GMU:Sustainable Aesthetics/Leandra Annekathrin Maretzky

From Medien Wiki

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.


https://youtu.be/-SaPhS9c5Fw

https://youtu.be/4_Mt4haAp68

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. 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 fabrics...

First Sketches

   

...but why not approach it more like an artist and not a fashion-designer?


References

Microbial Fuel Cell