book of change> pointed out that all changes in the world based on 5 natural elements—gold, wood, water, fire, soil(earth)
.•Chinese people called them ‘wuxing’
•People in china sometimes will use it to explain the formation of all things in the world and their interrelations. To describe the form of motion and the relation of transformation.
•Also this 5 elements has relation with the season, direction,body, people’s destiny and character. in conclusion, it has special meaning for Chinese people through the past thousand years.
•In this project, I would like to use color and dance to represent these 5 elements and their inner meanings. Try to discover the relation between human and natural.<the book of change> said this 5 elements represent different steps or ways of ‘CHANGE’
Initial idea of the five elements
From the Ancient Chinese Masterpieces <The Book of Change>, the whole world begins with two sides- ‘ying’ and ‘yang’. Then these two basic imagery divided into five elements from nature. people use them to explain the formation of all things in the world and their interrelations. Describe the form of motion and the relation of transformation.
These five elements are metal, wood, water, fire, and earth.
This project based on the theory of the five elements. Will try to show their own characteristics and the changing process of the things they represent.
reading notes of (pt.1-3)
*fashion phenomena occur only in a particular social context that allows social mobility.
*Thus fashion plays a significant role in the manifestation of subtle differences. The class boundary has become blurry, and people wish to make subtle distinctions in order to differentiate themselves from others. This is what fashion in the modern world has become. Because there are more opportunities for everyone, the competition is more democratic and the right to participate in the competition is prevalent.
*The newness which, as noted earlier, is the essence of fashion is the typical condition of modernity and postmodernity. The desire for change is characteristic of cultural life in industrial capitalism.
*Modernity is a code and fashion is its emblem.
*Fashion as collective selectionDavis(1992)said as one’s identity becomes increasingly multiple, the meaning of fashion also becomes increasingly ambivalent
It is the content of fashion that is constantly shifting. Not the institution(Kawamura 2004)
*Like art, fashion is a social in character, has a social base and exists in a social context. Moreover, it involves large numbers of people.Like other social phenomena including art, fashion cannot be interpreted to look carefully at the organizational setting in which fashion is produced.
*What is most significant in placing fashion and fashion designers within the sociology of culture and arts, is that neither the sociology of culture nor the sociology of arts treats the objects as the creation of an individual genius. This is the fundamental principle shared by sociology of fashion and sociology of culture and the arts.
*A fashion system operates to convent clothing into fashion that has a symbolic value and is manifested though clothing.
*The clothing system reaches us how to wear garments and what to wear In specific social and cultural contexts because each context has different social meanings.
*We distinguish between the socio-psychological, structural form of fashion as a social regulator in its own right and its various and forever variable contents. This also implies that we take fashion completely seriously as an independent social institution.
*change is the essence of fashion
*The hierarchical structure of fashion which produces the authoritative status of designs, sounds, inflexible, but in fact it is democratic and fluid.
*Luxury clothes are meaningful only in relation to non-luxury clothes in less expensive ways. The democratization of luxury is increasingly allowing people to obtain luxury items. The motivation to attain is based on the desire to make a slight difference with others because luxury items provide a sense of superiority as an image and added values are attached to them.
*Fashion is a symbolic production while clothes are a material production. Fashion is a symbol manifested manifested through clothing.
*While talents and creativity alone are invoked to explain the success and the fame of a fashion designer, understanding the structure of the fashion system is essential to gaining the official designer status. The concept of creativity in fashion is elusive s for any activity, but it is generally, and correctly, assumed that the making of fashion requires special skills.
The tester of object story
The main objects of our project are balloons and bubbles, which are two representative game props in childhood memory. They represent people’s pure and simple happy mood at a young age. Adults face many problems related to mental health in real life, and the way children get happiness can sometimes give us inspiration to find a suitable way and therapy to solve mental health problems. Ultimately, we want to create an immersive interactive installation with the theme of “why miss childhood”, which will include a set of short films, a display of several sets of photographs, as well as the physical interaction of making bubbles, puncturing balloons and so on. In the short film, we want to create a character who is experiencing stress and anxiety. She is under constraints and pressures in real life, but she regains simple happiness through childhood games: she wears childish and cute exaggerated clothes, draws good feelings from what she wears ; she interacts with balloons and bubbles, and seeks happiness like a child. Hope this product could hold a mirror up to the audience asking them to find simple ways to get rid of stress and play a role in reducing the stigma surrounding mental illness.